iPod audiophile mods

[thedelihaus]

A company called Red Wine will hotrod your ipod with mods- they take the analog output (line out) off of the dac chip and send it directly to the internal 1/8" headphone jack (converting it into a dedicated line-out jack) via high-end Black Gate Non-Polarized NX-Hi-Q coupling capacitors. Has anyone had this done to their ipod? Or heard one with this mod? I don't plan on doing it myself, I feel it's for folk with extra-deep pockets, but I won't discount it- I'm unsure if it works or not- I haven't heard it to judge. Have you?

Here is a link-

http://www.redwineaudio.com/iMod.html

 

[Negotiableterms]

Here's what I don't understand:

1. If you turn the headphone jack into a line-out, then would you have to have headphones with their own amp and volume control? Is there such a headphone that will work for travel, meaning easy to carry?

2. Monitor Audio has managed to extract the digital output of the iPod for the iDeck, which then uses its own DAC to convert. If you're going to give up portability, why not use this approach?

3. I can understand using the iPod as a home music server, as it would be by far the cheapest way to get that result, but for the price of an iPod, plus the mod, aren't you getting close to an Olive, which is a much superior solution?

Keep in mind, I don't pretend to understand this... so any explanations will be appreciated!

 

[thedelihaus]

Negotiable terms,
I think I agree with you. The mods render the iPod kind of unweildy as a portable device- not just the cable coming out of it, but the fact you'd need to bring a portable amp, like the one pictured at their website (which is as big or bigger than the iPod) or a t-amp makes it cumbersome. I guess if you were to use it as a mini music server with a T-amp for home use only this would be an okay mod, but why not just spend $30 on an iPod dock and the rest on some paradigm Atoms or NHT Superzeros?

I may be missing something here, I haven't heard the unit, so so far I can only speculate as a doubting thomas. I'm a sceptic.

I haven't seen either the Olive or the Monitor Audio setup, but I'm going to look at 'em soon, thanks for the leads.

 

[thedelihaus]

NOTE-

Member pbda here just informed me a man by the name of Vinnie Rossi is doing the iPod mods over at Red Wine Audio. pbda states Vinnie also devised the "Vinnie Mods" for the Toshiba 39xx series of DVD players, and has modded pbda's 3960 for him very successfully.

That's interesting. Thank you to member pbda.

www.redwineaudio.com

 

[pbda]

Vinnie's a great guy, and does beautiful work, but I tend to agree that if I were going to invest that kind of money I'd probably go for the Olive as well.