Okay, this was waaaay more complicated than I expected. Guess I got lucky yesterday. And unfortunately it doesn't give me confidence that the option will always be around, but results below.
As yesterdays 'discovery' used a couple tracks from Explorations In Space And Time in 24/192 FLAC converted in Max to AIFF, I used a Reference Recording HRx disc this time (hint: results similar). And I can see why other are having problems. There is another solution, which was Benchmarks and I'll get to that at the end.
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First track of Exotic Dances from the Opera HRx. 24/176.4 8476 kbps WAV file.
Dragged from Finder to directly docked iPad in iTunes (under devices): Success
Placed WAV into iTunes and dragged to docked iPad: 'Was not copied as this file cannot be played on this iPad'
WAV converted to ALAC in iTunes (confirmed in Get Info to be 24/176.4, listed as 4386 kbps): 'Was not copied as this file cannot be played on this iPad'
WAV converted to AIFF in iTunes (all automatic settings - confirmed in Get Info to be shifted to 16/176.4, listed as 5644 kbps - no 24 bit settings to force): 'Was not copied as this file cannot be played on this iPad'
Converted ALAC from iTunes opened in Finder, directly dragged back to docked iPad in iTunes: 'Was not copied as this file cannot be played on this iPad'
WAV converted in Max 0.9.1 to AIFF (linear PCM - confirmed 24-bit with 8467 kbps tested both AIFF and AIF as extension) and dragged from Finder directly to docked iPad in iTunes: Success - I'm trying to do drag'n'drop to the iPad without success, are there any trick? I've just opened Finder, choose a 24/96 folder, and tried to drag it to the docked iPad (under devices), but nothing happened, what am i missing here? (got it! have forgotten to set iTunes to 'manually manage music and videos'!!) Strange thing is, i don't need the cck to playback the songs (using Fostex HP-P1), are they being downsampled in any way? I have no way of confirm, no DAC at the moment)
iTunes ALAC converted in Max to AIFF (linear PCM - 24-bit with 8467 kbps) and dragged from Finder directly to docked iPad in iTunes: Success
Max AIFFs added to iTunes and then dragged to iPad: 'Was not copied as this file cannot be played on this iPad' - Confirmed
WAV converted in Max to ALAC (automatic settings with 4280 kbps file produced) and dragged from Finder directly to docked iPad in iTunes: 'Was not copied as this file cannot be played on this iPad'
WAV converted in Max to ALAC added to iTunes and then dragged to iPad: 'Was not copied as this file cannot be played on this iPad'