[NewNeophyte]

My dear audiophiles, I recently dropped a fat stack of cash on a Sennheiser HDVD800 to complement my HD800s and Norne Draug cable. Thing is, I have all of my music on my iPod. What is the best way to get lossless audio from my iPod to the amp at the best sound quality?
 
Opinions appreciated!

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Dock the iPod into this connected to the HDVD800 via SPDIF.
 
http://www.pure.com/accessories/i-20

 

[davidjan]

Looks great. But a little expensive.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidjan /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Looks great. But a little expensive.

 

Then just put all the audio in the iPod into an existing computer because that's the cheapest way to get digital audio out of the iPod. You can get any iPod dock to RCA cable, but then you'd still use the iPod's analogue circuit which outputs 1.2volts (albeit a clean one), but given the DAC and analogue output (to amp section) circuit on the HDVD800, along with digital transmission to it, might as well just use it with a computer.

 

If it's an iPad/iPhone or a newer Touch the adapters are relatively cheaper (unless you start comparing them to the price of OTG cables for Android, see below). This is because Apple requires manufacturers to basically pay tribute not just for the Made for iPod certification but also for the chip that allows lossless digital streaming to begin with (not that using a line out is lossy, but depending on the gain and noise/distortion that might crop up, 1.2volts might not be ideal), but again on later iOS devices the CCK was found to allow for digital audio streaming. Then they limited the power output, so a lot of DACs were rendered incompatible by iOS5; then they completely took it away in iOS6; but then a lot of complaints emerged and they gave it back in iOS7.

 

$40 for Apple adapters is cheaper than a $100 dock with the MFi chip to enable iPods to stream digital audio; but then somebody with an Android only needs a $2 OTG adapter to do the same thing

 

[NewNeophyte]

ProtegeManiac, what sort of adapter would you need to do that?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewNeophyte /img/forum/go_quote.gif

ProtegeManiac, what sort of adapter would you need to do that?

 

A USB-OTG adapter, like this one.

http://www.amazon.com/RuilingTM-Micro-Adapter-Samsung-Galaxy/dp/B00VHEO5UO/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1457837931&sr=8-15&keywords=USB+OTG

 

As for the dock, just make sure that if you use one, it's specified to work as a sync dock, since there are some designed only to basically be a charging cradle (like those old business mobile phones where you dock several batteries into a single charger with several slots), and in some cases might not have the data ports wired up. This is the one I use:

http://www.amazon.com/AEDILYS%C2%AE-Horizontal-Desktop-Charging-Samsung/dp/B010LNDVNS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457838195&sr=8-1&keywords=Note+3+Horizontal+Dock

 

Further reading:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs (every five pages is a link to an updated list of compatible Androids and DACs, so just check the latest page ending in 5 or 0)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go