[rjalex]

Dear friends,
I have a little combo I love: my ODAC+O2 combo and my Mad Dog headphones.
 
I use this attached to my iMac with the Audirvana player to listen to my mostly ALAC collection via iTunes as the front end (for covers, tags ratings etc.).
 
Because of my current life I don't have much free time in my day and would love to listen to good music while in bed before I fall asleep.
 
Bringing my 27" iMac there is not very practical though
 
What lightweight but perfect playback device with decent album/track selection could play my ALAC/mp3 collection ?
 
Hope I managed to explain myself in English.
 
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[w0067814]

If you have an Apple iPad then they support USB audio out with a suitable camera connection kit (to get USB host port). You could then plug in a supported DAC - worth checking if your existing DAC is supported. If it complies to the USB audio classes (ie you don't need to install special drivers) then you stand a high chance of it working.
 
As far as I know iPhones do not support USB audio output.

 

[rjalex]

Thanks a lot. But would the iTunes/Music app play bitperfect on that interface ?

 

[silvrr]

I use a Raspberry PI with rune audio (http://www.runeaudio.com/) setup that I move bedside sometimes.  You can have a USB stick with your music or connect it to your network and have your full library available.  You would need a phone or tablet to start/stop and search with though.  
 

 

[w0067814]

  Thanks a lot. But would the iTunes/Music app play bitperfect on that interface ?

I'm not sure as I've not got any first hand experience with it, however I would theorise that it should work just fine. If you think how a modern operating system works, applications no longer have direct access to the hardware. In the case of audio the operating system mixes the outputs of multiple concurrent applications into a single audio output stream. Those applications know nothing of the audio hardware, and visa versa. So if you have an app that can decode your lossless files normally I would expect it to work the same with USB audio as it is a lower layer of software that routes the audio to one of two sound outputs (built-in jack or USB sound card).
 
This post in another forum reports success playing audio from iPad over audiophile USB DAC.
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f10-music-servers/ipad-digital-audio-out-universal-serial-bus-industry-standard-cables-connectors-and-communications-protocols-between-computers-and-electronic-devices-21838/#post355022
 
Don't worry about his comment on iTunes not syncing anything over 48KHz sample rates. The truth is that 16 bit / 48KHz already exceeds the human ear so for play back purposes anything higher is really just marketing hype. I'm not saying high res audio doesn't have its place, it does - in recording & editing.

 

[w0067814]

Whilst I wait for my new post to be moderated, I'll just say that Android also supports USB audio, not just IOS.

 

[rjalex]

Thank you all very much.
I also had setup a little RPi with another audio oriented distro (cannot rem now) plus an ipad for the web interface and it worked just all of that was a bit clumsy For example when you finally decided sleep was unto you you had to open an SSH client and shutdown the RPi