iPhone 5 as source?

[odamone]

I'd like to use my iPhone 5 as a source with one of the BH headphone amps. Does anyone know how to do this? I just want a basic DAC that accepts a digital audio output from the iPhone. Does such a contraption exist or am I stuck in apple's walled garden?

Thanks.

[debk]

I use the cambridge audio digital ipod dock and then feed that into a DAC.  It works very well!
You will also have to get a lightning adaptor since it has the old dock connector on the id100
http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/products/id100-digital-dock-for-ipad-iphone

Debra

[Kris]

I didn't get a chance to listen iD100 (as Debra suggested), but I compared Pure i-20 to few more expensive DACs, and Pure sounds just great for $99. I've never heard of any other DAC for i-divices that is that good for this kind of money, and (IMHO) for iPhone or iPod  I wouldn't spend more on DAC if something as good as i-20 is available. FWIW, I'd put my money on Bottlehead upgrades instead.

Regards,
Kris

[adamct]

There are a number of options:

- The HRT iStreamer
- The NuForce iDo
- The Pure i-20
- A straight (non-digital) ipod dock
- etc.

But let me skip to the chase...I find the Pure i-20 to be the best, cheapest and most versatile option. I own 3 of them, and I love them. The internal DAC is actually suprisingly good in its own right. But if you ever feel a pressing need to upgrade, then the Pure i-20's digital outputs (optical AND coaxial) are great for feeding a stand-alone DAC (this is how I use it). And the Pure i-20 will charge your iPhone while you use it. I only have two caveats:

1. As someone mentioned above, I think you need to use the Apple Lightning adapter. Use it with this cable. The dock extender will make it MUCH more convenient to use your iPhone while connected to the Pure i-20, as compared to trying to manipulate the iphone in the dock. The dock extender is annoyingly expensive, but I have found it to be well worth the money. It is surprisingly well-built, unlike many other i-device cables, which have insufficient strain relief around the iphone/ipad connection, and wind up breaking in short order.

2. You cannot watch any sort of videos on your iphone while using the Pure i-20, since the iphone assumes you are using the video line-out on the Pure i-20, and doesn't mirror the display on your iphone. Probably not an issue when using the i-20 with an iphone instead of an ipad, but I thought I would mention it anyway.

Best regards,
Adam

[Jim R.]

I can heartily recommend the Arcam DRdock with the lightning adaptor (though I use the lightning adaptor that is a cable with my iPad mini in landscape orientation).  The built-in dac is better than the hrt iStreamer for sure, plus it has a coax spdif output and an HDMI video/audio out, and a remote that works quite nicely.  I have mine on my nightstand and use it with my iPad mini, but have also used my wife's iPhone 5, my iPhone 4S, and an iPod Touch4G and all work very nicely.  I use the analog outs into a small iFi iCAN headphone amp at the moment.

-- Jim

[odamone]

Wow, thanks - this is all really solid advice. However, I think I'm going to go a different route. I have an airport express in the room and just remembered that has digital out. I'll go digital out of that into a DAC then into the headphone amp. That way I have wireless control of the playlist from any idevice. I don't need a fancy DAC. Mostly I'll be streaming compressed audio from the cloud. I do have lossless on the computer that I could play (when the computer is on), so a DAC wont be a total waste. Any good value suggestions are welcome. There are soooo many DACs out there. Don't need anything over 44.1 for this application.

[adamct]

Well, one thing to note is that the Airport Express doesn't just have an optical out...it also has a built-in DAC and an analog out. Just stick in a 1/8" miniphone cable.

If you want to use an external DAC, you have tons of choices. I should state up front that I am biased. I have tried many, many DACs. My current primary DAC cost over $1,000. But if I'm being perfectly blunt, I'm not convinced I could tell the difference among any of them in a blind test. In my view, you are better off spending you money in any of 100 different places than dropping it on a fancy DAC.

With that out of the way, a good, solid external DAC is the Cambridge Audio DacMagic, which is widely available used at good prices. Another alternative is a new or used Audio-Gd DAC (be warned: the variety of DACs they offer can be overwhelming). Or build your own. Check out the options at Twisted Pear Audio or AMB. (There are other options, but most DIY DACs are USB only, so not useful for you.)

Best regards,
Adam

[odamone]

Thanks, very helpful. I think I'm going to use this as an opportunity to test DACs. There's a a few $30 DACs on Amazon. I'll get one of those and compare it to using the airport express DAC and my $1000 Rega DAC. I'm also not convinced I can hear the difference between DACs. If I can then it's question of build or buy.


But this is all down the road. I still have to tackle my first kit. Very excited, but after reading some of the troubleshooting threads, man, this could take a month!

[adamct]

Bear in mind that people usually only post here when they have a problem. If things go smoothly, there is no need to post (except to show off... ).  I had no experience before building my Crack, but I was able to build both my Crack and my Quickie and have them work right away. (Problems only popped up when I started departing from the stock build.)

One more thing to note: what you can and will notice when comparing DACs is their differences in the strength of their output signal. Some budget DACs have very, very low output, which can be problematic. So see if the manufacturers specify their output signal.

Best regards,
Adam

[odamone]

Oh how plans change. Just read the taking orders thread. Bottlehead is designing my new DAC!  Heh, I don't even care if I can't hear a difference. It will be fun to build and will look super cool!