Logic behind the CLAS?

[koolkat]

Taken from Cypher Labs' site

Uncompresssed.

Cypher Labs LLC is pleased to announce the AlgoRhythm Solo, which delivers uncompressed, high quality audio from Apple iPad™, iPhone® or iPod® devices to portable or home audio DACs and amplifiers, via both digital and analog outputs.

Unlocked.

The AlgoRhythm Series consists of high-end, portable audio products designed to unlock the high resolution features of the most popular digital music players available today. The AlgoRhythm Solo is the first product release in the series.

Uncommon.

AlgoRhythm Series products showcase reference-level digital-to-analog converters, headphone amplifiers, as well as converter products that deliver high-resolution digital audio to other makes and models of audiophile equipment.

As some of you might've known, the CLAS unlocks idevices and allows bit-perfect playback. It comes at a rather steep cost of 600 dollars (fwir) and I'm thinking some (or most) of what you're paying goes back to Apple.

Why would portable audio products "lock the high resolution features". Is this advertising hoo-ha or what?

[dfkt]

Those are just big marketing words for the thing using the digital output of an iPod (before the iPod's internal DAC, using its own DAC instead). It's the same thing many cradles/docks also do. The difference is that this one is portable.

Their marketing blurbs about "high resolution" and "unlocking" seem rather misleading. I would think of playback of 24/96 encoded files when I hear "high resolution", but they seem to just upsample standard 16/44 material. Or maybe not? Either way, 24/96 or 24/192 doesn't sound any different than regular 16/44 CD quality material anyways. That has been proven in many double blind listening tests. There's nothing to "unlock" either, they just tap into the digital stream like other similar devices do.

Seeing the people behind this, it is no wonder they make such bold claims with flowery words - http://www.cypherlabs.com/about ...

As for the steep price, I think it's just the usual "audiophile" premium you pay, not some Apple licensing fee.

Considering newer generations of iPods and iPhones have some of the best audio outputs available, this thing is very likely not worth the high cost at all. Especially for portable use, where you have to add an amp brick to that DAC brick and the iPod as well.

[Satellite_6]

An upsampling DAC that costs a fortune. . . buy an entire desktop setup instead.

[WalkGood]

Snake oil alert, I saw a video by the opportunist on their site

[koolkat]

Originally Posted by dfkt

Those are just big marketing words for the thing using the digital output of an iPod (before the iPod's internal DAC, using its own DAC instead). It's the same thing many cradles/docks also do. The difference is that this one is portable.

Their marketing blurbs about "high resolution" and "unlocking" seem rather misleading. I would think of playback of 24/96 encoded files when I hear "high resolution", but they seem to just upsample standard 16/44 material. Either way, 24/96 or 24/192 doesn't sound any different than regular 16/44 CD quality material anyways. That has been proven in many double blind listening tests. There's nothing to "unlock" either, they just tap into the digital stream like other similar devices do.

As for the steep price, I think it's just the usual "audiophile" premium you pay, not some Apple licensing fee.

Ah.. I see. The CLAS have got a lot of excellent reviews backing it up. It'll be interesting to see how it compares to other 24/96 DACs in a blind test. I've heard rumours that Fiio tried to obtain Apple's permission to use that kind of technology but they were rejected. So there might actually be some Apple licensing fees involved.

[musichound]

What a bunch of legal crooks!

[Jack4L]

cipher or cypher (ˈsaɪfə)

— n
1. a method of secret writing using substitution or transposition of letters according to a key
2. a secret message
3. the key to a secret message
4. an obsolete name for zero
5. any of the Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, etc, to 9) or the Arabic system of numbering as a whole
6. a person or thing of no importance; nonentity
7. a design consisting of interwoven letters; monogram
8. music a defect in an organ resulting in the continuous sounding of a pipe, the key of which has not been depressed

Good name.