If this uses USB to connect to the iPhone 4 - Would the USB adapter work on the iPhone? If it does I would think the Sound Devices USBPre 2 would work with the iphone 4 - since it is already supported with the iPad.
In principle you're right. I've been following this ever since I found out that stereo line ins on the the 4G iPhone and iPod Touch had been eliminated and replaced with a USB input. It's why all the stereo mic addons to the older versions of these models no longer work on the 4Gs.
Only through the Camera Connector Kit (CCK) can any class-compliant USB device work with iOS but Apple has decided that this kit will only work on the iPad.
This thread on Gearslutz that has a number of people reporting various USB audio devices working with the iPad + CCK, including the MiniMe and a Nagra MX, and I'm pretty sure the USBPre would work too. But there are three problems for field work: the awkward form-factor of the iPad, the delicate connection of the CCK, and the fact that any device connected this way must be self-powered as there's not enough juice to power a converter from the device.
In fact, the power issue is a likely reason why they disabled the use of the CCK on the iPhone and the iPad, although I personally think this choice is also motivated by marketing. Technically if a unit is self-powered, it shouldn't put any strain on the device's power requirements. I read somewhere that beta versions of iOS 4 had USB input enabled in the code for all devices but that it was disabled on the smaller devices on release. I'm very curious to see what the AR-4i kit brings to the table, and if it is in fact class-compliant USB audio; it could possibly wedge an opening for the few of us who want to use these devices as quality audio recorders, and maybe bit buckets.
Topic: Fostex AR-4i : stereo recording for the iPhone 4 (Read 10485 times)