[Cam3ron]

I'm going to be upgraded my phone to a galaxy nexus and I'm putting sound quality as a priority since I want to ditch my iPod. The FiiO E17 has dropped enough that I can easily pick one up and since the Galaxy Nexus supports usb OTG, I can only assume that it will work. Does anyone have any information on this? A cable recommendation to go from the nexus to the e17 would be helpful too, since I can only find ones that look extremely bulky.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

I'm going to be upgraded my phone to a galaxy nexus and I'm putting sound quality as a priority since I want to ditch my iPod. The FiiO E17 has dropped enough that I can easily pick one up and since the Galaxy Nexus supports usb OTG, I can only assume that it will work. Does anyone have any information on this? A cable recommendation to go from the nexus to the e17 would be helpful too, since I can only find ones that look extremely bulky.

Thanks in advance.

I don't have up to date info but I can provide you with the basics:
You also need SOFTWARE support along with OTG to do what you are thinking of. Cyanogen was last I heard of. Some users got it to work but others haven't. Not sure what the current news on that is.
Depending on software and hardware limitations, the phone or software build may limit the device you are using to an amount of power. For example, with the iPad, the E17 won't work with JUST the CCK(Camera connection kit) that other DAC's
List of support is here:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/507559/list-of-dacs-that-work-with-ipad
 
The E17 won't work as it draws about 150Mah of power through USB ITSELF. the iPad and or CCK limits it to 100Mah. Your phone hardware and or software may also limit it so as to not cause any problems. You can rectify this with a few ways that I'm not too overly famliar with, but a powered hub in between the two has been seen to fix this, although that makes for a HUGE device wrap.
 
I used the iPad as an example above, but hopefully you know what I mean.
Another option would be to get an E7 (if that will work with your phone) and line out to a better amp.
 
I do not know any info as of right now up to date on Android, do not take this as the word of the heavens on current android support right now. I am just using examples and showing you some info on how this usually works and tid bits and stuff.

 

[Cam3ron]

Thank you for the reply. Just curious is the 100mAh limit the iPad's unique specification or is that just a USB spec?  

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

Thank you for the reply. Just curious is the 100mAh limit the iPad's unique specification or is that just a USB spec?  

It is what the iPad with CCK specifies to be the max power draw that any device plugged into it can use ...for protection purposes of course.

 

[ficklecycler]

A usb DAC will not work with your galaxy nexus...at least the current crop of them. There isn't a record of anyone using one with a nexus either to my knowledge. I researched this subject extensively and tried several methods to get one working with my nexus and was not able to do so. It doesn't have the support for that.
 
Google seems to be pushing for a new method for devices and DAC's to connect with each other so its very possible that you'll see something portable come along eventually. Perhaps a year from now Fiio will have a DAC that will be compatible with this protocol. They SHOULD since the Jellybean operating system will be supporting it and that's going to be an a lot of phones soon.
 
On sound quality though, the nexus headphone out is respectable. It's got a very low noise floor and great bass. I actually used it with my home stereo (which is far more hifi than my portable setup) and it was a nice listen!

 

[NZtechfreak]

Just to verify the information above is absolutely correct. Bugs the hell out of me that they didn't use a standard implementation more like in the S3/Archos G9 devices.

 

[bowei006]

I actually thought they made more progress but considering that we have two here that actually did current research.... it's a bit laughable that the open source egg still doesn't have a solution tech enthusiasts can;t get past.

 

[Serotonin]

Quote:

A usb DAC will not work with your galaxy nexus...at least the current crop of them. There isn't a record of anyone using one with a nexus either to my knowledge. I researched this subject extensively and tried several methods to get one working with my nexus and was not able to do so. It doesn't have the support for that.
 
Google seems to be pushing for a new method for devices and DAC's to connect with each other so its very possible that you'll see something portable come along eventually. Perhaps a year from now Fiio will have a DAC that will be compatible with this protocol. They SHOULD since the Jellybean operating system will be supporting it and that's going to be an a lot of phones soon.
 
On sound quality though, the nexus headphone out is respectable. It's got a very low noise floor and great bass. I actually used it with my home stereo (which is far more hifi than my portable setup) and it was a nice listen!

They already do hehe, Fiio E7 works with S3 & Nexus. 
E17 just makes the tracks skip by 8-10 seconds per second. 
 
EDIT: Just to clarify you can do S3/N > OTG cable ( which you must have, its amazing for data storage & connecting 2 - 3 phones together ) > E7 > Headphone/or/ E11 > Headphone 

 

[nnotis]

Unfortunately, only the S3 works with any USB DACs at the moment.

 

[Deltaechoe]

Right now it doesn't work, on ICS we got the kernel to load the proper modules that would be needed to use said DAC however, switching the audio from the internal sound card to an external one is pretty difficult and roadblocks were met.  JellyBean "MIGHT" help allow for standard USB DACs to work, but there are still some hacks that would need to be coded up

 

[skamp]

I have a Galaxy Nexus and I recently upgraded to Jelly Bean. There's an audio dock option, but I can't try it out with my FiiO E7 because I don't have the right cable. This page only reads "Support for USB audio docks, shipping later this year.".

 

[NZtechfreak]

Jelly Bean does not add support for standard USB DACs, only ones made specifically to Google's new spec. Confirmed with my Nexus 7. 

 

[Cam3ron]

Well I suppose the general consensus is "nope". It's good to hear that the headphone out is alright on the nexus, if it can power low impedance cans and IEMs well then I might not even need a dac/amp. Although it is a clunky solution, what about using the an MHL to HDMI adapter than using a "trimmed" (cut off the VGA port) HDMI to VGA + minijack adapter? Not exactly sure if the digital signal will go through to the dac, but it sounds interesting enough to try.
 
http://www.macfixit.com.au/shop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=2696

 

[DanBa]

"Ok r220 is up please take some time to read through this:
....
* Added USB_AUDIO modules to /lib/modules - if you have a USB DAC and you want to see what happens just do this: insmod lib/modules/snd-usb-audio.ko and post here the outcome"
[Francisco Franco, a XDA kernel developer]
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=28723127&highlight=usb+dac#post28723127

 

[Cam3ron]

Quote:

"Ok r220 is up please take some time to read through this:
....
* Added USB_AUDIO modules to /lib/modules - if you have a USB DAC and you want to see what happens just do this: insmod lib/modules/snd-usb-audio.ko and post here the outcome"
[Francisco Franco, a XDA kernel developer]
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=28723127&highlight=usb+dac#post28723127

I thought cyanogen mod included the USB_AUDIO "drivers" already, although I'm not an android developer nor do I know too much about the insides of the OS. Does this mean that DACs that require more power can be used? Sorry my limited knowledge of android prevents me from comprehending half of what is in that thread.