Ah, you have an iPod Classic (I assumed it was a Touch). It seems like the best you can do with the iPod Classic is get a 30-pin to line-out adapter, which might be a little cleaner than the headphone out, but still analog. It looks like the product needed (Wadia Digital 170iTransport digital iPod dock, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253...5773724022) to get digital audio out of an iPod Classic was $379 back in 2009 and is probably long discontinued, but maybe you could find a used one for cheap... (there's one for sale for $200 on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/177162581649 - one sold for as cheap as $74 shipped w/o remote, but it seems like $150-175 is the going rate). Ah, there's also an "updated" version, Wadia 171iTransport, that added toslink out (in addition to coax, but lost S-Video) to broaden the used search, but looks like there are less common. Maybe there are other, similar products, but that's all I could find in a quick search (and given how most people believed there was no way to do it, it seems possible there weren't very many options).
Oh, so what you wanted to do originally, was plug the iPhone's lightning charging cable's USB-A end directly into the amp/DAC via a USB-B male to USB-A female adapter? Although, I guess, logically, it might seem like that would work, but that would skirt around Apple's ability to sell overpriced adapters, so of course it won't work!
Oh, so what you wanted to do originally, was plug the iPhone's lightning charging cable's USB-A end directly into the amp/DAC via a USB-B male to USB-A female adapter? Although, I guess, logically, it might seem like that would work, but that would skirt around Apple's ability to sell overpriced adapters, so of course it won't work!