TESTED: Wadia 170 iTransport iPod Dock
Removing the Sword from the Stone
March 20th, 2009 -- by Robert HarleySource: The Absolute Sound
| Products in this article: | 170iTransport |
.jpg){kind=spacer}
As great a product as the iPod is—and it is truly spectacular—it has an Achilles’ heel for discriminating listeners: its digital-to-analog converter and analog output stage. The iPod’s D/A converter and output amplifier are by necessity sonically compromised, restricting the iPod’s usefulness. No serious listener would use an iPod at the front end of a high-end system. That’s a shame, because the iPod is a brilliant device in its functionality, execution, and user interface. It can also store hundreds of hours of music with perfect bit-for-bit accuracy to the source.
Leave it to Wadia Digital to create a product that capitalizes on the iPod’s strengths while completely eliminating the sonic shortcomings that have relegated it to ancillary listening environments. That product is the 170 iTransport, the first Apple-sanctioned dock to tap into the iPod’s digital bitstream and present that bitstream to an outboard digital-to-analog converter of your choice. The iTransport allows you, for the first time, to bring the iPod’s functionality to a high-end system with no excuses—for just $379.
The 170 iTransport looks like a traditional Wadia product in miniature, all the way down to its pointed feet. The flat top surface holds the docking connector, which accepts all iPod models courtesy of a supplied variety of dock inserts. The rear panel presents the iPod’s digital output in S/PDIF format on an RCA jack. You simply connect this output to any outboard D/A converter and the iPod’s sound quality is now determined by the quality of that D/A converter. For those of you without an external D/A converter, the iTransport offers analog outputs. Note that the iTransport doesn’t have an internal DAC; rather, the iTransport simply routes the iPod’s analog outputs to the iTransport’s rear-panel jacks. For those with video iPods, the iTransport offers S-video and component-video outputs. An external power supply plugs into a rear-panel jack.
Controlling the iPod via its click-wheel is made easier by the open iPod-mounting design (iPod docking stations in which the iPod is flush-mounted make operating the click-wheel difficult). With certain iPod models (Nano G1, iPod Video), the click-wheel interface is disabled when inserted into the iTransport, and a small supplied remote control provides basic functions, such as track forward/backward and pause/play.
The iTransport was extremely simple to set up and use. I unpacked it, popped in my iPod Classic, and was listening to music within two minutes of opening the box.
As expected, the iTransport sounded like the DAC to which it was connected. I store music on my iPod using Apple Lossless, which provides perfect bit-for-bit accuracy to the original with about a 40% reduction in storage requirements compared with uncompressed WAV files. In listening comparisons between the iTransport and the CDs from which the music was ripped, I thought the iTransport had a slight advantage. The iTransport had just a bit more space, bloom, and ambience than the CD. The recorded acoustic was slightly bigger, the spatial perspective was a bit more distant, and the sense of air surrounding instrumental images was somewhat more tangible and defined. The differences were slight, but noticeable. This impression is consistent with what I’ve heard when comparing music on CD with the same music read from a hard-disk drive (see my reviews of the Qsonix and Sooloos music servers in Issue 177).
The iTransport’s slightly-better-than-CD sound quality is a bonus; the real reason to buy the iTransport is that it turns your iPod (which you probably already own) into a music server worthy of feeding a high-end system. Anyone who’s used the iPod knows how much easier it is to access music using the click-wheel than finding the CD and inserting it in a player. It equates to more time listening and less time looking through racks of jewel boxes.
The Wadia iTransport is the coolest product I’ve encountered in some time. If you own an iPod, an outboard DAC, and a high-end system, the iTransport is, at $379, essential.
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Comments
It is worth mentioning that it is NOT absolutely required for an owner of an iTransport to own an external DAC. If you have one, great. Use it.
But if you only have a receiver or pre/pro that has a digital input, you can still connect the iTransport and still hear much improved sound because you are essentially letting the internal DAC of the receiver or pre/pro perform the digital to analog conversion, instead of the Ipod's internal DAC.
There are a number of mid-priced A/V receivers in the marketplace that have good internal DACs. The Onkyo TX-SR805 and Denon 3808 are good examples.
It should also be mentioned that using the analog connections of the iTransport should be avoided. Why? Because it defeats the purpose of why Wadia made this dock in the first place. More importantly, why would anyone spend $379 for the iTransport only to let the Ipod's cheap DAC perform the digital to analog conversion? If that is the goal, one should just choose from a number of cheap Ipod docks instead of the Wadia.
The iTransport was made so that the digital bitstream from the Ipod can be extracted (thus bypassing the Ipod's DAC) so that the D/A conversion can be performed by better DACs found in outboard converters, A/V receivers, or pre/pros.
An excellent point, succinctly put, thanks ecat124. I have a question, my DAC ( audio synthesis DAX Decade ) has a number of input choices. Is there a BNC or coax output on the Wadia?
Thanks in advance Matty
Matty,
The Wadia iTransport has three output connections: a digital coax/SPDIF; a toslink; and USB.
Hope this answers your question.
All this analog/digital conversion gets very confusing. What I would like to know is:
Does it make sense to connect the Wadia 170 to an Aquos LCD which is connected to Martin Logan Purity speakers? Would that improve the quality of regular itunes files?
The 170 iTransport was high on my Christmas list last year. I agree with everything in the review...I opened it, hooked it up and it actually took more time to go through the Meridian documentation to get everything set up to accept the digital stream and decode it. But once that was done...WOW!
While my collection is not in lossless, I did sample it in 300 kbps and so the files are not too unwieldly. I have a "moderate" collection of music, bordering on 10,000 songs right now. I had to get a 160GB iPod just to hold most of it...another Christmas present.
The only shortcomings I've noticed is the supplied remote. It is about the length of a credit card and about half the height. It is about the thickness of 3 cards stacked together. What this means is it is small enough to lose very easily. And it is IR, so you must have line-of-sight to the base to allow it to work. It would have been much better if they would have used an RF remote...Bluetooth or something to make it less fidgety.
All in all, I'm very happy with it. I have not tried any video through it yet, but I really don't have much video that I would even entertain putting on my iPods. The screen is so small, you can't really see anything playing on it. I take my laptop on trips and would rather use it for watching movies.
I am surprised it doesn't have an HDMI port for video out.
Did not Arcam do this years ago?
I don't think an iPod will ever be a very good component in a good home audio system. If it's not the expensive dock just to get to the digital audio, it's the super small dispaly, which is fine for a pocket device, but unnecessarily small on a home system. For a much more convenient way to play your music, use a desktop or laptop computer, iTunes as playback software, and an Apple Airport Express with its optical output. An Apple Airport Express costs $100, a mini-Toslink to Toslink cable costs less than $10 from Amazon. For the price of one of these Wadia units you could buy 3 Airport Expresses and play your music on every audio system in the house. That's what I did.
One other thing I thought of, I use Lossless compression for the music I play at home. My library woundn't fit on several 120GB iPods. I make Lossy compressed copies for use on my iPod, but that's not what I want to be listening to at home. I've put too much into my system to feed it Lossy compressed music when I have a choice not to. You won't use Lossy compression for home listening if SNR means anything to you.
I went through the process of deciding whether to use the Apple TV as a source or the Wadia Ipod dock and concluded that for less money the Apple TV gives you WAY more functionality. With the Apple TV you get digital out through the optical port of the original bitstream which can be fed into an External DAC for state of the art sound. I can use the Apple TV to access my entire music library stored on my computer and I get a free music server in Itunes. And with the "remote" app on the itunes store I can use my Itouch or Iphone as remote for the whole thing.
The only reason I could see in getting the Wadia product over the Apple TV would be for the extra digital outs on the Wadia.
The only question I have is whether the solid state memory Ipods, such as the Itouch and Iphone sound better through the Wadia than the Hard drive based Ipods and the Apple TV which is also hard drive based?
Has anyone tested whether under the same conditions solid state drives sound better than traditional hard drives? Might solid state offer another increase in performance over the CD?
I have just had a look at the specs of Apple TV and it it says there is an optical audio port but it does not say that the output is a direct digital feed from an iPod. If the Apple TV has a direct digital output from an iPod I would agree - the Wadia 170 is not good value (assuming all digital, bit-based signals are by definition identical). But how can this be verified? Does anyone know where I can go on the web to check this out? I heard a Wadia 170 today at a Hi Fi store in Aylesbury and I was very impressed.....
I went through the process of deciding whether to use the Apple TV as a source or the Wadia Ipod dock and concluded that for less money the Apple TV gives you WAY more functionality. With the Apple TV you get digital out through the optical port of the original bitstream which can be fed into an External DAC for state of the art sound. I can use the Apple TV to access my entire music library stored on my computer and I get a free music server in Itunes. And with the "remote" app on the itunes store I can use my Itouch or Iphone as remote for the whole thing.
The only reason I could see in getting the Wadia product over the Apple TV would be for the extra digital outs on the Wadia.
The only question I have is whether the solid state memory Ipods, such as the Itouch and Iphone sound better through the Wadia than the Hard drive based Ipods and the Apple TV which is also hard drive based?
Has anyone tested whether under the same conditions solid state drives sound better than traditional hard drives? Might solid state offer another increase in performance over the CD?
First of all, comments like "No serious listener" are ridiculous. I know fans of MUSIC (not technology) who are probably ten times more serious about their music than you and they would happy to listen to it on an AM Radio. The equipment a person uses does NOT indicate the seriousness of a listener. For me, WHAT they listen to is way more important.
Second, all this hoopla about being able to get a digital out signal from an iPod when I have been doing that for years. It's called USB and a dock. I simply hook it up to my computer which outputs digital audio via HDMI using a 24bit/192khz DAC. I use itunes on my Plasma to play it. Simple. I also am not limited to just 16/44.1 Audio (I also use Songbird which can play 24/96 FLACs with ease). As far as I'm concerned, the Wadia dock is a toy, created with the same mindset that has brought us way too many ipod accesories.
Mike1222, Sounds like just the ticket for how I want my system set up. I know this page is really dedicated to the Wadia discussion, but I would like a set up like yours. If you have time to go into more detail: soundstage [at] cox [dot] net Thanks
good for D/A conversion and done in a good format to avoid the analog. It still suffers in any positive user experience though. It makes the control of the IPod very difficult if it is a large IPod and docked. It may not be bad if you like to go up to where your dock is to read the meta data, try to control the pinched thumbwheel etc. Good if you just play a play list or one song at a time. It does a good job of turning a Nano or other small format IPod into a good old fashioned cassette deck if you use the supplied remote.
If I understand the review correctly one should; spend $379 on a docking station that is nothing more than an analog pass-thru, in order to save time looking through CD cases. Sounds to me as if Wadia is selling the latest version of the "Emperor's New Cloths." This product would meet my ROI expectations if it included a decent DAC with inputs for another digital device.
Soooo ... let's suppose you have some hi-rez downloads .... say 24 bit / 96 kHz .... much less than SACD quality -- but stilll much better than old CD quality (16 bit / 44.1 kHz) ... and you have these in iTunes ... and your Mac can play them if you set it up correctly ...
and then you transfer these files onto your iPod. Can the iPod can do anything with them?? I think it is restricted to 16 bit / 44 kHz sound. Can this box send the hi-res digital fiels to the digital out, and send that off to your own hi-rez D/A converter?
i bought on of these from a outfit by the name of ASI Teknologies with a MOD done on the unit like ON BOARD "STATE OF THE ART DAC" WITH THE OPTION OF DIGITAL IN AND A SWITCH FOR PLAYING cd IN OR iTOUCH... these will player better if you use the Flash drive iTouch less noise / jitter involded,, with mine i'd put it against ANY CD player period!!! i know it's a better sound than my CAL CL-10 that has a up-date in it already and it can't beat the Wadia and it's still a very good CD player But not as good as the Wadia.... the Wadia has about 300 burn in hours now and it's sound that i've never heard before, first the sound stage has been woke up from top to bottom and depth in the music that you can only think about with a iPod player, detailed and clear with a TON of bass.. so if your not happy with this Wadia there's hope yet send it to Doug Jesse @ ASi Teknologies and you'll never be more happy and it's all in one unit!!! this is the BOMB and YES IT "IS" HIGH END EQUIPMENT AND ONE OF THE BEST PRODUCTS OUT THERE AS WE SPEAK... IF IT'S SET UP RIGHT....