C1000/MDA1000 and iPod/Laptop

booter

New Member
Dear all

Would anyone be kind enough to tell me how I can link an iPod or Laptop to my fantastic C1000 or MDA1000. No worries about different quality levels. I'm expecting a bunch of friends for music sharing and they "threatening" me with formats like iPod and Laptop/MP3. :no:

Many thanks for any hint.

Best
B
 
You can either run the PC or Ipod into the rca inputs of your pre or if you can get a digital output from the laptop, use your DAC. The latter would be the best solution. If your laptop doesn't have digital output you can add a USB Turtle Beach sound card and a toslink cable for about $30
 
Dear all

Would anyone be kind enough to tell me how I can link an iPod or Laptop to my fantastic C1000 or MDA1000. No worries about different quality levels. I'm expecting a bunch of friends for music sharing and they "threatening" me with formats like iPod and Laptop/MP3. :no:

Many thanks for any hint.

Best
B

The best way to connect all ipods, iphone, etc to yor equipment is with the Wadia 170i, You can connect a digital out to yor mda-1000 with digital or toslink cable and you get a digital signal (yes digital, and not analog)
Take a look at :
http://www.wadia.com/products/170i/170iTransport_home.htm
I have one and can tell you it works just fine!!:thmbsp:

Regards
Jericho
 
What Jericho said, you NEED that Wadia if you are running the iPod by itself, that way you can take advantage of the MDA1000. In fact, I would not do it ANY OTHER WAY!!! :)

With your Laptop, get a Hagaman USB sound card (called HagUSB). Its $130 or so, shipped, and has the config for either RCA or XLR digital output. It is USB powered and one of the cleanest digital signal paths I have used from a laptop (I use this in my car).

I would use S/PDIF Coax though for the Wadia, and if you have the availability (i.e. you dont have the MCD1000), the XLR for the Hagaman, both fed to the MDA1K. :D
 
First, let's make clear that the Wadia 170 is unique. It's the only unit that extracts the digital stream from the iPod, bypassing the iPod's DACs. So, if you set your iPod to use Apple Lossless Compression, and burn CDs into the iPod (instead of downloading from iTunes, which supplies only lossy compression), your iPod and the 170 become a full-fidelity music server. Connected to your MDA-1000, the sound is as good as from the CD itself, since it's the same bitstream.

Like Jericho, I have this exact setup, and love it. Spend the $ for the 32Gb iPod Touch, and you'll be happy for a long time.
 
First, let's make clear that the Wadia 170 is unique. It's the only unit that extracts the digital stream from the iPod, bypassing the iPod's DACs. So, if you set your iPod to use Apple Lossless Compression, and burn CDs into the iPod (instead of downloading from iTunes, which supplies only lossy compression), your iPod and the 170 become a full-fidelity music server. Connected to your MDA-1000, the sound is as good as from the CD itself, since it's the same bitstream.

Like Jericho, I have this exact setup, and love it. Spend the $ for the 32Gb iPod Touch, and you'll be happy for a long time.

Sorry, but I disagree. In the context of a lossless music server a 32gB touch is a very expensive weak sister. Before you factor in the $380 Wadia 170i, with lossless consider the following:

iPod 32gB 80gB 160gB
list price $500 $249 $349
4 min songs 1148 3063 6126
cost per song $0.44 $0.08 $0.06

If not for the ability to host guest iPods optically and assumimg one has an 802.11n router, an Airport Express sells for $99 and provides a Toslink output. (I just bought 2 reconditioned for $79 ea.) For my $300 guest ipods can use my basic dock. So the question is there any sound quality advantage the Wadia provides over the AirPort Express?
 
I'm not sure how the Airport Express works. Both Apple and Wadia indicate that only the Wadia can retrieve the lossless digital stream.

As for the cost, you're absolutely right. But I don't think that cost is the primary discriminant in the OP's question. Put tactlessly, anyone who is going to hook up an iPod through a Wadia into an MDA-1000 ($8,000) isn't going to choose their iPod based on primarily on cost; the coolness factor is paramount, and the no-moving-parts Touch is the coolest of the cool.

Seriously, I use my iPod on the plane for short flights (< 3hrs) between homes. When I get there, it plugs right in and provides my favorite music without me having to buy copies of CDs, or pirate any music. I have an MS-750 in my main system, and an MS-300 at the office, and frankly, having to drag a new CD back and forth to record is a pain; I'd never do it for the other two places. Once into the iPod, it's done. Ron-C, that's my unreasonable product request for 2008... although I'm told Wadia is working on a new music server that does just that, and runs on iTunes. They have been assimilated. Resistance is futile.

If you snag a new MCD-500, you get a more cost-efficient solution than the MDA-1000... but you miss out on that last little iota of quality.

What I'd REALLY like to see? Some trick that would allow me to put a new CD in and have it rip to my iPod and MS-750 at the same time.
 
I'm not sure how the Airport Express works. Both Apple and Wadia indicate that only the Wadia can retrieve the lossless digital stream.

The Airport Express can and does stream lossless music from your laptop or computer. It works like a wireless bridge between your laptop and whatever you plug it in to, whether an MDA1000 or any other audio component with an optical input. You control music playback from your laptop using iTunes. It runs $99.
 
I'm not sure how the Airport Express works. Both Apple and Wadia indicate that only the Wadia can retrieve the lossless digital stream.

I didn't have a lot of time to dig into but since the AirPort Express doesn't have buffer storage it would be limited to what ever bandwidth 802.11n has (whatever that is).

As for the cost, you're absolutely right. But I don't think that cost is the primary discriminant in the OP's question. Put tactlessly, anyone who is going to hook up an iPod through a Wadia into an MDA-1000 ($8,000) isn't going to choose their iPod based on primarily on cost; the coolness factor is paramount, and the no-moving-parts Touch is the coolest of the cool.

Good point but newest=coolest by definition doesn't last very long. For me iPod cool = 13,500 songs at 192 vbr on my 80gB iPod in my pocket. If I want to do serious listening there's over 1100 LPs at home.

Seriously, I use my iPod on the plane for short flights (< 3hrs) between homes. When I get there, it plugs right in and provides my favorite music without me having to buy copies of CDs, or pirate any music.

I agree. We've arranged a condo on Catalina for Labor Day Weekend. Just need my pod and the Logictech Pure-fi and we're set.

They have been assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Don't fear the reaper.
 
The Airport Express can and does stream lossless music from your laptop or computer. It works like a wireless bridge between your laptop and whatever you plug it in to, whether an MDA1000 or any other audio component with an optical input. You control music playback from your laptop using iTunes. It runs $99.
So, this does seem to mean it can't get the lossless stream from an iPod, right?
 
So, this does seem to mean it can't get the lossless stream from an iPod, right?

The Airport Express does not connect directly to an iPod. It acts a wireless bridge between your computer and your stereo. The point being that you can remove an ipod from the equation entirely.
 
I have both the Wadia and the Airport Express. I don't know which sounds better as they are using different cables but the Airport Express Option is definitely cooler, cheaper and more convenient than the Wadia, the reason being that I can access all the CDs I have ripped to my Imac rather than just the songs I have downloaded to the Ipod.

The other advantage is that I can use my Iphone as a remote control and "see" my Itunes page as it is displayed on the Imac so I can scroll the albums, use the playlists as though I was at my computer. No keyboard, no mouse, no getting up to see the Ipod display either! :thmbsp:

Yes, the Wadia has a remote but since I can't see the Ipod all it is good for is moving from one song to another. The airport express is basically a wireless router with a mini-toslink output which goes straight into my Dac.

Both are great products, but one is even better.

Oh, and btw, Wadia was not the first to access the digital stream from an Ipod, MSB have been doing it for years :yes: But that cost $2.5k!
 
Seems like people have taken the iPod out of the equation requiring a PC/MAC standalone to create a functional bridge with the Airport... (aside from a wifi-enabled iPod utilizing streaming).

Wadia's solution is remarkable for a <$400 price point, including a component & s-video output (basically becoming an MS-300) that can go into an MDA1K, at a far less price. If you are looking into the 1K to begin with, you won't go wrong, but for a hardwired connection (which the Airport must eventually do, as well, FYI) the Wadia is top notch, and supports a full-size TOS and S/PDIF. The Airport only has mini-tos. Be your own judge on that one.

Again I suppose I am considered old school here since my server runs S/PDIF out already upconverted with a DVI connection to a 57" DLP as a second monitor... Then again, I have excessive options (including RDP and VPN - I can be in the hot tub and change a shoutcast stream or audio file from anything that has the capability of a secure socket).

Either way, these recommendations from all the users are viable and worthy of a test! :D
 
Interesting stuff guys. What is MSB?

http://www.msbtech.com/products/iLinkDetail.php

What is interesting about the MSB ilink is that it includes a wireless transmitter for the ipod enabling you to sit on the couch and control the ipod whilst still getting a digital signal! :thmbsp:

iLink_white_web.jpg


iLink-back.jpg
 
Another way to go that's simple and powerful is the dedicated audio server with an inexpensive Mac Mini or PC and a sizable external hard drive connected to a DAC. More $ than the Wadia option, but advantages include: 1) it can be your 'base station' for your iPod (especially if the iPod's hard drive isn't big enough for your music/photos/videos - Negotiableterms, I think this gives you the portability that's obviously important to you), 2) be used in conjunction with video if your system doubles as an A/V system, 3) capacity is only limited by whatever the currently-largest external drives are availble (2 TB for @ $430, which means only ripping at the best quality level), and 4) you get the flexibility of the computer's apps (I got a bunch of 8mm home movies from the 60s & 70s burned to DVD a few months ago and swear I'm going to do something with them on my Mac Mini's iMovie someday...).

Point is not that this is the best way to go necessarily; there's a lot of very cool solutions here, and they meet a wide variety of needs. Heck, my vinyl needs just got met by my first turntable since the Ford administration!

There's a lot of good quality options to take advantage of you Mc equipment, and the MS750 is one that I'd love to have once a couple other purchases are made.
 
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