Bolt DAC/AMP no longer working with M1 iPad Air with iPadOS 17.5

Question

ebangle Author

Level 1

5 points

Bolt DAC/AMP no longer working with M1 iPad Air with iPadOS 17.5

I have been using this DAC to listen to lossless audio with headphones since last Summer:

https://helmaudio.com/products/boltdac

It has always worked without issue.

When I connect it to the USB C Port I get the indicator lights that it is activated but no audio through the device.

I have updated the firmware for the DAC from their site and tested the same DAC on different systems. It works without issue on both my Windows work laptop and my home M1 Mac Mini.

I have also connected other USB C peripherals to the iPad that I also use and these all work without issue as well as my charge cable so there does not appear to be an issue with the port.

I had no issue with the device on my iPad until recently. I noticed it was not working about 2 weeks ago. did not change anything on the settings. When I connect the DAC to the iPad you can see it cycle between the red and blue lights before settling on the blue light as expected so it is getting power and connecting. I even ordered a second one from Amazon that arrived yesterday in case there may have been an issue but I am seeing the exact same issue with the new one as well.

Hoping someone else in the community has had similar issues and suggestions for how to fix.

I reached out to their support and they are investigating. They said they have not seen similar instances reported but I find it hard to believe I am the only one.

iPad Air (5th generation)

Posted on May 16, 2024 9:07 AM

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Answer 1

ixgnail

Level 1

8 points

May 22, 2024 11:08 PM in response to ebangle

My DAC also had problems with iOS 17.5. iPhone 13 Pro connected to W2-131 could not DoP DSD music at any rate. After restoring to iOS 17.4.1, everything was normal. It has something to do with the volume control. When I adjusted the iOS volume under iOS 17.5, it affected the volume of the DAC, which caused noise when playing back DSD. The DAC display will change from DSD to PCM when the volume is lowered to less than half. When the volume is raised to more than half, it will immediately resume displaying DSD, but even if the volume is raised to the maximum, there is still a massive amount of noise. After restoring to 17.4.1, I adjusted the iOS volume, and the slider only had maximum volume to mute from top to bottom. Have you reported the problem to Apple? Please report it (Product Feedback - Apple) if it is convenient. My case numbers are 102298628764 & 102304164886.

I don’t know whether this problem is an accidental system failure when upgrading to iOS 17.5 or whether there is a fault in the iOS 17.5 firmware of individual devices (iPhone 13 Pro & iPad Air with M1 SoC). It took me over a day to downgrade from iOS 17.5 to 17.4.1 and complete the data backup and recovery.

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