[ale79]

 
Hello everybody,

I'm very new to head-fi so I hope you'll forgive me if my questions sound silly.., please be patient and bear with me. I have an iPad 2 and am going to use it as my source, listening mainly to classic rock in 256kbs AAC or 320kbs mp3, have recently bought (yet to receive) Alessandro MS-1v.2009 phones and just got Sunrise SW-Xcape IEM's and am trying to figure out an optimal set up for these two sets.

The Sunrise's sound very detailed but, being essentially neutral, perhaps, might benefit from an external amping with the iPad 2 as this is very neutral too. As for the Alessandro's, I still haven't had a chance to listen to them (thanks to italian customs 

), but after extensive reading I understand they benefit from tubes or similar sounding amps.

So, finally coming to the questions, at first I felt that it might be necessary to by-pass the internal dac/ap of the iPad 2 in order to get a good SQ and had figured out a few ways to do this while still keeping things portable, but am now beginnig to question this basic assumption if in fact the iPad 2 SQ is as good as seems confirmed by the opinions expressed in other threads here.

Up to now the options I had figured out were essentially, in order of savings impact:

-Outsourcing both DAC and amp

iPad2>Fostex HP-P1>MS-1 or SW-X

iPad2>Clas>TTVJ Slim>MS-1 or SW-X

iPad2>Camera Connection Kit>Fiio E7>MS1 or SW-X (assuming you can still get a raw digital signal out of the camera connection, i read somewhere this may no longer be possible, any news here?)

-Using the internal DAC with an external amp

iPad2>Lod>TTVJ Slim>MS-1 or SW-X

iPad2>Lod>Fiio E11>MS-1 or SW-X

Right now I am beginnig to ask myself whether all these solutions perhaps are not really necessary if the internal amp/DAC of the iPad 2 is good enough, and if a good equalizer app could do the trick at a fraction of the cost (any sudjestions would be welcome).

I also realize that considering the phones I'll be using the above solutions might be an overkill, but I think that if I like the MS1's I'll likely upgrade to MS-2's fairly soon.

mmm.., I just re-read what I wrote and am shocked at how things got out of hand: up to a month ago I wouldn't even have considered alternatives to the Apple buds I had always used, then these broke and I had the idea of checking out a few reviews to see what other choices there were.., and I ended up on head-fi. Now I rush here every spare minute I have and am seriously considering spending amounts of money I would have never dreamt of (and can't really afford) on head-gear!

Please hgelp me out so that at least I don't end up waisting my hard earned money. Thank you all for your patience and kind advice.

 

[Currawong]

Check out the "Before and After" thread if you want to know what "getting out of hand" really means.
 
The Camera Connection Kit usb connector seems to work with USB DAC/Amps that use any chipset that doesn't require a special driver or needs to draw a lot of power, so most should be fine. I was just reading how someone connected their Headamp Pico in this manner.  You might try your new headphones straight out of the headphone port first though and see what you think. 

 

[icemanmd78]

I also plan to use an iPad 2 as my portable audio source... I read in other posts that the DAC of the iPad 2 is surprisingly comparable to other notable music players via RMAA testing & testing by fellow member (Yuriv). If this is true, can I just hook my iPad 2 to an Fiio E11 amp & Superlux HD 381f IEM & expect a pretty decent audiophiles-grade sound?