Amazon music has a HD subscription like Tidal. Switching from Tidal, I found Amazon to have all the songs in my playlists, and more of them in Master/Ultra HD than Tidal had. And Amazon was quite a bit cheaper for me with already having prime, $13 in total.
For my source, I use Amazon Music HD with Android Auto over WiFi on a Kenwood DDX9905s for up to 192Khz 24-bit, which then goes to Helix DSP.3 by RCA.
Last edited by jrwalte; 01-02-2020 at 11:33 PM.
The kenwoods frequency response won’t allow it to pass 192khz files over analogue and it doesn’t have digital outputs, your quality drops massively as soon as it enters the kenwood, compare it to wired into a topping d10 and be amazed, but I also get the wireless CarPlay convienience factor, but don’t pretend it any better than cd quality at most imo
If it works well with your phone (not sure which you're using iOS or Android), I remember Nick A interviewed a guy at Finals who was using the Topping D10 to feed SPDIF output from his iPhone which he reported works great. I'll be interested in your results. One thing I'd like to know is if there is a way to get SPDIF from iPhone WITHOUT having to use the camera adapter? I suspect the CCK may be doing some kind of processing voodoo which may be no Bueno for SQ.
Currently, I'm running either my iPhone XS through CCK to USB into the DSP Pro-2 HEC, or Fiio 2nd gen X5 direct SPDIF coaxial into the Pro-2. Both seem to work well. Very hard to say but if I had to give a nod to the best of the two, I'd be willing to bet the Fiio, but I'm not positive on this.
that was me.
here's my speculation. iDevices are usually in usb device mode (so they can be seen by your computer running in usb host mode). in order for your iDevice to see other devices? the iDevice needs to be in usb host mode. cck3 appears to be a usb3 hub that puts the iDevice into host-mode and provide power via the lightning port. that's about it. i suspect it's akin to usb-otg mode on android.
the d10 just shows up as another output device like you'd see in windows, macos, etc. there's no requirement like android to use special playback software to recognize the dac.
in this configuration, we're using the d10's xmos usb chip to send spdif on coax or toslink to the helix dsp. we're not actually using the ESS dac chip, so the final DA conversion is only in the dsp.
Last edited by nadams5755; 01-04-2020 at 02:01 PM.
Here's (I think) the updated list:
Those who know those equipment - do you see any that can be used the same way as the Topping D10 but has better measurement?
Kelvin
acting as a usb to spdif bridge? i don't know if you'll find a better performer that's powered by USB or 12v.
nuforce udac3 or udac5 are options i've used as well, neither have toslink but much smaller.
i've gone the other way: i got tired of the complexity related to the d10 and daily driving. mostly i hate the helix director for daily driving
i picked up a sony xav-ax210 and didn't notice any sound quality changes going back and forth between the radio and d10. it's been a couple months, i could try again.