Hello kind people of head-fi! I have been lurking for several months and decided to create an account. But I have a question for all of you ipod lovers in here, I want to make an all-mighty SUPER-POD. I want to basically connect my 5th gen ipod to an ifi xdsd gryphon. How would I do that? Should I connect it with the 30 pin or the 3.5mm jack?
If you connect via 3.5mm on the iPod to 3.5mm on the Gryphon, you won't be utilizing the Gryphon's DAC and you'd be running the signal through the iPod's headphone amp chip.
If you connect via 30pin dock (iPod end) to 3.5mm (Gryphon end) ie line out, you skip the driver chip on the iPod and you'll get a cleaner 1.2V analogue signal into the Gryphon. So yeah...you also won't be using the Gryphon's DAC. But this is what I'd do if I really have to use the iPod.
Is the dac in the ipod good enough?
Is the signal clean? Yes.
Is it proper 2V line voltage? No, only 1.2V.
Is that a problem? Depends on what it's hooked up to - if the amp that signal is going to has to strain to compensate for the lower voltage, then no. But if the amp has low enough noise and high enough power and gain for whatever it's driving, then it's not a problem.
I can't tell you specifically if the Gryphon will have zero issues even on particular headphones though. At best, given a high enough sensitivity, it shouldn't.
Will the shady adapters I find on alibaba for 30 pin male to usb c male damage the audio quality? I'd mostly be using apple losless and FLACs, will these shady adapters ruin the quality? As you can see, I am really lost, so advice of any kind is welcome.
I'm not even sure those will work for digital audio transmission, which doesn't use the same protocol (probably not even the same pins) as the data when just transferring files, because iPods don't just stream digital audio out of that port unless there's a chip in the other device that would basically tell the iPod to start doing that. This is why people using them as digital servers had to get those "Made for iPod" docks* or DAC-HPamps.
*like the Wadia 170i :
https://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/1008wad/index.html
PS: I've seen some people with really cool DAP combos, but I also want to know where they get the cool rubber bands to hold everything together.
I fought cancer while strapping my iPod to a CMOY before but I don't know if you can still get these because performance-enhancing drugs.
