[xinoxide]

desolder the dac's onboard lineout and line out to amp circuit, and rewire it strait to your headphone out. TADA!

 

[itsborken]

I don't think a company could/would be able to design and market it in that price range and make a profit even as a subsidiary line. There's not enough audiophiles to drive the quantity. Factor in that audiophiles never agree on anything because everybody's hearing/tastes are different and it makes it even less plausible.

 

[SONGsanmanwah]

I think Kenwood did make it, but I bought iMod

Seriously, I agree there's a niche but doubt those big guys will bother filling it. They'd have done that long time ago if it worths the effort. To me some line-out only/superior chip/open source audio format support DAP can only come from micro innovative web-based company such as iBasso and the likes.

 

[enjoiflobees]

If we all start buying more products from the guys that might make it, I am sure they might a have a couple million dollars to start engineering the thing. To start. thats it haha. A practical thing would be to just use most things in an ipod and TRY to make another mother board. Have rock box make the program for it. But even then, would it sound better then the iMod? which would make it not worth it at all if it didnt.

I am going to school next year for electrical engineering. Maybe ill design one after. I promise not to charge more then 50k. haha.

 

[mdarnton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hardwired /img/forum/go_quote.gif If Apple simply left off the lineout garbage after their DAC chip and ran the DAC output to the dock and headphone jack. . .

I've been wondering lately how possible it would be, aftermarket, to chop the iPod so that the pre-DAC signal went directly to line-out on the dock, leaving the headphone circuit alone, ideally. I know nothing about electronics, so I don't know if this is even a real possibility. . . I'd buy that.

 

[xnothingpoetic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdarnton /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've been wondering lately how possible it would be, aftermarket, to chop the iPod so that the pre-DAC signal went directly to line-out on the dock, leaving the headphone circuit alone, ideally. I know nothing about electronics, so I don't know if this is even a real possibility. . . I'd buy that.

imod?

http://www.redwineaudio.com/iMod.html

 

[mdarnton]

Not quite--the iMod just improves what happens after the internal DAC. I mean skip the internal DAC entirely, so I could, for instance, go into my Opera's DAC via coaxial digital in, instead. A true digital out, in short. Leaving the headphone circuit would keep things usable for either phones or portable amps when on foot.

 

[OverlordXenu]

I'm trying to do that with my X5. See sig.

 

[itsborken]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdarnton /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've been wondering lately how possible it would be, aftermarket, to chop the iPod so that the pre-DAC signal went directly to line-out on the dock, leaving the headphone circuit alone, ideally. I know nothing about electronics, so I don't know if this is even a real possibility. . . I'd buy that.

I thought at one point some company was offering that around $2000 but I can't remember where. From the amount of discussion of that fine modification I guess it never took off.

 

[Aevum]

the thing is that audiophiles are far and few apart, most people go around listening to their walmart/carrefur generic 20 buck for 1 gb dap, and if they feel like "splashing out" on headphones, they go and spend the entire 6 bucks a pair of sony fontopias cost,

so, we would be talking about a niche product which is manufactured in a artesanal manner at a high cost, $500-$800 per unit, with support for all major lossless or high quality formats, comes with optical out, aswell as headphone and line out, or a built in quality amplifier, the problem would be the battery to push that amp, expect 7-9h battery life and quite a bulky package,

 

[Danielj]

Actually there are some folks on the DIY forum who are investigating the ins and outs of making an audiophile dap. I started the thread and fortunately there were people like Threepointone and others who have taken up the challenge. Check it out at audiophile diy DAP?

 

[Danielj]

oh, a quick summery of the stuff so far...

HDD based 2.5 inch
high quality dac
line out and digital out
wav only for first version
transportable, not portable....size not major factor but sound quality.

 

[bigshot]

The DAC in the iPod is already a high quality one. The iPod has an 80 gig hard drive and line out as good as most home stereo components. It is EXTREMELY portable and has good battery life. You can pack a TON of music on it at 256 AAC and not be able to hear the difference between compressed and lossless. All of those features FAR outweigh the miniscule audio improvements that adding an outboard DAC and playing WAV files would add. Why would you want to sacrifice something as important as battery life and portability for such a tiny advantage?

If you're going to be that anal, just get a laptop computer with optical out and a big hard drive. Carry around spare batteries, an outboard DAC, headphone amp and home cans in a large briefcase or computer bag. But I guarantee you that I'll get a LOT more enjoyment and practical use out of the iPod in my shirt pocket than you get lugging all that crap around.

Great sounding portable DAPs exist. I have six of them myself packed with over a year's worth of great sounding music organized by style. Music is what matters, not equipment.

See ya
Steve

 

[mdarnton]

Why, Steve? For the fun of it, silly boy.

Thanks, Danielj.

 

[OverlordXenu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif The DAC in the iPod is already a high quality one. The iPod has an 80 gig hard drive and line out as good as most home stereo components. It is EXTREMELY portable and has good battery life. You can pack a TON of music on it at 256 AAC and not be able to hear the difference between compressed and lossless. All of those features FAR outweigh the miniscule audio improvements that adding an outboard DAC and playing WAV files would add. Why would you want to sacrifice something as important as battery life and portability for such a tiny advantage? If you're going to be that anal, just get a laptop computer with optical out and a big hard drive. Carry around spare batteries, an outboard DAC, headphone amp and home cans in a large briefcase or computer bag. But I guarantee you that I'll get a LOT more enjoyment and practical use out of the iPod in my shirt pocket than you get lugging all that crap around. Great sounding portable DAPs exist. I have six of them myself packed with over a year's worth of great sounding music organized by style. Music is what matters, not equipment. See ya Steve

All non-IMod'd iPods sound like absolute crap. We're talking about an audiophile DAP, not a crap sounding one. The iPod may have a good DAC, but stock ipods sound really, really bad.

Plus, I really don't like the click-wheel navigation. But that's a subjective personal opinion...