Quote:
Can't imagine any current portable DAP be even be on the same ball park as an Android phone connected to a DAC like my DACport. It saddens me to say this, but my beloved HM-602 will become irrelevant to me quite quickly once this happens...if this happens.
IMHO it will happen, because the kernel of Android is the Linux kernel.
And the Linux kernel acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the rest of the software stack. Thus Android handles all the things that Linux is really good at such as a vast array of device drivers, which take the pain out of interfacing to peripheral hardware.
And the development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration: the underlying source code may be used, modified, and distributed commercially or non-commercially by anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License.
USB audio enabled by free and open source Linux developers – Examples:
. Nook tablet can interoperate with USB DAC FiiO E7, USB DAC Beresford TC-7520SE Caiman or USB headset Logitech DAC A-5572A:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1459892
. HP TouchPad can interoperate with USB sound card Audio Advantage Micro II:
http://forums.webosnation.com/webos-internals/301721-pulseaudio-settings-2.html#post3235014
. Logitech Squeezebox Touch can interoperate with a lot of USB DAC:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=82110
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net.au/index.php/news-blog-and-showcase/john-darkos-blog/item/150-how-to-enable-usb-audio-output-on-the-squeezebox-touch
By the way, tweaking audiophile Android phones should not be carried out by Google, but likely by some free and open source Linux developers like John Swenson:
"An interesting example is the HRT music streamer II, it IS asynchronous USB, but it is still very sensitive to what happens in the computer. On the SAME COMPUTER I can make simple changes to OS scheduling parameters and get a huge difference in the sound. At one end of the scale it’s dull, lifeless, no depth at all, at the other end of the scale it is wonderfully alive, dynamic, huge depth etc. And all this by just changing a few numbers, NO change in hardware at all."
http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.pl?forum=pcaudio&n=101397
Free and open source software developers play an important role in the Android ecosystem:
1. The USB Host feature was not enabled in the first release (4.0.1) of the stock kernel of the Galaxy Nexus.
2. The kernel 4.0.1 was modded by a non-Google developer with USB Host feature enabled allowing USB mass storage devices and Galaxy Nexus to interoperate:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1359579
3. USB Host feature requested to Google
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=738
4. The USB Host feature was officially enabled in the Android release 4.0.2!