Tablet & DAC & Streaming Music Listening Questions

[Kalamata Kid]

I returned the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 lite. That night I went back to listening to music from CD’s. That put a smile on my face. I know this is still not a scientific way of testing but it is good enough for me to pursue a lossless audio setup.

So now again I am looking for a tablet. A bit bigger than the A7. A 10” diagonal. The tablet must have built in Lossless DAC. Don’t want to spend more than $180 for the tablet.

Or should I get a $100 tablet and then buy a USB DAC as stated in an earlier post?

This is crazy, taking up so much of my time.

[BertKoor]

The tablet must have built in Lossless DAC.

I think it doesn't exactly work how you envision it does.

• Your headphone / line out gets an analog signal from a buffer amp (analog)
• Input of this amp is the analog output of the DAC (both amp & DAC are small sections on a much bigger chip).
• Digital input of the DAC is raw unencoded PCM data from the CPU.
• The CPU produces this from whatever source you order it from.

If the audio stream is encoded/compressed, it will be decoded/decompressed. If the stream is lossless, it won't be encoded because the DAC cannot take lossless. This is the job of the CPU.

Those DAC-in-a-box devices work on the same principle:

• Input of the box is a digital stream (which may or may not be compressed data) via S/PDIF for example, but can also be USB
• The box contains a chip that will decode / decompress the audio when needed. That is a simple number-crunching task. I'd call the thing doing that the CPU.
• Digital unencoded data goes from CPU to the DAC. It might be integrated on a single chip, which blurs traditional definitions.
• Then a bit of amplification of the analog audio, and it's ready to be listened to.

So if your listening experience is ruined by the audio is being compressed somewhere along the chain (and how are you so certain that's the issue? ), then that has no correlation with a supposedly "lossy DAC".

Perhaps the streaming service you listened to delivers subpar 32 kbps AAC, maybe 64 kbps. Like FM radio that's good enough for Rock'nRoll, but not good enough for you.

[Kalamata Kid]

BertKoor,
You are right that Spotify could be the cause of the low quality audio.
Hey, just found this.
Spotify's HiFi tier could finally be about to launch
https://www.whathifi.com/news/spotifys- ... -to-launch

Apple Music does offer lossless.
About lossless audio in Apple Music
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212183
Currently Apple does not charge extra for the lossless so for me for this reason and other features I will go this route.

So now I must make a decision on the tablet to get.
I will go for a used iPad:
Get iPad Air (3rd Generation) for $165 at ebay or
iPad (6th Generation) for $125 at ebay
These iPads play audio from a lossless file or stream on the headphone jack.

On Craigslist I found an iPad Air gen 3 for $140 locally about 50 minutes away.
I may just call.

[Kalamata Kid]

I ended up buying an iPad Air gen3 from ebay total with tax and shipping $190.
256GB, iOS 17. So far no issues.
I bought the iPad bed holder. Modified it to work properly.

Trying the various headphones I have around the studio.
Currently using the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80 ohm.
Very happy with it but am will to spend up $250 for better if I get some suggestions.
Does noise cancelation degrade the audio quality?

I may as an alternative get two mini speakers with subwoofer combo. I will put the mini speakers at around 28" from my ears. I love audio experience of the headphone when the sound is inside my head. I am looking for some suggestions. Keep this well under $100. Am willing to purchase used equipment.

The iPad Air gen3 is suppose to be lossless but in the preferences there is no way select lossless. Hmmm!

Hopefully this month I will subscribe to Apple Music.
It has or will soon have the Classical Music App.
Plus it has the largest music selection.

Thanks to all for the help offered to me.

I primarily listen to classical, and occasionally to ambient, Greek, world, jazz, electronica and trance music.

[Kalamata Kid]

I finally signed up to Apple Music.
That did it!
Now the option for lossless audio is available.

Overall I am very happy with my iPad setup.
I will explore the music that is available at Apple Music.

Thanks to all that posted in this thread.