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Cheapest and best way to get music from iPad onto HiFi speakers?

Piggie

Piggie

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 23, 2010
9,233
4,245
I realise there are going to be a number of options here, so let's lay out some details first.

1: I don't want to have any computer on to do this.

2: I don't want to have any TV on to do this.

3: I want to pay as little as possible to make this work.

4: It could be limited to one, room, but an option to have it work in multiple rooms would of course be nicer if it were possible.

Now the question :)

Say I have MP3 music tracks on my iPad, and I wish to listen to this music on some other speakers around the house, or possibly just in one room if around the house is not practical.

I have a number of micro/mini type CD/Radio HiFi units around the home with audio in jacks. So using speakers I already have with those items, again would be nice.

What are the possible options I'd have to look at? I'd imagine many people would love to be able to do the same. Be in a room and have your music come out over nice speakers.

I'd be interested to hear your ideas on what there is out there to use to make this happen?
 
Bluetooth receivers

I personally haven't tried it, but one of those Bluetooth receivers with the A2DP protocol enabled should work fine. You hook up the receiver to your stereo and pair the iPad with the receiver. Probably not the best audio quality there is but should be good enough for most.
 
fertilized-egg said:
I personally haven't tried it, but one of those Bluetooth receivers with the A2DP protocol enabled should work fine. You hook up the receiver to your stereo and pair the iPad with the receiver. Probably not the best audio quality there is but should be good enough for most.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I never knew such a thing existed.

Now I'm going to be fussy and say I'd like the audio to be the best quality it can be. CD quality shall we term it?

How about if I say how about limiting it to one HiFi in one room?

Say I have a proper HiFi Amp and some speakers.

For the record, I actually have this amp in my room now I could use:

http://www.digitalhomemag.com/revie...d=19197&subsectionid=1306&subsubsectionid=954

Here are photos of it, including the back:
http://hifi-leipzig.de/shop/popup_image.php?pID=1167&imgID=6&XTCsid=kedhfptsrs81tggg390td061n0
 
Bluetooth a2dp sounds bad to my ears and also succeptible to pops and blips when there is interference from my experience using it.

I'd get an airport express wireless base station and plug that into your Hi-Fi with either the optical output(digital) or a mini 3.5mm phono to the RCA plugs (analogue)
Then your ipad can still be wireless and send music as best possible quality.

It will also let your stream wirelessly from your laptop, it also supports apple LOSSLESS audio codec.


Though of course the cheapest way would be to get a 3.5mm phono to 2x RCA cable and plug it straight into the ipad and Hi-Fi
 
Piggie said:
Now I'm going to be fussy and say I'd like the audio to be the best quality it can be. CD quality shall we term it?
Click to expand...

I personally think the A2DP quality is "more than good enough" for most stuff but I can't really tell you for sure. It's really liberating to be wireless but if you don't mind being tethered, in terms of sound quality, the best you'll do is by using the USB camera kit to output the USB sound to an USB optical out device and hook it up to your receiver via an optical cable. So iPad -> USB camera kit -> USB optical out device -> your receiver (Not 100% if it still works with iOS version 4.0+) while the easiest is obviously just using an mini-to-RCA cable to hook up the iPad to your receiver.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the Airport and also the AppleTV, AirPlay should be nice and easy to use if you don't mind paying $99.
 
Apple iPad Dock. 3.5mm to 2x phono cable into the Yamaha.

Bluetooth A2DP is heavily compressed so quality isn't fantastic. Fine for a noisy tube ride, but the Yamaha would show it up terribly.
 
fertilized-egg said:
I personally think the A2DP quality is "more than good enough" for most stuff but I can't really tell you for sure. It's really liberating to be wireless but if you don't mind being tethered, in terms of sound quality, the best you'll do is by using the USB camera kit to output the USB sound to an USB optical out device and hook it up to your receiver via an optical cable. So iPad -> USB camera kit -> USB optical out device -> your receiver (Not 100% if it still works with iOS version 4.0+) while the easiest is obviously just using an mini-to-RCA cable to hook up the iPad to your receiver.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess the A2DP may sound ok through something like PC speakers, but I know from past experience, anything less than perfect sounds terrible with put though many $100's worth of big speakers.

The simple way seemed the Headphone Jack which is just 1 wire, but unsure what that's like quality wise.

Your other idea needed a couple of bits of hardware yes? A way to get optical out of the iPad?
 
I would definitely use the Airport Express. They can be purchase at a discount through the refurbished store, and will carry full cd quality sound, and work flawlessly from anywhere on your wireless network - two big things a Bluetooth device cannot do.
 
Piggie said:
The simple way seemed the Headphone Jack which is just 1 wire, but unsure what that's like quality wise.

Your other idea needed a couple of bits of hardware yes? A way to get optical out of the iPad?
Click to expand...

Using the headphone plug is a bad idea, you need a line out as provided by the dock port. There's no digital audio output that I'm aware of.
 
zhenya said:
I would definitely use the Airport Express. They can be purchase at a discount through the refurbished store, and will carry full cd quality sound, and work flawlessly from anywhere on your wireless network - two big things a Bluetooth device cannot do.
Click to expand...

forgive me for not understanding why you need to double up here.
But you mean the iPad sends the music over wireless to the Airport, which then sends the music over wireless to a wireless receiver attached to a music amp?

Call me stupid, but it would seem you want just want the iPad to talk to the wireless receiver itself would you not?
 
The Apple TV is no good for playing music from the iPad to an Audio amp is it?
 
MagicBoy said:
There's no digital audio output that I'm aware of.
Click to expand...

The USB camera accessory does output USB audio. So you can hook up the USB camera thingy to your ipad and hook it up to something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Go-22327-Audio-Adapter/dp/B000233WJG from there you can connect it to the receiver via an optical cable.


Piggie said:
The Apple TV is no good for playing music from the iPad to an Audio amp is it?
Click to expand...

It should be fine. You go iPad -> Apple TV -> Receiver
 
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Apple TV requires a video display of some sort, so if the room only contained a stereo system, you couldn't use AppleTV.

FWIW I have used a headphone jack to RCA stereo cable many times. As long as the volume on the iPad is set to an intermediate level it works just fine. Then use the stereo volume to regulate the output. This is by far the cheapest way to do it as you can probably get a cable for less than $5.
 
Piggie said:
forgive me for not understanding why you need to double up here.
But you mean the iPad sends the music over wireless to the Airport, which then sends the music over wireless to a wireless receiver attached to a music amp?

Call me stupid, but it would seem you want just want the iPad to talk to the wireless receiver itself would you not?
Click to expand...

There is an audio out from the Airport Express, which you would just plug into your speakers. Works very nicely.

You can do the same with the Apple TV, but the new model only has an optical audio output so you are limited the equipment you can connect it to.
 
The USB camera accessory does output USB audio. So you can hook up the USB camera thingy to your ipad and hook it up to something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Go-2232.../dp/B000233WJG from there you can connect it to the receiver via an optical cable.
Click to expand...
Is the gadget in the link from Amazon powered? Apple lowered the output from the USB (via camera connector) port, so it may need a T3Hub or powered hub for it to show up. I know I have to use a T3hub with my uDac now.

The Apple TV is no good for playing music from the iPad to an Audio amp is it?
Click to expand...
Unlike the Airport Express, which is bit perfect for CD quality, the AppleTV converts everything to 48khz. Not sure if it makes much difference, but it does not send out a bit perfect 44.1khz signal.

But you mean the iPad sends the music over wireless to the Airport, which then sends the music over wireless to a wireless receiver attached to a music amp?
Click to expand...
The Airport Express is on your wireless network. The iPad can see it. When you go to play audio, you have an icon that gives you a choice of playing through the iPad or AE. If you choose AE, the audio signal is routed over your network to the AE.

The AE will connect to your receiver via optical digital (for best sound) or analog.
 
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Piggie said:
I realise there are going to be a number of options here, so let's lay out some details first.

1: I don't want to have any computer on to do this.

2: I don't want to have any TV on to do this.

3: I want to pay as little as possible to make this work.

4: It could be limited to one, room, but an option to have it work in multiple rooms would of course be nicer if it were possible.

Now the question :)

Say I have MP3 music tracks on my iPad, and I wish to listen to this music on some other speakers around the house, or possibly just in one room if around the house is not practical.

I have a number of micro/mini type CD/Radio HiFi units around the home with audio in jacks. So using speakers I already have with those items, again would be nice.

What are the possible options I'd have to look at? I'd imagine many people would love to be able to do the same. Be in a room and have your music come out over nice speakers.

I'd be interested to hear your ideas on what there is out there to use to make this happen?
Click to expand...

Your number one killed the easiest option, Airport Express. You can play music off of your iPad and point the audio to a specific Airport Express, but I bet you have more that 60GB of music in you digital collection.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all advice so far. Some things to think about :)
 
xraytech said:
Your number one killed the easiest option, Airport Express. You can play music off of your iPad and point the audio to a specific Airport Express, but I bet you have more that 60GB of music in you digital collection.
Click to expand...
I prefer having the computer on for my entire library, but with Rhapsody, Pandora, xm radio, etc...there is no shortage of music available via apps. I should mention that they all use compressed lossy formats, so there is a trade off in sound quality compared to lossless files that you may have on a computer.
 
1st, use an iPod for your music. It's small, less bulky, easier to take with you.
My 3rd gen Nano fits in the center console of the car, where the plug in is.

Plug the iPod into your receiver, and use the zone function to play music, podcast, or whatever throughout your home. There are a few companies that make in ceiling speakers that sound good.

I know this might be a little more work, but in the end I feel you will be very happy with the results.

(Okay, a lot more work, but worth it in the end.)
 
Best and cheapest tend to not go hand in hand unfortunately.

Have a look at the solutions Sonos offers. You can store all your. Music on either your ipad, a mac, or a NAS (best). And control everything from the ipad app. All you need is the unamplified Sonos Zoneplayer and you're all set!
 
SwaggerMouse said:
I don't know why no one has suggested this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/3-5mm-Phono...LSVS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307283243&sr=8-1

Phono to jack. Plug one end in your iPad the other in the into the back of the amp and boom you're ready to go.
Click to expand...

It was suggested in the 4th post of the thread, six months ago.

cRuNcHiE said:
Though of course the cheapest way would be to get a 3.5mm phono to 2x RCA cable and plug it straight into the ipad and Hi-Fi
Click to expand...
 
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