Using DAC with my Ipad

Matt07ie

Hi, have to say I'm really loving the software, my Ipad is the 9th generation, connection to FOH mixer via headphone socket to twin TRS, sound is actually very good, but It was said to me one night why not use a digital audio converter and then to my mixing desk and I would have a significant boost and clarity to my overall sound because an ipad in itself would be limited with regards to sound, how true is this and if indeed what I'm being told is correct, what DAC would you reccomend I purchase that will work with Ipad 9, I know I will need lightening to usb cable to connect to DAC box, but is all this plug and play or will I have to make internal changes to settings within my ipad, well Pete or anyone, thank you in advance

peter

Disclaimer: The following is my personal opinion.

The headphone output on the iPad has a very high sound quality. Yes, you can improve that with a high quality audio interface but I doubt you will hear any difference at all through a PA system. The room and speaker placement will have a much larger impact on sound quality.

Matt07ie

Thanks Peter for getting back to me so fast, I actually partly guessed there would not be a difference to the sound heard through a pa system, Im first trying to get a full understanding on the basics of the programme then I will turn my attention to lighting fx control through Stage traxx 3, 👍

davedroug

theres is a big difference to the sound using outboard DAC, but you have to put good quality sound files to start with, no good putting MP3 in your ipad and expect studio high quality sounds out ,it don't happern. i use an external DAC on my rig. Bluetooth from the ipad into the DAC hard wired out the DAC to the mixing desk.and its brilliant sound qualty BUT and its a big but, i only use 48hz 32bit floating wave files ..the trouble with MP3 IS its compressed files where has wave file are not compressed so you don't Lose much quality from the original recording .thats where the DAC comes into its it own. improves all the sound especially the highs and lows . drawback for using wave files they are big data munchers just one of my files uses on average around 70 80 mb compared to around 5 mb for an mp3.. but its when you have to turn you gear really loud .then they are fantastic. :}

peter

No use playing uncompressed high quality audio files through a bluetooth DAC as everything transmitted over bluetooth is compressed. The quality loss is much higher than using a high quality mp3 file over a wired DAC or even the headphone output.

davedroug

sorry Peter got to disagree with you on this ,i've used hard wired.and bluetooth through the st3 and an external DAC with both Mp3 and wave files and without doubt the wave files blow the mp3 away.and no noticeable sound quality loss over Bluetooth compared to hardwire but thats only my opinion after all

peter

If you are satisfied, that's all that counts. But iOS can not even use a high quality aptX codec for bluetooth audio. Only SBC and AAC are possible.

SBC can run up to 48kHz / 16 bit and 384kBit with a quick fallback to lower bitrates when the signal quality drops. So make sure the wireless connection is only over a short distance.

AAC uses 44.1kHz / 24 bit and 250kBit. This codec has a higher audio quality at similar bitrates compared to SBC.

So when using bluetooth on iOS, the quality is always downgraded to something comparable to a 320kBit mp3. A lossless audio source will sound better over bluetooth because it is only compressed once for the bluetooth transfer while an already compressed mp3 file will suffer due to the second compression when sending it via bluetooth.

Matt07ie

Oops! Look what I started, sorry,
It's just that the DAC way forward was mentioned to me, but yes there is no point on me putting DAC onto mp3, I know it depends on the quality of the mp3,

BernieB

I am Finding the audio out of my usbc i pad is poor im using a SATECHI Dongle
i tried the genuine apple dongle and the audio was way better. I would prefer to Charge my I Pad while using it so I need a dongle with audio and charging . any sugestions ?