A short discussion of bit rates and frequencies that play on Apple devices and computers.

There is a lot of confusion out there about bit rate and frequency on Apple Devices. To get the most out of the iPod, use the AlgoRhythm Solo, AlgoRhythm Solo -R or AlgoRhythm Solo -dB to process the USB Audio from the Apple device.

You can load Apple lossless files (AIF or AAC) on any of the Apple devices, which will play at 16/44.1 or 16/48 depending on the recording, and decompress faster than other formats. That is the best that all of the Apple devices, except the iPad, will deliver with or without one of the flac apps.

For iOS devices you can use one of the apps that will allow you to load FLAC files on your iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone. An iPod Touch, for example, will down sample a 24/96 file to 16/48. On the iPad, you can play 24/96 and 24/192 tracks, which are loaded with a player app that uses the file system to load the tracks onto the Apple device. 24/192 tracks gets down sampled to 24/96 and the last 8 bits are replace with zeros by the Apple iOS on the iPad (2 and above). You just have to look at the bit stream coming out of the iOS. The iOS does this for all accessories that process USB audio, even the camera kit. That is one of the reasons we made the AlgoRhythm Solo -dB work with the computer too, so customers get true 24/192.

If Apple ever changes the iPad to allow higher rates, Cypher Labs products can process them. Those frequencies are already in our firmware.

The advantage of using an iOS based iPod is that with a flac player app, you don't have to maintain two libraries at different resolutions. You can just transfer the high resolution files and let the iPod or iPad give you the highest level it can deliver, while getting the full resolution from your computer (with the AlgoRhythm Solo -dB). Or you can just use AIFF as it is Lossless too and it is native on Mac and iOS. No hassle, no loss.

Will Apple devices allow higher bit rates in the future? Unknown…. Apple is rightly very concerned about digital copying. In any case, this is a huge topic and what Cypher Labs is trying to do is provide the best audio possible.

Supported Rates/Frequencies by Product

AlgoRhythm Solo -R
Sample depth 16 bit from Apple Devices
Frequencies supported on Apple Devices: 44.1 / 48.0 @ 16 bit

AlgoRhythm Solo -dB
Sample depth 16 bit from Apple Devices; up to 24 bit from computers
Frequencies supported on Apple Devices: 44.1 / 48.0 @ 16 bit
Frequencies supported on computers (Mac OS X 10.6.3 and above, PC's with our driver):
44.1 / 48.0 / 96.0 / 88.1 / 176.4 / 192.0 @ 16 and 24 bit