Smartphone usb to spdif coax

BarnDoor

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Hi All,

In the office i mostly listen to my colorfly C4 with either Etymotic ER4 or B&W P5. I'm quite happy with this and sounds good to me.

I also have an LG G3 smartphone with a qobuz subscription for lossless streaming, but tend not to use it as much as I prefer the improved performance from the colorfly.

I've been thinking about how i improve the sound from the G3 relatively cheaply.

The Colorfly has a spdif coax input socket and the lg has usb otg as far as i understand. Is there any kind of middle device i could use to connect the two together?
Any solution needs to be portable as it would immediately go missing if left in the office. I suppose it also needs to have a battery unless the LG can power from the usb.

Any thoughts of potential solutions welcomed.

Thanks
BD
 
OK, I've been doing a bit of looking around and have come up with a few things, but only really one cheap option:
MUSE Z3 HiFi PCM2704 USB to S/PDIF Converter DAC for about £13

I think this might work, but not sure about the quality, but for the price worth a go.

Before I give this a go I've ordered a USB OTG hub to see if my phone will actually work over USB.

I've got an Arcam rDac and a DACmagic 100 at home that both take USB, so if these work with the phone then I'd hope the above does as well.

The USB hub can have power added to it from through the micro socket, so should powering be an issue then I can either add a battery pack or attach to my work pc (which has usb ports locked by the company but can provide power).

Will update how I get on.
 
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Usb otg has arrived. It works fine with the rdac with out adding extra power.
I then added a hard drive but not enough power to make it spin properly, so attached a usb battery pack and that gave it enough power for the phone to recognise (although it didn't like the format).

Looks like the z3 could be a workable solution, so think I'll give it a go.
 
Well the z3 finally arrived from China and all is positive. Works great. Doesn't need seperate power as the phone has enough umph. Still need to do some comparisons of identical files direct from the colorfly vs the phone usb, but initial reaction is that there is little reduction in sound quality if any. Will post an update when used a bit more.
 

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