iPad digital out success

[wgscott]

My iPad camera adaptor finally arrived. I made the mistake of pre-ordering from Apple, so I got to watch them FedEx it from some slave-labor camp in China to my previous address, while there were a pile of them sitting in our local university campus bookstore, a 5 minute stroll from where I work. (Never do that. I made this mistake once before, and vowed never again to pre-order anything from Apple.)

 

Anyway, I finally got the darn thing and plugged it into the iPad, and a USB2 into the camera adapter, and then plugged the other end into a Zeppelin mini (borrowed from my kid -- the full-size Zeppelin, sadly, doesn't do USB, only mini toslink). Not only did it work perfectly, but the remote that comes with the Zeppelin mini permits me to navigate through everything on the iPad, as if I were using the analogue iPod dock.

 

So when my MM1 speakers arrive someday, I will have an $1100 portable digital sound system (inclusive of the $600 iPad) that doesn't suck.

 

Now all I need to do is to try to figure out how I can rig this up in my car.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Very cool :~)

 

[diw]

Got the camera connector from China via Fedex today....having read the earlier post, eagerly plugged it into iPad and connected up the Apogee One....message that it took too much power and so wouldnt work...tried plugging it in to my only other USB DAC, a Headroom portable...not a squeak. Tried it with iPhone and iPod but no luck at all....as I've havent yet been able to get it to work with the camera, there may be operator error or a faulty component here...I'll keep trying. It did however enable me to connect an old keyboard to the Pad successfully so that is cheaper than the Wireless one. For those cheapskates among us who hesitate to buy an iPad bag and want something stealthy...the Office Depot DVD bubble mailer fits it perfectly and you get six for $8.99....any other experience with Camera connector? On re-reading the earlier post, my thought was that the Zepellin Mini has been designed to use a digital output from iPod so that may be significant........

 

[diw]

Inexplicably ( but thankfully ), the camera now connects but no luck with finding a USB output capability....a whimsical attempt to connect an external hard drive and a DVD player proved to be ( well ) whimsical and fruitless

 

[diw]

http://lists.apple.com/archives/coreaudio-api/2010/Apr/msg00124.html

 

the above exchange between Gordon Rankin and apple suggests the use of a powered USB hub....so I tried that and the Apogee One still wouldnt work but the Headroom DAC did...and then the Headroom worked straight out of the Connector....after a pause...WTH? In the process of these trials the iPad went completely blank twice....referring to the Manual gave the reset procedure as pressing the on/off and Home button at the same time for ten seconds...for those of us familiar with iPod freezes that seems eerily familiar. At this point it all seems a bit woolly but with Gordon on the case it should be clearer soon

 

[PorkChop]

Thanks for the report. This sounds really promising for those of us wanting to assemble a truly portable (as in no wall outlet) hi-fi system for cabin camping and house boating. Sounds like iPad with camera adapter and Devilsound USB-to-RCA DAC might work going out to my Cambridge Model 12 (which can run off a DC power pack).

 

Or is that a pipe dream because this adapted USB would be the non-powered variety?

 

[wgscott]

I bought a fairly low-tech unpowered USB to optical connector ($25, Turtle Beach, 16-bit only). I have a full-size Zeppelin in my bedroom. It came with an optical in (mini toslink) and also has a USB port. Sadly, the USB port, unlike the mini, is basically like a tit on a mule. The only thing you can do with it is upgrade the firmware, so I can't use the USB out from my MacBookAir (my favorite laptop), and the Air has no optical. I would rather not invest a wad of money in this, but I wanted something better than the analog connection. Anyway, it works fine with the Air.

 

I then decided to pull it out of the air, stick on the camera adaptor, and put that in the iPad.

 

It works.

 

However, it didn't work until I messed around with it. I had to do it in this order:

 

1. Start the music with nothing attached. (Don't really know if this was necessary, but I wanted a positive control).

 

2. Attached the camera adaptor to the base of the iPad.

 

3. Attached the USB/toslink coupler to the USB out from the camera adaptor.

 

It seemed to think about it for a second or two, and then started to work.

 

So I can get digital from my iPad via camera adaptor to USB/toslink adapter to optical toslink cable to Zeppelin.

 

The iPad also works if I shove it onto the iPod mount thingie, but it looks like it could break. Also, I am fairly sure this way is NOT digital in.

 

Frankly, the ability to control the iPad with the Zeppelin remote is worth the price of the analogue connection, but it is nice to have a digital alternative...

 

The USB to the Zeppelin mini (or MM-1 speakers) however seems to be the way to go for the iPad.

 

I seem to enjoy screwing around with this stuff more than listening to the music, which probably isn't healthy.

 

[wgscott]

I've crashed my iPad a couple of times when the VGA adaptor got giggled loose (I bought the thing mainly to give Keynote presentations. Now if you want me to rant about that ...).