[gaplessophile]

Wow, nice work BavariaBarbarian! I've been waiting for some pictures of where exactly to tap a line out straight from the DAC in an iPod. I plan on getting one just to do this.

 

[BavariaBarbarian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaplessophile Wow, nice work BavariaBarbarian! I've been waiting for some pictures of where exactly to tap a line out straight from the DAC in an iPod. I plan on getting one just to do this.

I know.

I just didn't get around to posting this before.

If you do this, I wish you good luck!
It really isn't that hard to do, but obviously it's possible to fry the dac...

I recommend you install the series resistors mach_y mentioned.

Keep us posted!

 

[BTV]

1. Thanks to BavariaBarbarian and gaplessophile (found you posts here 2 days ago)

2. I did that hack (yesterday)

3. I like it

(now)

PS. Its really fun to handle 1mm parts

PPS. I just connected the output of Wolfson WM8975 DAC to the doc connector pins and removed some not so neccessary parts and traces on iPod's PCB.

 

[cabilyo]

BavariaBarbarian,I didn't understand from your post,
Did you connected the wires to Cap side that connected to the DAC or to other side ?
If you connected it to DAC side you have signal with DC which must be pass
through DC blocking circuit(Imod use Black Gates Caps to do that)

 

[BTV]

cabilyo, i think that my hack is much more interesting than imod modification BTW

— one still can use standard phone output of the iPod and have a nice lineout with the doc (i am thinking about using Black Gates in the doc - there is more space for that)

I have connected my 600 Ohm phones (990pro) via some caps - the sound is very clean (not too loud though).

PS. I have some thoughts why imode was implemented the way it was implemented — its very easy to do: one do not need even unscrewing the iPod's motherboard

.

PPS. I have even more thoughts

. A very good hack would use regulated outputs of WM8975: then fine signal will go directly to phones. And one can use lager caps for improoving iPod bass output to the phones.

 

[BTV]

At the moment I was looking the forum and found that link

http://www.audiolineout.com/

They take us for real fools. The signal pass is already distroyed by apple engineers (to be polite they are not unique in that) — and this guys present super cables for getting the sound... From the connector where THERE IS NO GOOD SOUND ALREADY. They are right — good cables are good cables. But there is no chance to noticably improove sound by using it.

All I wish is to make SUPERHACK on iPod: to take signal from the CODEC to the phones as how Wilson made initially their chip. Stay tuned

 

[cabilyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BTV cabilyo, i think that my hack is much more interesting than imod modification BTW — one still can use standard phone output of the iPod and have a nice lineout with the doc (i am thinking about using Black Gates in the doc - there is more space for that) I have connected my 600 Ohm phones (990pro) via some caps - the sound is very clean (not too loud though). PS. I have some thoughts why imode was implemented the way it was implemented — its very easy to do: one do not need even unscrewing the iPod's motherboard . PPS. I have even more thoughts . A very good hack would use regulated outputs of WM8975: then fine signal will go directly to phones. And one can use lager caps for improoving iPod bass output to the phones.

My last hack to the Line out is taking the line out directly from Wolfson DAC
and use the Ref output of the DAC via OP AMP to buffer it as signal return
I made some RMAA tests with my EMU 1212M board and it prooved to have very good results .
I will post is soon.

 

[BavariaBarbarian]

Hey cabilyo, It's really great to hear from you!

Can I take it you're safely back home?

To your question, yes there was dc offset and I just passed it through to my Pimeta which has input capacitors for blocking dc.

Btw meanwhile I tried your capless solution and enjoy it. Much.

I installed an isolated 3.5mm jack to the left of the HP out to avoid shorting Vref and HPgnd and to keep the HP output useable. Works really well although the 20gb and 30gb are probably to thin to fit one in.

BTV kudos for your successful mod! I considered that solution after gaplessophile applied it successfully. But one still needs a dock adapter so I prefer the additional 3.5mm jack.
Also do consider going completely capless!

Regarding lineout cables: You need to keep things in perspective. Of course they're no competition to a modded lineout, but they do provide an improvement (sonically or ergonomically) to the apple dock, pocketdock, etc...

 

[BTV]

cabilyo, I know, you have tried also the caped output

Which one is sonically better to you? Looking forward for your posting. BTW what OP AMP are you using there?

BavariaBarbarian: "Also do consider going completely capless!" Its the way the things go now

. All my amps have a cap at the input or they are more then 500k input resistance.

I have connected my 16 or 32 Ohms HPs to the WM8975 (through the caps) — it works of cause, but the level is too high

. On your photo http://i1.tinypic.com/v66989.jpg I see C101 and C100. Next time I am planning to connect phones there (through the caps). Have ANYBODY tried the signal there? Is it regulated?

If yes — next hack will be finding small big value caps (there really not much space in the 20GB iPod...) for connecting WM8975 directly to the PH jack

 

[BTV]

Made some photos of the hack: http://btvbtv.narod.ru/photoalbum.html

There are pics before and after in two places involved.

1. C84, C86, L2 and L3 are removed. Two traces (seen on a PIC http://btvbtv.narod.ru/01a01.jpg) are cut with a needle from my Swiss army knife. The x10 loop used to see what I was doing while that is also in that knife.

That's it

Note: after all that your iPod will be not so safe as before I think. But who knows. In my opinion the resulting sound quality is worse it.

PS. Oh! I have fogotten to say that I used two small wires

(the length of L2 was 1 mm)

 

[BTV]

Had connected to 33 kOhm input without caps. It works just fine for me. The amp is not that bad - 2 tubes in a channel. It appears to me that the Wolfson chip is to.

The output DC is about 1,5V. Divided by 30 kOhm makes only 50 mkA DC load for the chip. As the outputs for the chip can somehow drive 8 Ohm speaker without cap its OK for it.

PS. I am here just to inproove my english for unknown reason

Looking forward to improove phones output as well.

 

[BTV]

Added some words about in Russian and English. Welcome here: http://btvbtv.narod.ru/photoalbum.html