Recently got myself a really good hifi amplifier courtesy of a chipamp & Matt Allison:
http://www.guitarforum.co.za/off-topic-lounge/chipamps-cheap-high-quality-hi-fi-amplifiers/

Also a fairly decent 2nd hand CD player:
http://nadelectronics.com/products/cd-players/C-525BEE-CD-Player

And wow. Yummy.

Now I want to play .wav files and the like into the amplifier.
Plugged in my iPod & iPad through the headphone connector.
Sounds good, but nothing as good as the CD player.

Do some homework.
And the wisdom emerges that the DAC and preamp in the audio players are the problem.
In order to squish these into these portable devices; lots of compromises are made.

So I start researching external DAC's of similar quality to my CD player and I'm rapidly into 4k territory.

----- parallel thread -----

I have Ampkit on my iPad and would love to hook it up to my guitar and amplifier.
My excursions with iRig's and docking stations have all ended badly.
Witnessed Mojo's Apogee Jam 96k and was way impressed.
And this is in 2k territory.

----- join threads -----

Now is it possible that instead of reading the advice of the cork-sniffer hifi people who listen to the music; I should take a peak at the recording people who make the music they listen to ...

Is it possible that there is a single device with a pro-spec A/D converter and D/A converter that I can use for both:
- interfacing my iPad to my guitar and amp for playing, and
- interfacing my iPad and hifi for listening?

The Apogee One seems to come very close:
http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/one-dac

Are there other devices that I could consider?

Seems good.. But you would still need some kind of usb adapter like an irig hd or irig pro to interface the guitar to the dac?!

Something else to consider, is the usb adapter, depending on the type of connection on the ipad, and a usb soundcard that can handle in and outputs.
Gives you way more options!

Focusrite 2i2. Would this work? Plug my guitar into the Focusrite, then usb out into the ipad camera adapter then into my ipad

Anyone close to me with a Scarlett 2i2 that wants to help me experiment before I buy something that doesn't work?

Wizard wrote: Focusrite 2i2. Would this work? Plug my guitar into the Focusrite, then usb out into the ipad camera adapter then into my ipad

That would work yes! Especially if it also has its own power supply. Any usb audio device however works with the ipad camera adapter. I have a behringer ufo202 sound card and have even used that for input, and i seem to recall i could do output as well.

Thanks for input!

V8 has kindly offered (as he always does) to help me experiment with his Focusrite sound card.

Will give feedback!
?

Got a Presonus AudioBox iOne from Gear Junkie.
http://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-i-Series

And it works fabulously with my iPad and Ampkit.