iPod (iPhone) connection options

JPSmario
JPSmario Posts: 142
edited July 2011 in Electronics
I'm looking for a little search help here. I want to evaluate options for listening to the music on my iPhone through my system and I'm thinking there has to be something better than connecting the earphone-out to the aux-in. the thing is I'm sure there are threads discussing this but I'm not having any luck with search terms. Help? :confused:

Thanks!
Dual 1229/Grado Gold/Rotel RCD1070/RC995/RB980BX/Pioneer 7100/Denon DRM710/Monster HTS3600MKII/PolkAudio SDA2B/TL's
Post edited by JPSmario on
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Comments

  • nwohlford
    nwohlford Posts: 700
    edited July 2011
    The main way to get improvement is to bypass the DAC in the iPhone to an external DAC.
    You could do this by playing the music over wifi from the iPhone via AirPort Express, AppleTV, or other AirPlay supported devices. There are plenty of places that discuss the merits of each of these.
    There are some devices that get a digital signal out of the dock connector on the iPhone. You should be able to search something like "digital out dock iphone" to get a start.
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  • nwohlford
    nwohlford Posts: 700
    edited July 2011
    I forgot a cheaper option that will give you some benefit. You will get better sound through the dock connector than the headphone output, since you will skip the headphone amp. You can often find cheap docks online that have 3.5mm mini plug output or a dock connector to av cable.
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  • zingo
    zingo Posts: 11,258
    edited July 2011
    The Wadia iPod dock extracts the audio out in digital form. It's your best bet for iPod/iPhone out. Wireless is an easy option, but sound quality is not as good as wired.
    Jake
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  • JPSmario
    JPSmario Posts: 142
    edited July 2011
    I really appreciate the responses, guys! My focus has been CD and vinyl sources, but I just moved and haven't unpacked them yet. Any thoughts on performance differences for the cost between the Wadia i170 and i171?
    Dual 1229/Grado Gold/Rotel RCD1070/RC995/RB980BX/Pioneer 7100/Denon DRM710/Monster HTS3600MKII/PolkAudio SDA2B/TL's
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  • nwohlford
    nwohlford Posts: 700
    edited July 2011
    Sorry, I don't have any input on the Wadia docks.
    I really like the convenience of the wireless options . It is very nice to be able to use the iPhone as a remote in your seating location rather than have to try to use the iPhone while docked. Admittedly the Apple options have their limits (mostly high jitter although appleTV also does upconvert everything to 48KHz). To me the convenience outweighs the sound quality loss right now.
    I have wondered about the Marantz NA-7004. In the few reviews I have seen, the DAC seems to do pretty well against other standalone DACs. It is expensive (~$500 refurb and ~$700 new + $50 airplay upgrade), but it does function as a standalone DAC and does seem to give a lot of flexibility if you decide to use other digital sources in the future. With the airplay option, this seems to give all of the convenience with little (if any) compromise on sound quality.
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,233
    edited July 2011
    zingo wrote: »
    The Wadia iPod dock extracts the audio out in digital form. It's your best bet for iPod/iPhone out. Wireless is an easy option, but sound quality is not as good as wired.

    If you are not planning any video of any kind then this is a nice way to go. You must mate it with a external DAC for best performance. I use the Cambridge Audio "DAC MAGIC" which has Wolfson 8740 DAC"S in it for superior sound. It is by no means a clean or ease of use device. Sometimes it doesn't sync with the Ipod or phone the first doc , sometimes you have to doc 2 times to get it to sync.
    But what it does do and well is extract the digital sound and allow it to be sent to a DAC. This is what it does and does well.
    I would like to know what your system is , speakers , etc before you go and buy this setup. I have other options that will work as good depending on your needs.
    Airplay is a nice easy way to get you s music sent to a device like the Airport Express , you can run Digital Optical out of that and get almost the same sound quality the Wadia but it's not as pure sounding. I have done side by side and Airplay gives up a slight bit of clarity. It's not huge or noticeable unless you do a side by side. But it's the very coolest way to send you music.

    Pioneer Elite receivers have a pure connection on them for Ipod music. They also have Wolfson DAC's. I have compared a SC model to the Wadia and the SC was just as good if not better IMO.
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • FTGV
    FTGV Posts: 3,649
    edited July 2011
    Here is a reasonably priced alternative.Like the Wadia it extracts the digital data from the ipod/iphone.However unlike the Wadia has a self contained DAC/analog output section that should improve considerably upon that of the iPhones.Since it also has a digital out you can connect an external DAC for even better performance.
    http://store.pure.com/store/pure/en_US/pd/productID.221628800
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