So what magic is going on within this this little device then?
Without spilling out the beans, I think what Cozoy has done is implemented a a circuit similar to that of the cracked / bypassed MFi chip in order to work without CCK, then followed by an USB receiver+ DAC chip which is MFi certified (which probably also help to work without CCK), but instead of converting the digital signal in the chip, it is sent to another DAC chip (so the USB receiver+DAC chip only works as USB receiver) for the D-to-A conversion. Last but not least, there is either an opamp or a buffer stage before the output. The USB receiver and the DAC chips are both quite well received in HF actually and we have seen them on different USB DAC before. So it is less of a magic but more of a clever use of parts.