FLAC Player for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

[dj nellie]

Quote:

So I finally got a DAC that displays the signal resolution that is being fed to it from my CLAS and it is reporting that all my 88, 96, 176, and 192 kHz files are being down-converted to 48 kHz - has anyone else conducted the same test on your equipment? The file size loaded on my iPhone is the same as it should be, so I don't think anything is happening in the file transfer process...

Dan, can you please comment? Is Flac player or Apple iOS the guilty culprit? Have you already tested this and the fault is on my end? And if it is Flac player, any chance to get this fixed?

 
Yeah, your post motivated me to finally hook up my Solo to my Lavry DA10.  I'm playing a 24/96 file in FLAC Player (Verizon iPhone 4) and my Lavry is showing 48khz as the sampling rate.  Kind of disappointing, although I'm not sure what to make of it.  My Lavry shows the correct sampling rate when I use my M2Tech hiFace as a transport from my computer.
 
Seems like FLAC Player is not actually capturing the hi-res info?

 

[DanBa]

Another custom written app theoretically able to support 24-bit music with no down sample: PlugPlayer
http://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/plugplayer/id293235450?mt=8
 
"Has anyone tested PlugPlayer with the Solo? The latest version of PlugPlayer does not down sample."
http://www.plugplayer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=258&sid=eeb89156e2c1e7f38e8fa3d457b8027c&start=20
 
PlugPlayer is a DLNA/UPnP renderer, and also a DLNA/UPnP control point for iDevice.
 
DLNA:
http://www.dlna.org/digital_living/devices/
 
PlugPlayer as a DLNA/UPnP renderer:
music file on a DLNA/UPnP server >> Wi-Fi >> iDevicelugPlayer >> iDevice DAC
or
music file on a DLNA/UPnP server >> Wi-Fi >> iDevicelugPlayer >> Solo
 
DLNA/UPnP servers running on PC/Mac (a lot of free servers):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UPnP_AV_media_servers_and_clients

 

[swifttal]

Tried plug player and all resolutions (44.1, 48, 88, 96, 176, and 192 kHz) are all reported as 44.1 on my dac - also any file over 48 kHz plays back extremely choppy
 
Also tried with webplay via safari on the iphone - 44.1 plays back as 44.1, everything else is reported as 48 kHz (same as what happens with FLAC player)...
 
Starting to think this is an iOS problem... I'm suspecting much like windows XP, iOS may automatically down-convert all content above 48 kHz... is an "Asio for iOS"-type plug-in possible?? I've PM'd Dan aka Leehro to see if he can chime in on this one (fingers crossed)

 

[swifttal]

Also thanks nellie for letting us know your results - good to know the hardware sitting between the headphones on my end isn't to fault 

 

[shipsupt]

Quote:

Tried plug player and all resolutions (44.1, 48, 88, 96, 176, and 192 kHz) are all reported as 44.1 on my dac - also any file over 48 kHz plays back extremely choppy
 
Also tried with webplay via safari on the iphone - 44.1 plays back as 44.1, everything else is reported as 48 kHz (same as what happens with FLAC player)...
 
Starting to think this is an iOS problem... I'm suspecting much like windows XP, iOS may automatically down-convert all content above 48 kHz... is an "Asio for iOS"-type plug-in possible?? I've PM'd Dan aka Leehro to see if he can chime in on this one (fingers crossed)
Speaking for the ipad original reports were that the camera connection kit restricted output to 16/44.1 or 48.  The iOS u

 
There is a good thread here on this topic...
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/iOS-2496-Output-Possible
 
My understanding is that it is now possible to output higher resolution files with the iPad with the new iOS upgrades, but the other devices are still restricted and will down sample.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[DanBa]

Quote:

Tried plug player and all resolutions (44.1, 48, 88, 96, 176, and 192 kHz) are all reported as 44.1 on my dac - also any file over 48 kHz plays back extremely choppy
 
Also tried with webplay via safari on the iphone - 44.1 plays back as 44.1, everything else is reported as 48 kHz (same as what happens with FLAC player)...
 
Starting to think this is an iOS problem... I'm suspecting much like windows XP, iOS may automatically down-convert all content above 48 kHz... is an "Asio for iOS"-type plug-in possible?? I've PM'd Dan aka Leehro to see if he can chime in on this one (fingers crossed)

 

 
[size=10.5pt]It’s weird that different custom-written apps affect differently the sampling: downsampling to 48kHz with FLAC Player and to 44.1kHz with PlugPlayer.[/size]
 

 

[DanBa]

 
Anyhow the upcoming VentureCraft GD-04, an iPhone 4-compliant headphone amp with DAC, should have the 96kHz/24bit sampling rate capability.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYNIBcpyOA4
 

 

[nc8000]

Looks cool but if that thing can do it so should all the others be able to

 

[Butler]

Everything I've read has said the the i-DAC's are pretty great for any general audiophile- the real extremists get those crazy and expensive mods to replace it. I've seen'm, makes your iPod looked like even more of a mangled beast for a portable rig. Having a portable amp is inconvieniant enough....

 

[Leehro]

Hi everyone, I've got a few things:
 
1. I (and my testers) only confirmed 24-bit/96KHz playback on iPads running iOS 4.3 with USB DACs and the Camera Connection Kit.  I never had any confirmations that the iPhone/iPod touch could do this, even with the Solo.  I thought I asked here for any results from users that owned these devices...
 
2. True 24-bit playback is only functional on FLAC Player 1.1.1.  After making the change to enable it on the aforementioned USB DACs, I found out quickly that 24-bit files no longer played on devices running 4.2.  
 
Only reason I mention #2 is that the CDMA (Verizon) iPhone does not yet have iOS 4.3.  Since Apple definitely made changes to audio format support in 4.3, it may work on a device running 4.3.  Swiftal, don't know which iPhone you have or what iOS version, but if you're not running 4.3 that may help.  Not sure.
 
3. As where problem it is, there's nothing else I can do to get 96KHz playback working.  When you choose a file, FLAC Player requests the hardware use the sample rate of the file.  So if you try to play a 96KHz file, it asks the iOS audio system to set the hardware to 96KHz.  The hardware may or may not support 96KHz, and in that case you'll get 48KHz.  It still hands off samples to the queue at 96KHz, but ultimately it's up to the device and audio hardware what rate they'll actually play it back at.
 
My guess on PlugPlayer is that it only does 44.1KHz because they're not requesting anything specific from the hardware.  They still could have full 96KHz decoding and a 96KHz queue, but without asking for more, they'll only get 44.1KHz.
 
So ultimately I don't know if these DACs designed for the dock connector like the Solo will work, ever work, if they'll work under 4.3, or if the manufacturers need to make new interfaces to work with iOS 4.3.  Would sure be a lot easier if USB worked!
 
-Dan

 

[swifttal]

Dan, thanks - this helps add several pieces to the puzzle.

For my phone I have an at&t 3gs with iOS v.4.3.3 running FLAC Player v.1.1.1. No problems playing any songs, they're just getting downconverted at some point in the chain.

I know there are some differences in the iOS updates of the iPhone and iPad - since it doesn't sound like any restrictions lie with either flac player or the solo, my guess is that they didn't include the audio updates for the iPhone that they gave the iPad for 24/96khz capability. I've seen multiple sources stating that the upcoming iPhone 4S is supposed to have hardware comparable or to the iPad 2, so maybe they are waiting until the iOS 5 release to give this capability to the iPhone?

Also Dan, I know you've stated several times that the new Flac player updates support up to 24/96 playback... However I have several 176 & 192 songs loaded that play just fine (minus the whole 48khz downconversion thing)... Is this not supposed to happen? Or is it that if I had everything functioning as it does on the iPad that these would be limited to 24/96?

Thanks again, and thanks for all the info and help. Sorry I couldn't get this info to you when you previously asked, however, at that time I didn't have any hardware that could read anything to be helpful.

 

[swifttal]

 
There is a good thread here on this topic...
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/iOS-2496-Output-Possible
 
My understanding is that it is now possible to output higher resolution files with the iPad with the new iOS upgrades, but the other devices are still restricted and will down sample.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks for this link - it was also very helpful... Not sure how I missed it in my search over there, still not used to their forum setup I guess...

 

[Leehro]

Quote:

Also Dan, I know you've stated several times that the new Flac player updates support up to 24/96 playback... However I have several 176 & 192 songs loaded that play just fine (minus the whole 48khz downconversion thing)... Is this not supposed to happen? Or is it that if I had everything functioning as it does on the iPad that these would be limited to 24/96?

Thanks again, and thanks for all the info and help. Sorry I couldn't get this info to you when you previously asked, however, at that time I didn't have any hardware that could read anything to be helpful.

 
No need to apologize - I wasn't demanding any kind of compatibility reports from customers, and didn't want it to sound that way, so I'm sorry if I gave that impression.
 
The only reason I stopped my statements at 24/96 is that I hadn't tested anything higher.  My iPhone 3G (baseline test device) can decode 24/96 files and they get played back at 16/48.  The USB DAC I test on my iPad 1 will do 24/96.
 
So if 176/192 works for you, that's great news.  There's (obviously) no technical barrier preventing 176 or 192 KHz files from decoding, and the flexibility of the iOS audio system is great because it'll accept this data and downsample it to something the hardware is actually capable of.  
 
The next barrier seems to be sending the data to the DAC without downsampling it.  Could be a dock connector accessory limitation, which the iPad gets around by just being a USB host.  Not sure about the hardware/interface issues though.
 
 
 
 
 

 

[DanBa]

 
A new iPhone-compliant DAC device, NuForce Icon iDO, is ready for 24/96.
 
"Now I am going to leak out a new product called Icon iDO (instead of iDUH as mentioned in one of the forum), interface for Digital Ouput for iOS (and iPod) devices.
What differentiate iDO with a few other such devices on the market is the combination of high performance, lots of features at a very affordable price.
I can only disclose the features for now:

1. Bit-perfect and low jitter USB Host Mode operation
2. Digitally controlled analog volume control
3. Large 6.3mm headphone output jack (3.5mm adapter provided)
4. 24-bit DAC (whenever Apple provides 24bit/96kHz support, we are ready)
5. No sample rate conversion
6. use 12V DC input power (power supply is included).  For travel, it is easier to bring the AC-DC power supply instead of carrying a heaving battery.
7. Outputs:  S/PDIF, RCA, headphone
8. Price - very affordable"

 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/505523/first-impressions-new-nuforce-udac-2-with-24-96-usb-dac-amp-with-line-out-and-s-pdif-out/765
 
 

 

[swifttal]

I'm glad all these products are coming out - more influence for apple to enable hi-Rez output. Let's hope the rumors are true about iOS 5 supporting this.