[billybob_jcv]

That board is powered through the USB port. That means your phone will need to supply the power out the USB port, and the OTG cable you select will need to also be capable of transferring the power.

 

[Brinston]

That board is powered through the USB port. That means your phone will need to supply the power out the USB port, and the OTG cable you select will need to also be capable of transferring the power.

Yeah i saw it.
But as they have mentioned its android compatible, i feel its worth a try. 

 

[kramer5150]

I wonder how much power it takes to illuminate a toslink optical port?  It will be interesting to see how well a $15 device works.  If Apple were to certify a 3rd party vendor for something like this it would be $200.  Good Luck!!  Its too bad cell phone makers don't put toslink optical output ports inside the 1/8" headphone jack like a lot of the old portable CD players used to have.

 

[Brinston]

  I wonder how much power it takes to illuminate a toslink optical port?  It will be interesting to see how well a $15 device works.  If Apple were to certify a 3rd party vendor for something like this it would be $200.  Good Luck!!  Its too bad cell phone makers don't put toslink optical output ports inside the 1/8" headphone jack like a lot of the old portable CD players used to have.

Keeping the battery drainage aside. 
Now i suppose this device will behave as just a converter from usb to optical for me.
So will using this device infer data loss and can it be avoided with a better quality usb to spdif converter ?

 

[billybob_jcv]

If it is done properly, there should be no data loss. If it is done improperly, you could have data loss and also clock timing issues. I have no idea what will happen with that board.

 

[Brinston]

If it is done properly, there should be no data loss. If it is done improperly, you could have data loss and also clock timing issues. I have no idea what will happen with that board.

 
By "If its done properly" i assume that you are talking about the manufacturing of the product.
I guess we can only clarify the doubts by buying one and putting it to use.
Can you brief about what you mean by the clock timing issues.?

 

[Brinston]

Guyz, thanks a lot for guiding me towards buying the right product.
I have placed order for the following product 
 
http://www.ebay.in/itm/PCM2704-USB-DAC-USB-To-S-PDIF-Sound-Card-Decoder-Board-3-5mm-Analog-Output-/171700687497?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_203&hash=item27fa289289
 
I do not have the usb type 2 cable required for connecting my phone to the product i mentioned above. I have a OTG though.
 
Now, as this board gets its power from the usb, i was thinking about a way to power it using an external power supply. I am not sure if it is even possible. I am shooting in the dark.
 
As anyways i have to buy a usb type A to type B cable, instead i was thinking about buying the following
 
http://www.ebay.in/itm/USB-3-0-Y-splitter-printer-cable-USB-3-0-AM-USB-2-0-To-USB-3-0-B-Type-Male-/181633640726?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_203&hash=item2a4a356916
 
Now this has 2 type A connectors and 1 type B. When i connect the type B connector to the product above and one end of the type A to the android phone through the OTG, i still have one type A port left. So my Question : Can i use this type A port to power the equipment by connecting it to some usb charger ? 

 

[kramer5150]

I use one of those to power an external drive off two USB ports. I would think it would power your optical board as well as charge your cell phone. Never tried it this way though

 

[Brinston]

I use one of those to power an external drive off two USB ports. I would think it would power your optical board as well as charge your cell phone. Never tried it this way though

 
Ok... Seems like it will work fine. I will purchase it and let you know here how it all works out 

 

[Brinston]

I need some more help
 
http://www.ebay.in/itm/PCM2704-USB-DAC-USB-To-S-PDIF-Sound-Card-Decoder-Board-3-5mm-Analog-Output-/171700687497?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_203&hash=item27fa289289
 
I have bought the optical board already, I would like to know what the Red port (beside optical) is for ?

 

[kramer5150]

Looks like a coaxial digital output, although industry standard for coax digital is orange not red.  Its a digital bit-stream, but a different format than the toslink optical.
 
Despite what it looks like I don't think that is an analog out or input.
 
You should ask the seller to confirm.

 

[Brinston]

I finally got all the products delivered and working as intended. Yes, i know its a little late to review this. I will review this in parts.
 
 
PCM2704 USB DAC USB To S/PDIF Sound Card Decoder Board 3.5mm Analog Output
The build quality of this board is very good. All the components were well soldered and it felt quite sturdy.
As my purpose of this purchase was just for using it as a usb to coaxial/optical converter, i would like to mention that, it  fulfilled that nicely.
Being powered through usb, my phone discharged quite fast. (Just for comparison : Usually my phone gets discharged while playing music at 15% per hour; and with this setup it was like around 35% an hour). Now, about the headphone out on this board, (as expected from a 15usd dac) the sound is not upto the mark. So i will not recommend using this DAC. The sound was distorted, lot of disturbance, high loss in details and so on. 
 
USB 3.0 Y splitter printer cable USB 3.0 AM + USB 2.0 To USB 3.0 B Type Male
The idea of purchasing this was to power the above Sound card through external power supply, But while selecting this cable, i made a mistake. This cable has usb 3.0 type B port and the sound card has usb 2.0 type B port. So i could not connect the cable to the Sound card. So i had to buy another cable. This time i bought a standard usb type A male to type B male cable. (It took another week to deliver this, So i am late in reviewing).
 
I would also like to mention about the DAC in MARANTZ SR4400 receiver.
I will be comparing it to Cowon iAudio 10 player that is connected to the same marantz receiver through analog input (I know its not meant to connect that way though; dual amping )
The detailing of both was quite close, the treble and vocals were a little clearer on the Cowon while the Marantz had a plus side on the bass. The bass was more punchy on the marantz.
I do not have any other dac to compare the Marantz to, but i am quite satisfied with its performance.
 
I would like to thank each and everyone here who helped me in the right direction of buying appropriate components.

 

[Brinston]

Also i have a doubt here, when i connect my phone through usb audio out to marantz dac, my phone is actually sending 1's and 0's... right ?
So how am i able to control the volume through my phone ?
Is there something like amplification in digital audio ?

 

[billybob_jcv]

In the same way that after connecting an external DAC to your PC, you can still use Windows volume control to raise/lower the volume. It is just multiplying all the PCM data points by a gain factor. When the bits are put back together into a sine wave, the amplitude of the wave is greater, thus the volume is louder.

 

[kramer5150]

Also i have a doubt here, when i connect my phone through usb audio out to marantz dac, my phone is actually sending 1's and 0's... right ?
>Correct.  To the best of my knowledge USB is a digital ONLY standard for data transmission.  It does not send or receive analog AC.  Obviously it does have DC power too.
 
So how am i able to control the volume through my phone ?
>The music player on your phone should have a way to reduce volume.
 
Is there something like amplification in digital audio ?
I don't think so.  You can attenuate the signal (IE turn it down)... but not boost it.
 
Cool deal, I am glad you got it to work out.  My brother in law just gave me an older-generation Samsung net-book. I am trying to merge it into my existing DAC/Amp setup so I can listen to www radio streams.  I am considering that little converter board.  My delima is whether to go with wireless APTx convenience or a wired lossless solution.  Leaning towards the former, since www radio is compressed anyways.