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Cheap DACs coming for iPhone 5?

post #1 of 10
9/13/12 at 3:40am
Thread Starter 
If the iPhone 5's Lightning line out is all digital, that will mean that we should see new and affordable portable amps with DACs built-in, or standalone DACs, or Lightning-to-3.5 mm connecting wires with DACs built-in. They should be more affordable since I suppose there is now no need to pay large sums to Apple to extract the digital signals. Or am I missing something here? If I'm right then I'm glad I didn't pull the money trigger and got my CLAS or Fostex HP-P1.
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post #2 of 10
9/13/12 at 3:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by georgelai57 View Post

If the iPhone 5's Lightning line out is all digital, that will mean that we should see new and affordable portable amps with DACs built-in, or standalone DACs, or Lightning-to-3.5 mm connecting wires with DACs built-in. They should be more affordable since I suppose there is now no need to pay large sums to Apple to extract the digital signals. Or am I missing something here? If I'm right then I'm glad I didn't pull the money trigger and got my CLAS or Fostex HP-P1.

not sure how it makes it easier, its still essentially proprietary usb port.

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post #3 of 10
9/13/12 at 11:35am
Not sure if this clarifies everything, but voila: http://networkedblogs.com/C5ixh
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post #4 of 10
9/13/12 at 11:48am

It makes it easier because it's sending a digital signal out (like optical or coax digital). So you just need to plug it in to a DAC. This is even better than using a LOD which relies on on-board DAC.

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post #5 of 10
9/13/12 at 12:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sygyzy View Post

It makes it easier because it's sending a digital signal out (like optical or coax digital). So you just need to plug it in to a DAC. This is even better than using a LOD which relies on on-board DAC.


Ah, but do you think it will be that easy? I hope so. That would be great!cool.gif

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post #6 of 10
9/13/12 at 12:27pm

Not necessarily we've been able to get digital out from iDevices for awhile now, from what I know the hurdle is it requires an authentication chip and apple approval of the device, that's why there's so few on the market at this point. I don't see these requirements changing for the Lightning connection.
 

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post #7 of 10
9/13/12 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elnero View Post

Not necessarily we've been able to get digital out from iDevices for awhile now, from what I know the hurdle is it requires an authentication chip and apple approval of the device, that's why there's so few on the market at this point. I don't see these requirements changing for the Lightning connection.
 


I fear you may be correct...

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post #8 of 10
9/16/12 at 2:43pm

Well some company is going to figure this out. The iPhone5 will be/is too popular to ignore. Take my money pleasehappy_face1.gif

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post #9 of 10
10/5/12 at 7:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jazz1 View Post

Well some company is going to figure this out. The iPhone5 will be/is too popular to ignore. Take my money please:happy_face1:
Same feeling ! I hope that it is actually cheaper! I'd love to carry something sleek long with my phone
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post #10 of 10
10/6/12 at 3:01am

The Apple Lightning to 30 pin adaptor has a built in DAC. No idea about the quality of the DAC.. With the adaptor plugged in and a LOD on the bottom, its going to make the 5 quite long and spoil the asthetics . 

 

At least the headphone jack is now on the bottom of the 5. May need to go back to a 3.5mm to 3.5mm lead and double amping :( 

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