Can I use my HE-400 with an amp, say the little dot mkiii or one of the schiits, and run it all through my iPad? If so can anyone kindly break it down for me, I'm a n00b

Yes. To get best sound quality you would want a line out dock for your iPod so can get analog out without passing it through the headphone amp in the device, but it will still work


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Thanks for your response. It's an iPad. Not iPod. What's a line out dock, line out to rca or to usb or someting

An LOD (line out dock) bypasses the built-in amplifier of your source, giving a cleaner signal to an external amp.
 
The FiiO L3, L9, or L11 could be a good choice.
 
If you need a different connection than 3.5mm and don't want to use adapters, there are more costly LODs out there.

I think I'll use the mangi, so will that work

eviesworld said:

I think I'll use the mangi, so will that work

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With the right adapters, it should work. Or you could get an LOD with RCA connectors instead.

eviesworld said:

Thanks for your response. It's an iPad. Not iPod. What's a line out dock, line out to rca or to usb or someting

Click to expand...

Sorry for the mistype

Either way, it should work. Things get a little trickier if you have a modern ipad with lightning.
 
I am unsure if you can pass analog audio through the lightning port (my gut says no), so with a lightning port ipad you may be relegated to headphone out (meh) or output via lightning to usb to a DAC (to take the digital audio data and convert it into a voltage signal that your amp can use)

Thanks man, but if I got say the modi schiit dac that's all it does ? Or does it improve sound, obviously there are low and high end dacs. Sorry for all the newbie questions

Yes it's a new iPad with lightning

eviesworld said:

iPad as main hub?

Can I use my HE-400 with an amp, say the little dot mkiii or one of the schiits, and run it all through my iPad? If so can anyone kindly break it down for me, I'm a n00b

Click to expand...

 
You can use an iPad as a transport with a DAC or DAC-HPamp. Read all about it here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/507559/list-of-dacs-that-work-with-ipad
 
iPad2 on Apple dock, with a Camera Connection Kit (USB) on the dock. Digital audio output.

pretty much apple's products are a pain to use a sepearate dac with and I believe for the ipods and iphones it's very expensive.
 
do read that thread about the camera connection kit, but generally most people use a line out dock and an amp (portable or desktop)

eviesworld said:

Thanks man, but if I got say the modi schiit dac that's all it does ? Or does it improve sound, obviously there are low and high end dacs. Sorry for all the newbie questions

Click to expand...

Only way to learn is ask

Yeah, in your case the main purpose would be to pull the digital files out of your ipad and push their analog versions to the amp. Obviously, there are many different DAC's, there's one in your ipad that does the same thing of converting the files and pushing them to the headphone amp inside the device, and there's one in your computer that does the same before sending the signal to your speakers, but as you may guess, they are not all created equal. a well built entry level DAC will be at least as good as the one in your device though, perhaps a bit better. There are a lot of good USB DAC's on that list at a varying price points.

As for the Modi, I have one for my desktop system and I love it, but I am unsure if it works with the iPad. Worst comes to worst, a powered usb hub would likely work, but that's adding yet another piece to the system