Yeah I've used a 15 foot Belkin Gold USB cable as well in the past. Same setup like yours but instead of an iPad, it was a MacBook Pro at the couch. I didn't like having the wire running on the ground across the room. It's fine if you are by yourself, but not suitable with others in the room as you may end up stepping or tripping on the cable. Secondly, then you'd also sometimes need to get another power cable involved to charge the iPad or laptop. It's just more wires. That's why I switched to a small NUC in the cabinet feeding the TV and DAC. I might consider a LPS for the NUC down the line. No wires and having to worry about whether batteries are charged or not, or battery degradation of components over time. I use a Logitech K400 all in one wireless keyboard from the couch. Very lightweight and well made, the battery runs for year plus.
Do you pre charge the iPad before use to make sure the battery lasts the session, or can you charge the iPad as well during use while sending audio out via USB with the use of a splitter?
Using Siri to control the music is neat and always good to have for tasks such as skip/rewind/play/pause and specific song playback. I haven't tried it with Amazon yet, and don't know if it's available with the other services, but on Spotify you can control remotes quite easily. So you could leave the iPad plugged in and at the rack. Then simply use a phone to control the iPad with the exact same interface. Does it work that way on Tidal, Qobuz and Apple Music as well?
But yeah using the iPad as an audio source is a neat idea. I haven't even looked it up but can guarantee there are people out there that try to optimize the performance from an iPad by say downloading all the music offline and then turning off the Wifi and going to Airplane mode to reduce noise.
Still rocking the iPad Air 2. I've been waiting on regular sized iPads to come with OLED/Mini LED.
I've also settled with USB over AES/SPDIF and other synchronous systems that are more sensitive to changes. I find asynchronous USB to sound more correct and it's a great baseline sound out of the gate without any optimization. While USB does win, at least in all my setups, I still find them to be affected sonically by upstream decisions.
For USB cabling, I stick with generic 5-6 feet USB cables and they sound right and relaxed. I also have a 1 foot Audioquest Forest that I've used time and time over the years, but I always stash it back in the drawer after a few hours. It plays perfectly without any gaps and have used it for large and continuous data transfer with zero issues. However, it definitely sounds different and makes me feel not right with a sense of uneasiness. Not sure if it's the cable construction or the short length. I've noticed the same thing with my various 1 footer AES and SPDIF cables (Mogami 2964, Gotham GAC-2 AES, Grimm TPR, Mogami 3173). Their longer version 6-10 foot version sound more relaxed and correct for each. The 15 foot Belkin Gold USB also had a slight impact on the sound. I am willing to overlook it for AES and SPDIF as they are usually implemented in synchronous systems. However, it was strange to see asynchronous USB also being somewhat sensitive to these cabling changes.
Similarly, putting an Audioquest Jitterbug in front of the NUC or iMac makes a very clear change in sound and presentation. Whether the change is better or worse, or more or less accurate is not the real issue to me. I found it concerning that even the asynchronous USB that should be clocking internally is still somehow impacted by these cables and filters. I'm hopeful that the new DACs nowadays have resolved these issue. I haven't kept up with newer products and tinkering devices as of late. With Amazon Music and lossless music, it's been more than satisfactory. The curated playlists have finally caught up to Spotify. I haven't collected digital downloads or used Roon in some time. Just back to the music.
