Dr J
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2011
- Posts
- 33
- Likes
- 12
I am presently listening with Sony Z3 compact, Android 4.4.4, UAPP/Walkman/Spotify/Deezer/Tidal players --> Transcend or Hama card reader/hub with Kingston 256GB SDXC card --> Schiit Wyrd --> Schiit Modi2.
Reliability of this set-up is increased by using a OTG USB Y-cable from the phone (data) and external battery (additional power) to the card reader/hub (USB current limitations?).
With external power, the set-up is pretty much plug and play in which ever order you connect the components, or even all at once (power first though). Without the external power you typically need to connect the components in a specific order and sometimes the connection to the card reader/hub or card or DAC is lost. I have not yet done extensive testing if some combinations are more reliable than others without the external power.
No problem with these players and set-up, and playing back the files from the SDXC card as well.
Works also if I replace Schiit Wyrd and the card reader/hub with DeLock powered USB hub. Also Cypherlabs Solo-DB and ODAC work in these set-ups, but Solo works more reliably if you switch it on only after plugging in and turning on the rest of the components.
---------------
I am aiming to build a large storage, portable, iPhone classic based brick (see my signature) replacement. Hence I decided to test the SD-card based options, to keep the size minimal.
The below looks good so far, with roughly 5-10% of phone battery usage/hour when playing music via UAPP, and rather compact footprint, if you find a small external battery and short cables to connect the components together:
Sony Z3 compact, Android 4.4.4, UAPP/Walkman/Spotify/Deezer/Tidal players --> OTG USB Y-cable with external battery --> Transcend or Hama card reader/hub with Kingston 256GB SDXC memory card -->Solo-DB --> portable amp --> headphone/IEM.
For a smaller portable set-up, I plan to test the Geek out 450 in place of Solo-DB and the amp. I have seen one report that Z3 (compact?) was working with GO 450, but not sure until I try as the reports on GO 450 compatibility are varied, to say the least.
---------------
According to testing with phone playing 44,1kHz, 16-bit files or streams -> Wyrd --> MuFi V-Link II --> Anti-Mode 2 --> DAC, this set up also works and the bit rates that the Sony ouputs as reported by Anti-Mode 2 are as follows:
- UAPP: 44,1kHz, 24 bit
- Walkman: 44,1kHz, 16 bit
- Tidal: 44,1kHz, 16 bit
- Deezer: 44,1kHz, 16 bit
- Spotify: 48kHz, 24(or was it 16?) bit
So it seems that UAPP, Walkman, Tidal and Deezer bypasses or are not re-sampled by the Android sound framework, while Spotify is re-sampled. Also, the volume keys work with Spotify.
Anti-mode 2 does not work with Sony Z3 compact with or without Wyrd, at least on my Anti-mode 2 firmware that is rather old. So I used the MuFi V-Link II that does work with Z3 compact to transform USB to toslink optical.
-----------------
However, I have not been able to get Samsung Galaxy S4+ with Android 5.0.? playing Spotify, with any phone audio settings, to work through Schiit Wyrd or the DeLock Hub with Modi2.
The best result so far with Galaxy S4+ is a bit like you describe, crackling/static among which you can faintly hear the music.
I have also tested ODAC directly with Galaxy S4+ and Spotify and it did not produce any sound, but I need to do more extensive testing with ODAC and the different players and powered hubs to find out if e.g. UAPP + Wyrd + ODAC does the trick.
Not really optimistic, though. I think Samsung messed up the implementation in the S4+, as others earlier in the thread had similar problems.
As reported earlier, Samsung Galaxy S4+ with Android 4.4.x did work with ODAC without powered hub and with powered hubs with other DACs as well.
------------
The components I have used and tested in the above set-ups below, in case you think of building a brick along the same lines. The key thing I focused was the support for SDXC cards for large enough storage.
DeLock OTG powered USB-hub/card reader: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00JA53HQA/ref=pe_386171_37038021_TE_3p_M3T1_dp_1
Hama OTG USB-hub/card reader: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00L47FHYW/ref=pe_386171_51767411_TE_M3T1_dp_1
Transcend OTG USB-hub/card reader: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KOJCKVY/ref=pe_385721_51767431_TE_dp_3
Kingston 256GB SDXC memory card: http://www.amazon.de/Kingston-profesional-SD-Karte-SDA10-256GB/dp/B00PH5VBFQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429719398&sr=8-1&keywords=Kingston+256+GB+SDXC
