High Quality Downloads

[Beef Oven]

See my earlier posts from No.15 on, but having lived with (and hugely enjoyed) its closely-related predecessor (which I still have) for a few years, and judging by trusted reviewers, you can't do much better than the Cambridge DacMagic Plus (£350). It includes the preamp functions you'll need (many Dacs do these days). I upgraded mine with better power supplies etc., and always felt it was silly money for the quality. (Treble your money and you're into Benchmark or North Star territory, designs of the highest reputation - Benchmark have especially good headphone outputs).
As D2002 says though, the iPad has its limitations in this role. Where it comes into its own would be as a remote controller for a Mac Mini (or other NAS) - you'd store the downloads on the mini and it would share musicplayer software with the iPad. I intend to do this soon, when I've recovered from that aforementioned Dac purchase. If you use a Macbook, simply plug into the Dac via usb or optical. This arrangement kept me happy for a few years...

Do check the outputs offered - some models of Macbook Air don't include Optical out, always useful to have along with usb.

Thank you Jayne. A lot to think about. I may take my time before deciding.

[jayne lee wilson]

Do any of the Air models have Optical out and/or Optical in? It took me years to discover that this had become a feature for Macs, including most recent iMacs and MacBooks, but then I noticed that this isn't a feature of the Macbook Air.

They're just launching new versions of the Macbook Air, so it's worth checking! I can see the headphone socket on the photos but whether it now carries the Optical Output I couldn't determine - not enough specs yet.

[Dave2002]

They're just launching new versions of the Macbook Air, so it's worth checking! I can see the headphone socket on the photos but whether it now carries the Optical Output I couldn't determine - not enough specs yet.

The big feature of the new versions, which I don't think are available yet, and probably won't be in the UK for a while longer, seems to be the extended battery life. I'm fairly sure that the last two versions did not have Optical out via the headphone socket. The Air is a really nice machine for anyone who wants a compact and lightweight laptop. In the past it has not competed well against iPads though, in terms of battery life. Users who want to create documents and do more heavy duty computing would find the Air an appropriate and convenient tool. The keyboards beat the heck out of trying to "type" on an iPad. For reading email and other less demanding tasks iPads may have tended to win out because of the long battery life.

There may be opportunities to get the current model at lower prices while Apple clear out stocks, though anyone who wants the benefit of the significantly longer battery life which Apple is claiming for the about to be introduced versions might prefer to wait for them.

[Beef Oven]

See my earlier posts from No.15 on, but having lived with (and hugely enjoyed) its closely-related predecessor (which I still have) for a few years, and judging by trusted reviewers, you can't do much better than the Cambridge DacMagic Plus (£350). It includes the preamp functions you'll need (many Dacs do these days). I upgraded mine with better power supplies etc., and always felt it was silly money for the quality. (Treble your money and you're into Benchmark or North Star territory, designs of the highest reputation - Benchmark have especially good headphone outputs).
As D2002 says though, the iPad has its limitations in this role. Where it comes into its own would be as a remote controller for a Mac Mini (or other NAS) - you'd store the downloads on the mini and it would share musicplayer software with the iPad. I intend to do this soon, when I've recovered from that aforementioned Dac purchase. If you use a Macbook, simply plug into the Dac via usb or optical. This arrangement kept me happy for a few years...

Do check the outputs offered - some models of Macbook Air don't include Optical out, always useful to have along with usb.

Thanks very much for this Jayne, there is clearly a lot more for me to think through. Will take my time

[Stunsworth]

I don't know whether it's possible to get a working USB output, with suitable software for an iPad. There are camera kits etc. which can be useful, but I don't know whether it's feasible to adapt these for audio. I suspect practically not, at least for most people

The camera kit works fine into a USB enabled DAC - I've just tried it for the first time into my MDac. It uses a standard USB cable from the camera kit adaptor into the DAC.

[Dave2002]

The camera kit works fine into a USB enabled DAC - I've just tried it for the first time into my MDac. It uses a standard USB cable from the camera kit adaptor into the DAC.

Steve

Interesting, and good to know. I suspect it won't work with the earliest iPads though, but I'm guessing it will for versions 2-4. Of course it may be a software issue as much as anything else. I know that some things won't work on my older model iPad using the USB kits.

[Beef Oven]

The camera kit works fine into a USB enabled DAC - I've just tried it for the first time into my MDac. It uses a standard USB cable from the camera kit adaptor into the DAC.

I'm not really up on these things - does it mean that the camera kit is effectively a USB adaptor for the iPad?

[Stunsworth]

I suspect it won't work with the earliest iPads though, but I'm guessing it will for versions 2-4.

I no longer have my first generation iPad, but the camera kit certainly worked with that to transfer photos from a camera/card to the iPad. There are cheap far Eastern copies of the camera kit available so it wouldn't be too expensive to buy and try one of those.

incidentally, the camera kit also allows the connection of a USB musical keyboard to the iPad - for use in GarageBand etc.

[Dave2002]

I no longer have my first generation iPad, but the camera kit certainly worked with that to transfer photos from a camera/card to the iPad. There are cheap far Eastern copies of the camera kit available so it wouldn't be too expensive to buy and try one of those.

incidentally, the camera kit also allows the connection of a USB musical keyboard to the iPad - for use in GarageBand etc.

Still depends which model you have. The camera kit does what it says - allows photos to be uploaded - even for the very first iPads. Some of the cheap copy kits you mention definitely do not work with the original iPad, despite what their vendors say.

I suspect that for the newer iPads the kits do provide something much closer to regular USB functionality, and for some this will make them more usable - providing features which Apple chose not to include in their iPad range.