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iPod Direct Digital Portable Headphone Amp/DAC Combos
iPod Direct Digital Portable Headphone Amp/DAC Combos
I recommend the Creative sound blaster E5 as it has a proprietary digital signal processing chip that can be controlled with an iPhone app to add an equalizer and some special effects such as surround sound simulator that are really good. It also has Bluetooth for wireless streaming with aptX support and NFC.
25
Added the Denon DA10
25
Added the Apogee One device.
25
Added the Oppo HA-2. Remember this poll is mostly for MFi cert'ed products that just need a USB-A/Lighting cord.
25
Forgot about the Beyerdynamic A200P. Added!
25
I added the Onkyo dac/amp.
25
Saw someone added the Teac amp/dac. Very cool! Just saw that Crutchfield was carrying them!
25
Saw the iFi nano added which like the JDS Labs will work with iOS devices as long as the CCK is present. If anyone feels like adding the Resonessence Herus that wouldn't be a bad pick either. I'd just like to caution folks that while the initial intent was to aim for devices that were MFI certified meaning the DAC's ability to work with an iOS device (including the iPod classic) was native and not "backdoor" with the use of the CCK but if that's the way this poll is going so be it!
25
Saw that someone added the JDS Labs DAC. Slightly different in that you'll need the Apple Camera Connection Kit on an iOS device running 7.1 if I'm not mistaken.
25
Fun fact (hopefully to garner more interest): all but the Fostex can act as outboard PC DAC/amp as well! In addition the V-Moda will also work with Android products.
I wish we could get this PHA-2 dropped to pair with my SE846 :)
25
Since I started this poll I'll just chime in with what these are exactly -
For those that don't know all of these are capable of taking a digital line out signal directly from an iDevice, decode it outboard of the Apple product in a better D(igital) A(analog) C(onverter) and outputting that through a more powerful and cleaner headphone amp section capable of driving higher impedance headphones and at a higher max volume. Some of them also have a line level output for connecting to a larger audio system.
For those that don't know all of these are capable of taking a digital line out signal directly from an iDevice, decode it outboard of the Apple product in a better D(igital) A(analog) C(onverter) and outputting that through a more powerful and cleaner headphone amp section capable of driving higher impedance headphones and at a higher max volume. Some of them also have a line level output for connecting to a larger audio system.
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