A little history: I used to enjoy listening to music on a nice system, but life
has a way of pulling you away from the things you enjoy. Now that my
children are grown I find myself with the desire to enjoy music on a nice
system again. So yesterday I ordered a Elekit tube amp (TU-8200)
and I'm starting on my way back to enjoying music again.
---
I was talking to my son last night and told him I wanted a single standalone
device that I can load all my music into and hook that device to my amplifier.
His reply was just use a tablet or an old cell phone. Admittedly his answer
caught me a bit off guard, but the more I think about it he may have a point.
It would give me a way to have an easy interface with the touch screen, easy
to hook to my network, I could even stream a online radio station etc .
So the next question is how do I get there from here?
I realize I could just hook a cable from the earphone jack to the amp
but that is a bit crude. I would prefer a interface between the Tablet
and the amplifier (DAC ?)
Thank you
has a way of pulling you away from the things you enjoy. Now that my
children are grown I find myself with the desire to enjoy music on a nice
system again. So yesterday I ordered a Elekit tube amp (TU-8200)
and I'm starting on my way back to enjoying music again.
---
I was talking to my son last night and told him I wanted a single standalone
device that I can load all my music into and hook that device to my amplifier.
His reply was just use a tablet or an old cell phone. Admittedly his answer
caught me a bit off guard, but the more I think about it he may have a point.
It would give me a way to have an easy interface with the touch screen, easy
to hook to my network, I could even stream a online radio station etc .
So the next question is how do I get there from here?
I realize I could just hook a cable from the earphone jack to the amp
but that is a bit crude. I would prefer a interface between the Tablet
and the amplifier (DAC ?)
Thank you
Quick answer - yes. This is a good and easy way to do it. Start with the headphone output and go from there. Your choice of device may depend on what you can connect to it, such as an external DAC.
This thread might be better over in the PC section, but we'll leave it here for the moment to see how it goes.
This thread might be better over in the PC section, but we'll leave it here for the moment to see how it goes.
I run two pieces of audio software on my Android Tablets.
1) Standalone: Rocket Player, a brilliant app.
2) On the Wifi I start Chrome and point it to my SeeDeClip4 music server (wot I wrote - google will find it).
I did make a small wooden stand for my 7" tablet so it sits at a nice angle.
Note you can use an OTG USB cable and hook up decent DACs to tablets and phones!
1) Standalone: Rocket Player, a brilliant app.
2) On the Wifi I start Chrome and point it to my SeeDeClip4 music server (wot I wrote - google will find it).
I did make a small wooden stand for my 7" tablet so it sits at a nice angle.
Note you can use an OTG USB cable and hook up decent DACs to tablets and phones!
I was thinking about that part, I need to find or make one that lets me
charge and power the tablet as well as have it hooked to the OTG adapter.
Thank you
I've not heard a bluetooth link that sounded as good as a cable yet, most I've heard were a long way off, but that could be just my experience.
Also note with Android OTG DACs there is I think a tendency of Android to drive the DAC to the highest speed it can do which means 44.1 ends up played at 192kHz when perhaps 88.2 may be more desirable.
In my case I prefer to set SeeDeClip4 to upsample to 24/88.2k into a modded Behringer Ultracurve DAC (modded to bypass the output opamps) from a laptop via optical.
For this I use a cheap USB-optical converter, but only after I bought a couple I realised none of them supported 88.2k either, the posh Phiree adapter does 44.1, 48, 96 but no 88.2!
So I've now ordered this - the only reasonably priced converter I could find that does 88.2/24:
CM6631A USB to SPDIF coaxial optical 24/192 24bit 192kHz DAC soundcard with case | eBay
The key seems to be the CM6631A chip.
The 'money' solution is to feed 44.1/24 into an Ultramatch, upsample there and then via AES into the Ultracurve at 88.2 but I wanted to reduce the box count by upsampling at the app end.
One thing I'd avoid in digital from Android or a laptop is 16bits, because you will be feeding via USB it's digital (rather than analog) and so the level controls on those devices will (be forced to) use digital level control (with possible re-dithering) and you can lose several bits of resolution when you turn the level down.
I realised this happens last night as the Ultracurve tells me what level it's getting and a fully digital Win10/USB-Optical/Ultracurve with partial volume set on the laptop gets a reduced level in the Ultracurve.
It's possible the USB is being cleverer than I think and it's actually sending a scaling factor along too but I suspect it's just scaling the digital: so either have a 24bit compliant DAC or select full volume on your tablet.
Full level is not an option for me BTW as I control the tablet remotely - including the level - so 24bit should in theory allow the resolution to remain even at low volume settings on the tablet/laptop.
Silk: CuteStudio Ltd. SeeDeClip4: a DeClipping Multiuser Digital Music Server over HTML5. - SeeDeClip4/Tech
I.e. I have the music server in the garage streaming on demand to a device running the Chrome web browser (A Win10 Laptop but a Tablet does the job fine too) plugged into the hifi, controlled from my Apple laptop on the sofa
I hope that makes sense, I'm not convinced I made it very clear LOL
Basically if you have a tablet you can still get hi quality audio with a little attention to detail IMO!
Also note with Android OTG DACs there is I think a tendency of Android to drive the DAC to the highest speed it can do which means 44.1 ends up played at 192kHz when perhaps 88.2 may be more desirable.
In my case I prefer to set SeeDeClip4 to upsample to 24/88.2k into a modded Behringer Ultracurve DAC (modded to bypass the output opamps) from a laptop via optical.
For this I use a cheap USB-optical converter, but only after I bought a couple I realised none of them supported 88.2k either, the posh Phiree adapter does 44.1, 48, 96 but no 88.2!
So I've now ordered this - the only reasonably priced converter I could find that does 88.2/24:
CM6631A USB to SPDIF coaxial optical 24/192 24bit 192kHz DAC soundcard with case | eBay
The key seems to be the CM6631A chip.
The 'money' solution is to feed 44.1/24 into an Ultramatch, upsample there and then via AES into the Ultracurve at 88.2 but I wanted to reduce the box count by upsampling at the app end.
One thing I'd avoid in digital from Android or a laptop is 16bits, because you will be feeding via USB it's digital (rather than analog) and so the level controls on those devices will (be forced to) use digital level control (with possible re-dithering) and you can lose several bits of resolution when you turn the level down.
I realised this happens last night as the Ultracurve tells me what level it's getting and a fully digital Win10/USB-Optical/Ultracurve with partial volume set on the laptop gets a reduced level in the Ultracurve.
It's possible the USB is being cleverer than I think and it's actually sending a scaling factor along too but I suspect it's just scaling the digital: so either have a 24bit compliant DAC or select full volume on your tablet.
Full level is not an option for me BTW as I control the tablet remotely - including the level - so 24bit should in theory allow the resolution to remain even at low volume settings on the tablet/laptop.
Silk: CuteStudio Ltd. SeeDeClip4: a DeClipping Multiuser Digital Music Server over HTML5. - SeeDeClip4/Tech
I.e. I have the music server in the garage streaming on demand to a device running the Chrome web browser (A Win10 Laptop but a Tablet does the job fine too) plugged into the hifi, controlled from my Apple laptop on the sofa
I hope that makes sense, I'm not convinced I made it very clear LOL
Basically if you have a tablet you can still get hi quality audio with a little attention to detail IMO!
The more I look at the tablet Idea the more I think it may be a nice option.
Wired is not an issue as I would want it plugged into power all the time anyhow.
(I actually have a tablet I keep on my desk now that is plugged in all the time)
Thank you for the info.
the iphone 5 and 6 are better then almost any external DAC not of studio quality
feed the jack into a tube preamp for gain balance with other sources and you are done.
iPhone 5S Audio Quality & Measurements
feed the jack into a tube preamp for gain balance with other sources and you are done.
iPhone 5S Audio Quality & Measurements
Has anyone found an OTG hub that provides charging while using the USB
port for an external DAC?
This guy shows one here that does not work with all tablets:
YouTube
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3lite that I'd like to try as a touch screen
music player.
The problem with using a tablet connected directly to an amplifier (or DAC) is that you've got to get off the couch to change the song or album. That would get annoying after a while. Instead, I'd look into the Bluetooth options. Or you could even consider something like a raspberry pi (with attached DAC or digital outputs). Running one of the common music player programs (Moode, Volumio etc) you'd be able to control it comfortably from your couch via the tablet. Running a program like Kodi, you could even control it via your TV and TV remote control. And if you like the idea of incorporating your TV as the interface, don't discount Roku / Android TV type of devices.
You don't need to get off the couch. You just need a remote desktop for your phone (or other device). I've used a tablet as a Roon endpoint for years. Lots of ways to successfully use a tablet with all the software available today.
The CKAM for Apple devices is necessary to provide the proper mah to drive the DAC.
Cheers,
Greg
The CKAM for Apple devices is necessary to provide the proper mah to drive the DAC.
Cheers,
Greg
Excellent point, so sure the tablet should be by the listening chair acting as the control
panel for another, perhaps J-River media player. But, the application that I had in mind
was to sit it on top of a boom box for a portable player for my girlfriend. She doesn't want
to use her phone so that she can answer it without interrupting the music player. Headphone
out would work fine for this and quality is not an issue.
I might want to use the same tablet for portable hi-fi music playing.
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For Both High Quality & Convenience ~ I went with Tablet/Handphone running Spotify/Tidal Chromecast Audio casting output using SPDIF optically bypass any DAC directly to my amplifier.
Chromecast audio unlike bluetooth, does not adulterate audio, it does not compress-decompress audio data, keeping true to the SQ.
Spotify/Tidal got all the songs I love, including old ones in High Resolution.
Tablet/Handphone wifi cast Chromecast, gives me all the control mobile convenience whenever there is data/broadband coverage. I can play audio to my speakers, even thousand miles from my audio gears.
Love it!
Chromecast audio unlike bluetooth, does not adulterate audio, it does not compress-decompress audio data, keeping true to the SQ.
Spotify/Tidal got all the songs I love, including old ones in High Resolution.
Tablet/Handphone wifi cast Chromecast, gives me all the control mobile convenience whenever there is data/broadband coverage. I can play audio to my speakers, even thousand miles from my audio gears.
Love it!
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