[jexby]

The point of my question- they still have no native high Rez support from iDevices despite all their promises and requests for patience.
A shame.
To put it mildly.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

I see.

 

[tracyca]

This bad boy is hard to come bye, I been trying to buy one sense last year!

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

This bad boy is hard to come bye, I been trying to buy one sense last year!

 
Most here had to "wait in line", so to speak.  The only ones that seemed to quickly buy and receive, were the people that caught a dealer with inventory, like TTVJ...

 

[tracyca]

Ya, I know I actually paid for one and stupid me ask for refund. I I made a big mistake.

 

[thomascrown]

It's now almost a month I'm waiting mine, no big deal, I have other toys to play with in the meanwhile, and Mr Goodman always replies promptly to my questions, so I don't feel "forgotten"

 

[kayza]

It's now almost a month I'm waiting mine, no big deal, I have other toys to play with in the meanwhile, and Mr Goodman always replies promptly to my questions, so I don't feel "forgotten"

I've been waiting since 2/16/14. Said April ship date. It's now may, my travel schedule is almost over, and still no m8...getting...impatient.

 

[thomascrown]

I've been waiting since 2/16/14. Said April ship date. It's now may, my travel schedule is almost over, and still no m8...getting...impatient.

Wow! Sir, you're indeed patient! I do hope this is the right month for us!

 

[jexby]

The point of my question- they still have no native high Rez support from iDevices despite all their promises and requests for patience.
A shame.
To put it mildly.

 
well, maybe the silence from CEntrance on our M8 feature-upgrade was due to honoring NDA regarding Lightning cable technical obstacles?
 
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/apple-plans-to-offer-hi-res-audio-new-headphones/

 

[MikeyFresh]

   
well, maybe the silence from CEntrance on our M8 feature-upgrade was due to honoring NDA regarding Lightning cable technical obstacles?
 
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/apple-plans-to-offer-hi-res-audio-new-headphones/

I'm pretty sure the two items are intertwined.
 
Or maybe more specifically, there is a likelihood that Apple is about to upgrade the iDevice firmware, the SoC firmware within the CCK and/or Lightning cables, and the iTunes Store itself with 24 bit tracks for purchase.
 
All of that undoubtedly involves NDAs with any 3rd party hardware or software developers, including CEntrance.

 

[jazzman7]

If this rumor is true, it is likely that the issue of 24/96 is tied to updates in iOS versions for Apple devices.  It would not surprise me if the capability would be limited to Lightning devices alone.
 
I can get 24/96 out of an iPad or a newer iPhone, but only with either of the two CCKs, not the stock cable.  I have not heard of anyone who can get 24/96 out of an iDevice using a stock 30-pin or Lightning cable.  If it were possible with any DAC, I think someone would have reported it already.  
 
On the good news side, this means there should be more people offering short Lightning-to-USB cables soon.  I have two short 30-pin-to-USB cables to use with my M8, but no short Lightning-to-USB ones.  Either that, or I need to pony up to get the one from V-MODA; it looks like they sell it for $25+5 shipping.  
 
EDIT:  I already have the short one from Amazon; unfortunately they messed up the Lightning end and made it too big to fit through my iPhone case.  Slimmer cables, please!  

 

[MikeyFresh]

 If this rumor is true, it is likely that the issue of 24/96 is tied to updates in iOS versions for Apple devices.  It would not surprise me if the capability would be limited to Lightning devices alone.
 
I can get 24/96 out of an iPad or a newer iPhone, but only with either of the two CCKs, not the stock cable.  I have not heard of anyone who can get 24/96 out of an iDevice using a stock 30-pin or Lightning cable.  If it were possible with any DAC, I think someone would have reported it already.  
 
On the good news side, this means there should be more people offering short Lightning-to-USB cables soon.  I have two short 30-pin-to-USB cables to use with my M8, but no short Lightning-to-USB ones.  Either that, or I need to pony up to get the one from V-MODA; it looks like they sell it for $25+5 shipping.  
 
EDIT:  I already have the short one from Amazon; unfortunately they messed up the Lightning end and made it too big to fit through my iPhone case.  Slimmer cables, please!  

Except that some non-Lightning iDevices do support digital output from their 30 pin dock connector already, so it would just be a device firmware update to allow that to exceed 16/48.
 
A Lightning iDevice is actually more involved to implement 24/96 in that both the iDevice and the SoC inside the Lightning cable might need a firmware update.
 
That said, to best drive new device sales, Apple may want to limit the capability to Lightning equipped devices.
 
Currently the CCK is the only way to get 24/96 out of a compatible iDevice, and to my knowledge the only company to even hint at working on firmware to make their DAC ready for Lightning/30 pin 24/96 capability is CEntrance.
 
There are short Lightning cables available/forthcoming from AudioQuest (Cinnamon, Carbon, and Diamond). There is also a very inexpensive one from Pangea but the shortest length appears to be 6 foot.

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

  If this rumor is true, it is likely that the issue of 24/96 is tied to updates in iOS versions for Apple devices.  It would not surprise me if the capability would be limited to Lightning devices alone.
 
I can get 24/96 out of an iPad or a newer iPhone, but only with either of the two CCKs, not the stock cable.  I have not heard of anyone who can get 24/96 out of an iDevice using a stock 30-pin or Lightning cable.  If it were possible with any DAC, I think someone would have reported it already.  
 
On the good news side, this means there should be more people offering short Lightning-to-USB cables soon.  I have two short 30-pin-to-USB cables to use with my M8, but no short Lightning-to-USB ones.  Either that, or I need to pony up to get the one from V-MODA; it looks like they sell it for $25+5 shipping.  
 
EDIT:  I already have the short one from Amazon; unfortunately they messed up the Lightning end and made it too big to fit through my iPhone case.  Slimmer cables, please!  

 
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=112&cp_id=11213&cs_id=1083101&p_id=10557&seq=1&format=2
 
Best price I've seen so far.  And I believe this is where CEntrance sources their 30 pin cable from...

 

[ExpatinJapan]

There are several newer models of idevices that do 16/96 that i have found recently. The AK10 with recent update, the HA-P50 player from TEAC, and another new brand (very tiny) that i tried at Tokyo headphone show but i forget the name. Photos are in the Tokyo Headphone impressions thread.

HA-P50.

So 16/96 is doable via lightning to a couple of idevice dac/amps (with touch5), i havent tried the 30pin with these devices.
Two if them are lightning only. I could try the HA-P50 next time i am in a store.

I suspect the 24bits could be where the problem lies. I need access to a recent ipad to do some more testing.

As others say it could be an OS restriction that will be hopefully cleared in the future with an update when itunes goes hi-res. i think Apple will go hi-res because there is money to be made there.

I also dont think Centrance was trying to mislead us in anyway, i believe that the solution to the 24/96 implementation has proven harder than they first surmised.

Hopefully at some stage they will visit this thread again and give us an update.

 

[jazzman7]

Expat - thanks for the update.  I had not seen any DACs working at 96kHz directly with a standard Lightning cable, so it is interesting that some do now.  I am getting a beyerdynamic A200P in a day or so, so I will test it out along with my other portable gear to see if it too can do hi-res sample rates like the AK10.    
 
One more thing:  I've been doing some listening comparisons of the portable DACs on hand, both on some hi-res files (24/96 out of a laptop and out of an iPhone using the Lightning-to-USB adapter) and more standard 16/48 and 16/44.1 files into them. I've been mainly using my LCD2 as the headphone in a balanced configuration connected to the M8 and single-ended everywhere else. The thing I keep coming back to on the M8 compared to the other DACs is how rock-solid the presentation is. Everything is precisely placed by the M8, especially the center vocals.  I think Michael's experience in sound recording has heavily influenced the sound of the M8, as it feels like I'm listening straight out of the mixing board.