Apple Dock and Rockbox

[Llorean]

You can't give a general rule for that sort of thing. We don't know what you consider important, nor what things cost in your area, nor whatever else may be applicable.

As a very, very general rule, if you're willing to spend the money for it, it will usually be possible to get better sound quality than an iPod. This much should be incredibly obvious, so it seems unlikely that's not what you're asking about. But beyond that, how can any of us really speculate?

[h.finn]

..........well Llorean..........
I posted the details concerning my iPod, my amp, laptops, speakers, cables, softwares.
I mentioned what DAC I would use.
And the fact I wasn't planning to spend more money on my "source(s)".
Costs here (Europe) are slightly higher than in the States
 :'( :'(
Iknow the iPod is "practical" and there are better sources...........
 
I know somebody might prefer more detail, other more bass, rock or disco or jazz...........
As I said, before getting into building a Pre/buffer, all I was wondering was wether I should buy a DAC (model posted) + interconnect spdif/optical/usb cables to go with it and one of my laptops.............or stick to my iPod (now I understand it would be pointless to get an "upmarket" dock) + Rockbox.
 

[torne]

Most of the relevant details are about your psychology, though, rather than your equipment, and there's no way for you to communicate that to us.

[h.finn]

Hi Torne,
........this thingo about psychology crashes a bit with what Llorean said, about "it will usually be possible to get better sound quality than an iPod".
Now, I was trying to understand is if this better sound quality is achievable or not  through my "option B".
(Or if I have to "spend the money for it").
 

[Llorean]

If you spend lots of money, you can get objectively better sound quality - the iPod isn't perfect, and many things can come closer to producing the original audio better than it.

With things in a reasonable price range, you begin talking about subjectively better sound quality. In that range, it's up to psychology as torne put it, and the only person who can make the determination if "different" actually means "better" is you. Many people dislike objectively better sound too, because they prefer the 'feel' of certain distortions that imperfect reproduction through certain hardware can create.

So, even in those cases, it depends on the listener. It's not something you can really ask others about.

[h.finn]

Aha!...
Thanks Llorean.
Now's clear!
 

[h.finn]

Hi everybody,
I come back to this post for a further query:
......first of all, thanks to all the developers for your great work. I should have done it at the beginning, forgot. So....thanks again and keep it up!
.........
My question: given that I am interested in a dock that bypasses the iPod DAC, and therefore gets the signal directly from iPod hard disk and sends it in digital to an external DAC..........do you think that basically any such dock would work with Rockbox? I'm not interested in Fast forward/Rewind, Remote control, Charge, etc. Just the simple playing of the music............

Any idea?
Thanks,
H.

[torne]

Not unless the dock treats the iPod like a regular USB hard disk and has no special iPod functionality.

[h.finn]

Hi Torne,
Thanks for your patience.
That's the thingo:
http://www.dlo.com/products/view/HD_HD
How can I know if it treats it like a usb disk and/or do you know of any that do?
 

H.

[torne]

If it's specifically made for ipods/iphones then it almost certainly won't work. Only devices that also support other USB MP3 players are likely to work.

[h.finn]

...............do you happen to know any?