Android phones and USB DACs - Page 3

 

Edited by DanBa - 5/20/13 at 4:57am

voted. Tablet + USB dac would be amazing!

I'm tired of waiting for this issue, and I don't want to be a guinea pig. I have already ordered a Windows Tablet. We all know that it works.

Edited by Pingfloid - 4/8/12 at 10:36pm

I can't blame you, Pingfloid, but I could never stoop to that level. :>

I'm a linux / open source guy at heart, so that's why i'm eyeing specifically the upcoming Vivaldi tablet from Aaron Seigo & his team. It's going to run pure free and open source software all throughout with a KDE-based, tablet-oriented interface called Plasma Active atop a linux system called Mer. I expect to run any number of excellent music players already in existence, outputting to a USB dac without any issue in short order, with this guy.

Android seriously needs to get a clue on this issue. It really does seem too weird at this point that it continues to be glossed right over.

 

That is a cute tablet. I am wondering why they don't add a S/PDIF output... 

 

Furthermore, I don't understand why the manufacturers of new mini laptops and tablets do not include Audio Digital Output anymore. Even the cheapest laptop in the old times had SPDIF. Sometimes not with a dedicated connector, but as an Optical Output hidden inside the 3.5 mm headphone jack.

 

If someone knows this Aaron Seigo, please kindly ask him to add S/PDIF, and I am sure that he will have a legion of audio enthusiasts interested on it

Edited by Pingfloid - 4/9/12 at 11:12pm

Looks really cool, but how are you so confident this guy will devote time into getting the tablet to have DAC connectivity?

If he is going to call it Vivaldi, it should support High Definition Audio (192 kHz/32-bit quality)

 

I believe it will support driving a USB DAC because

1. it has a USB host port.
2. the usb_audio driver is a standard part of the linux kernel, and this device will run standard linux.
3. aseigo confirmed for me on IRC that it "should" work out of the box.
4. if it doesn't work, myself or someone else will make it work.

So I suppose we won't *really* know if it is going to work the way we want until it's happening in front of us, but I am almost certain it's going to work just fine.

The downside is that it only has 4G of storage, so I'll be relying on a 16G microsd card, a mounted volume over the network, or perhaps a USB hard drive if I can use a USB hub to split the host port between that and a DAC...

And this tablet is based on a very cheap chinese tablet called the Zenithink C71, and they're not putting anything into it that they don't have to. You're definitely not going to see any spdif connections on this first gen device. We're all just thrilled to see someone taking the open source ideals to a real-like product that is actually coming to market.

I think the main limitation there might just be the CPU. I bet it would take some serious horsepower to decode such a file comfortably... I just love the idea of running pure linux on a tablet. Hopefully it does really well, and future products are significantly more kick-ass.

I'm thinking about trying to install ubunutu on my hp touchpad, I wonder if that would have usb audio support? I know I should ask on the XDA forum but thought I'd bring it up here for people to see if they aren't already aware this is possible.

 

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1304475

http://code.google.com/p/hp-touchpad-ubuntu/wiki/Installation

 

 

**Edit.. not sure sound is even working with native linux on hp touchpad, so.. nevermind.

 

Edited by jason32835 - 4/10/12 at 10:21am

Well scrypt. pingfloid, and especially you DanBa, THANKS!  for all your efforts. You guys were certainly well ahead of me on this critical issue. Some of the responses you got Dan Ba annoyed me so much that I started a rant/thread on portable source devices tonight, "Does being a portable audio enthusiast make us stupid?" 

 

Really, we've got buggy, expensive HiFi Man units, ipads with phallic appendages attached, dumpster scrounging for 5.5s to imod, $500 CLAS and HP1s to mine for a digital signal, etc. etc. etc. What a pile of CRAP!!!  It would be SO easy for them to give this to us!! I ended my rant by saying what anybody who has even heard of Washington, D.C. knows all too well. The only way to get anything through is by advocacy/lobbying. So I thought, who better than a guy like Jude. We put money in his pocket by using the forum. I'm sure he quotes membership figures to his advertisers. Does anyone know him well enough to email him. Or tell me and I will. Meet with Google, meet with Apple and if they refuse, well Windows phone here I come. And with a pc, laptop, xp, Windows 7 and maybe 8, they sure as hell better give it to me! It really baffles me how sheeple are willing to go to ridiculous lengths to find a solution when the slickest, easiest one is staring them in the face.

 Really Guys, I'm on board. Let's get this thing rolling. I will be happy to contact Jude, Tyll, etc.

Cheers! Rob

After getting my DX100, my personal need for usb DAC support in Android is absolutely gone. However, I will still be telling everyone and their mother to support this, as I am a raging Android fanboy and this would really be a cool feature to have.

I wasn't following along on the DX100, but holy crap -- $829 ?! I'm going to pass at that price...

That was my initial response as well, but eventually I caved in. Here's the kicker: I actually, genuinely believe it to be worth at least twice that amount. Coming from a huge fan of the Fiio E10, that's saying a lot.