iPod touch so wish apple made a DAP to compete with big players nowadays ie AK, Basso, Fiio etc

[canali]

so wish apple made a DAP to compete with big players nowadays ie AK, Basso, Fiio etc

anyone else wish this? i mean sure they're trying to have their phones and tablets become dap=like items, but high quality daps are becoming more and more poplar now...and i don't find any of them as user friendly or 'intuitive' as the ipod touch series.

i have about 500 apple itunes; and sure i would love to listen to them with the same better sonics as fiio, ak etc are offering, but i can't...using my sony iems and nano...and have a nexus 5 phone (no usb out)

i was considering buying a touch for apple music, but can't even attach a better dac/amp to it....but love the little bugger for what it offers: nice light, multi functions.

will be interesting to see how the smartphone market and dap markets shakes out over then next few yrs.

any ideas?

enjoy this article i came across, on one blogger's thoughts on the future of portable audio
http://cymbacavum.com/2015/05/13/th...-going-an-overview-of-the-new-age-dap-market/

 

[Krevnik]

so wish apple made a DAP to compete with big players nowadays ie AK, Basso, Fiio etc

anyone else wish this?

Once you start getting into audiophile territory, the addressable market starts to shrink drastically. That by itself may make Apple wonder how valuable it is to tap into, even with the higher margins the audiophile market can command.

I myself can see the benefit of better DACs and engineering to reduce noise introduced by the electronics themselves, but not as much for some of the audio formats they are pushing along-side them (24-bit and 96kHz, especially the latter). Convincing folks who haven't already bought into this (like me) are going to be a tough sell. Especially since in my case, I tend to use AirPlay and let a receiver do the DAC work for me with nice speakers. I don't do a ton of listening via headphones anymore. So with the right lightning dock, or AirPlay, I can bypass Apple's DAC anyhow. (not to say that the gravitas dock has a DAC that's any better than Apple's...)

 

[gnasher729]

so wish apple made a DAP to compete with big players nowadays ie AK, Basso, Fiio etc

Big players... that I've never heard of (I think I heard the name "Filo" somewhere but I'm not sure). They aren't that big then...

How many units do these companies sell? How many units would Apple sell? How many people would spend money on a music player with better sound quality than a modern iPhone?

If you don't go mobile, then either a good old CD player, or any old Mac with everything ripped lossless will do just fine. But if you go mobile, then a second device on top of your phone is very inconvenient. And you are usually in an environment that is not quite suitable for the best listening experience anyway.

And you know what's missing in the article you linked to? Sales numbers.


But anyway... Why do you wish that Apple would compete with these companies? Are their products no good? What would you gain if there was an Apple product in that market as well?

And anyway... I found this iPhone 5 review by Ken Rockwell http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-5/audio-quality.htm with quotes like "Wasting time with "Audiophile" DACs and other fluff usually degrades the sound more than just using the self-powered iPhone 5 directly as a source."

 

[Fuchal]

FYI, if you use the lightning to usb adapter, you can attach a USB dac to your iPhone. I did this with a FiiO dac. Audio was automatically routed to the DAC.