Connecting an iPhone to A/V receiver (1 Viewer)

[Evan Kirkhart]

Hi
I have a Yamaha RX-A860 A/V receiver, and I want to plug my iPhone into it to use it's built in DAC to play my lossless files back at the best possible quality. The USB port on the front seems like it only recognizes storage devices, and not something like an iPhone.
I'm new here, so any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

The receiver requires a digital audio signal via coax, optical, or HDMI delivery in order to play digital files. The iPhone has no audio output of that type, and I’m not sure an appropriate interface exists. The only ones a cursory look turned up with Lightning connection were designed for A/D conversion input (e.g. recording), not optical or coax digital output. The MOTU 624 is one such device that has a Lightning connection and optical output, but I didn’t dig deep enough to determine if the former is an input or an output.

I’ve heard that the iPhone’s audio output via its headphone jacks has stellar specs. The million dollar question is, is your system (including speakers) of sufficient quality that you could actually hear the difference between the headphone outputs and a digital one?

If not, just use the headphone outputs.

If so, then you’ll probably need something like a blu-ray player with a USB input that could access the files and send the signal via its digital output to the receiver.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Evan Kirkhart]

The receiver requires a digital audio signal via coax, optical, or HDMI delivery in order to play digital files. The iPhone has no audio output of that type, and I’m not sure an appropriate interface exists. The only ones a cursory look turned up with Lightning connection were designed for A/D conversion input (e.g. recording), not optical or coax digital output. The MOTU 624 is one such device that has a Lightning connection and optical output, but I didn’t dig deep enough to determine if the former is an input or an output.

I’ve heard that the iPhone’s audio output via its headphone jacks has stellar specs. The million dollar question is, is your system (including speakers) of sufficient quality that you could actually hear the difference between the headphone outputs and a digital one?

If not, just use the headphone outputs.

If so, then you’ll probably need something like a blu-ray player with a USB input that could access the files and send the signal via its digital output to the receiver.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Thanks for your help, I'll try putting it through my 4K blu ray, never thought of that. If not, I'll find a USB to S/PDIF converter box.

All the best,

Evan