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Does the iPhone 5 have true TOSLINK Optical Audio Output?

Bartmaster1234

Bartmaster1234

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 17, 2013
9
0
San Francisco, CA
Does the iPhone 5 have true TOSLINK Optical Audio Output?

To get good digital audio out you'd have to use the Lighting to HMDI adapter or (better yet) an AppleTV and AirPlay or AirPlay enabled receiver/dock.

Alternatively, Bluetooth Audio is also an option but the lower quality is best relegated to the car where you would be less likely to notice a difference.
 
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There is no optical out in any of the iPhones. However the signal coming out of the lightening connector (via whatever adapter cable or dock) should be cleaner than from the headphone.

I remember they used to sell these expensive digital docks for the 30-pins ($300+) don't know if they have them for the lightening.
 
Bartmaster1234 said:
Hi!

I have a 5.1 reciever with digital inputs, and I don't really like the regular stereo quality of the 3.5 mm audio cable to RCA. I hear that there are cables that do exist such as http://www.ebay.com/itm/12FT-1M-Toslink-to-3-5mm-Mini-Plug-Digital-Optical-SPDIF-Audio-Cable-/190761170868?pt=US_Audio_Cables_Adapters&hash=item2c6a4077b4 And I'm just wondering if this would work for the iPhone 5. I've heard that it would work for a Macbook Pro.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Go wireless.

Get that cable plus an Airport Express/AppleTV for AirPlay.

Then use your iPhone wirelessly. Perfect quality.

The streams are transcoded using the Apple Lossless codec with 44100 Hz and 2 channels encrypted with AES, requiring the receiver to have access to the appropriate private key to decrypt the streams.
Click to expand...
 
I'd also recommend using an ATV/AX & Airplay for optical out.
 
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Unfortunately, iOS devices don't have combo jack (headphone + mTOSLINK), unlike most Mac computers. Admittedly, it's going to be easy and cheap (maybe overly so) to get a pure digital signal that way.

But the good news is, you can still bitstream off your iPhone/iPad with Airplay, albeit stereo only. It's relatively cheap compared to custom dock or adapter to extract the digital signal.

You will need a regular router + Airplay enabled AV receiver, or Airport Express with TOSLINK cable connected to your DAC on you HiFi system.
Or, because most modern AV receivers now have a USB input, you can directly plug your iPhone/iPod/iPad cable onto it and enjoy the noise free audio while getting your device recharged.
 
When you use the headphone jack on your phone or ipod you are using the internal DAC of the device which is crap. Ideally for sound quality you would want to use a 30 pin or lightning connector with an output on it that you can feed an external device with its own DAC.
 
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I recommend using AirPlay with an AirPort Express. It's quite an elegant solution too.
 
wrx09md said:
When you use the headphone jack on your phone or ipod you are using the internal DAC of the device which is crap. Ideally for sound quality you would want to use a 30 pin or lightning connector with an output on it that you can feed an external device with its own DAC.
Click to expand...

That is absolutely correct. I use the lighting connector to my Centrance HiFi M8 headphone amplifier to power my B&W P7 . The difference is hell to heaven. The headphone connector on th iOS devices sucks , I shall say the DAC sucks. Go HiFi M8 can't go wrong and is portable.
 
As an alternative to an Airport Express or AppleTV for AirPlay-to-optical duties, you might want to consider one of the little streaming boxes like AIIRIC/AIRMUSIC (different names - same box). You can get those for around £20.

Alternatively, although more expensive, there's the Onkyo DS-A5 which is a 30pin dock. It has AirPlay, good quality RCA outputs and optical toslink out too.
If your receiver is made by Onkyo - you might even get more functionality from the supplied remote control.

Another way to get optical audio signal out of an IOS device is the camera connection kit and a usb-optical device. Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB adapter is one example. Thats also an inexpensive route, but without AirPlay - so I think the little black boxes I mentioned first are the best value.
You'll find them on ebay and amazon, try searching for "airplay air music DLNA".
 
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