Can I use an Amazon Fire tablet to stream to a DAC?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by vegafleet, May 7, 2019.

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  1. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I am thinking of buying an Amazon Fire Tablet as they are ridiculously cheap compared to the Apple iPad/Ipad-mini. I really only use them to read E-books and stream and store music. While the Apple headphone-out is not terrible, I usually connect to a DAC for Pandora, Amazon Music and Spotify.

    I have not been able to find confirmation that I can do this with a Fire, every time I ask, the answer I get is a variation of "Just plug the headphone into the headphone jack!".

    So the question is: can I connect to an external DAC with an Amazon Fire tablet?
     
    TarnishedEars and ghostofzuul like this.
  2. ghostofzuul

    ghostofzuul Harvester of Sorrow

    Location:
    oregon
    i haven't tried it but if your fire tablet is cable of audio via the usb port on the tablet then you should be able to go usb out into the DAC assuming it's a usb DAC.

    there are a lot of affordable android tablets that do usb audio out native... i would look into going that route... the amazon fire tablet might be too proprietary to do what you want with it.
     
    vegafleet and displayname like this.
  3. JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam

    JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Taylors, SC
    I use mine as a Roon controller. Jriver as well. A large remote
     
  4. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Right, the "if" in your first sentence is another way of asking the same question I am asking. I don't know that it does.

    I usually run from an iPad-mini to a Fiio E17 (second generation) DAC/headphone amp and/or an iPhone 6 that I use as an iPod touch into a Marantz HD-DAC /headphone amp, both out of their Lightning ports.
     
  5. Apesbrain

    Apesbrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Coast, USA
  6. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    You can always return it if it doesn't give you what you want.
     
  7. JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam

    JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Taylors, SC
  8. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident Thread Starter

  9. ghostofzuul

    ghostofzuul Harvester of Sorrow

    Location:
    oregon
    i use an ASUS zenpad 8 which i got from a pawn shop for 40 bucks. it's an android tablet with a usb-c port. i checked it today and when i plug the usb cable into my computer one of the options is "use as midi?" which would be the audio output you would need for your dac too if i'm not mistaken. that's native to android 6.0 and higher.

    you can get a zenpad 8 used on ebay for around 50 or 60 bucks. a pure android tablet is going to be better for what you want to do than an amzon fire. the fire has too much proprietary bloatware you would have to fight through to do what you want it to do based on a brief and cursory search of some forums.

    i'm by no means an expert on such matters.... but the response to your initial post from what i can tell is "maybe" but you'll have to "hack" it probably. where as an android tablet with usb-c port running android 6.0 and higher will have audio out via usb native to the OS.
     
  10. JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam

    JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Taylors, SC
    You can install any app not just Amazon apps
     
  11. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    I'm a noob and bought one, I soon realised it was a Amazon selling tool and whilst cheap they should give them away, it went back and refund received.

    If I'd seen the Youtube video I may have kept it, although I'm not sure if you're able to access other 'sellers'.:nauga:

    That's my rant about the corporate devil but this seems to say it can do what you want.

    T-amps: Fire 7" Tablet (2015) and Android OTG Audio
     
    Rolltide likes this.
  12. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Thanks for the link, but if I have to hack the tablet so extremely right out of the box just to attach a Dac, it is not what I would want to do. I barely have any apps on my devices and no games.

    Researching this, it is also apparent that it is not a replacement for a Kindle in terms of being able to read outdoors, which was also something I was interested in too.

    But, darn, they are so cheap.

    I am not an Apple fan boy but I use almost every day:

    1) Ipod Touch 2nd Gen. ,
    2) Ipad 2nd Gen.,
    3) Ipad mini 1st Gen,
    4) Mac 13" late 2009 model,
    5) Iphone 4s (my current and only cell phone)

    All very old stuff that still works remarkably well. Apple does make good products. But their current prices are not defensible. $1,000 for a phone? No.
     
  13. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Oh, it seems you got it to work! Did you have to install any app or software or did it recognize the DAC right away?
     
  14. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

  15. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    In the end I decided to use a dedicated Lenovo pad running JRiver, as I bought the Rega-R DAC, which required it's own drive to be installed on the device.
     
  16. JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam

    JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Taylors, SC
    It is an android tablet, you can remove the Amazon marketing popup screensavers permanently for 15 bucks
     
  17. JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam

    JesusDonWantMeForASunbeam Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Taylors, SC
    Did you get it to work?
     
  18. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    If you mean me, I did get it (for free, my mother in law had a couple she was saving for Christmas presents), Magenta, 5th Generation, 16GB.

    But I have not opened it yet. Maybe this weekend.
     
  19. sami

    sami Mono still rules

    Location:
    Down The Shore
    I'd grab a Zenpad 8 in a second, but the specs say Android 5.0. I'm only looking for a device to use with a DAC (Topping D30) to stream music, and if this one works, I wouldn't hesitate.
     
  20. CN211276

    CN211276 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cardiff, UK
    I am disapointed with my Amazon Fire as it will not allow me to download apps which are not Amazon. I am unable to access my NAS with it. When I bought it I was able to download the Qobuz app, but it wont accept any updates. They want to deny access to anything which is not Amazon. As with Apple I wont have anything to do with them any more for this reason.
     
  21. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident Thread Starter


    Yes, it worked! Because I signed up to the new higher-rez Amazon Music service (free for now), I got the itch and ordered a micro usb to micro usb cable (both sides male) and connected the fifth gen Fire 7 to a Fiio E17K portable Dac/amp and it worked right away.

    I can use the outside Dac to play both Amazon Music and Spotify, but I have to say (to my surprise) the Fire's headphone out sounded just about as good as the Fiio's. The Fiio can go louder but the Fire seems to have less distortion (or at least cleaner) high end.

    Maybe time to upgrade the DAC/amp.
     
    Balthazar likes this.
  22. Balthazar

    Balthazar Forum Resident

    Spoken like a true audiophile. The average person would just be happy to have better sound with less fuss, while the audiophile finds an excuse to upgrade another component. :righton:
     
  23. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I
    I have stuck with that model of portable Dac/amp because it is the only one that I have found that has balance and tone controls. But it is no longer recognized by the higher iOS (above 9.3.6) in Apple devices.
     
    Balthazar likes this.
  24. Balthazar

    Balthazar Forum Resident

    Never used that particular device, but it seems nice. I looked it up. It's been out for 7 years, so basically forever in tech terms. :)

    Now I'm curious to try the 6th gen Fire HD 8 that I never use. It was my cheap attempt at using a tablet, but I'm primarily a laptop and phone user and I don't see it changing, even if I bought a nicer tablet.

    I was pleasantly surprised that you found the tablet output preferable to that of the dedicated amp/dac. I have several easy to drive headphones so it should sound pretty good.
     
    vegafleet likes this.
  25. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    The Fiio E17K Alpen 2 is the exact model paired with the 50 ohm Sennheiser Hd598 and Hd599 headphones. Be warned that it will not drive the 300 ohm Hd6xx line of headphones.
     
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