sbruno
New Member
There are a few new DAC-related devices that allow us to get superior sound quality out of our iPods. I'm having a hard time sorting through all of the info out there, partly because there are few reviews. Here's what I'm currently leaning toward:
1. Pure i-20 dock: $99. Docking station with a built in DAC, though not the highest quality (Cirrus Logic) chip. BUT, it has digital-out so a higher end DAC could be linked up down the road, turning this into a transport dock (and still only half the price of Onkyo's offering and far cheaper than the Wadia Transport). That said, I have heard rumors of positive reviews by HiFi Choice and What HiFi, though i haven't been able to locate them online. If I went this route, I'd likely eventually add the Musical Fidelity V-DAC down the road, which gets stellar reviews across the board by audiophiles. Total investment: $350.
2. HRT iStreamer: $199. Looks like a pretty good transport/DAC (Burr Brown) but reviews are sparse. Their other DACs get very good reviews, though. Only problem is that the DAC cannot be bypassed (device cannot be used as a transport) if one wants a better DAC down the road.
3. Teac CD-P 650 CD player: $170 online. You get a decent CDP/transport/DAC (Burr Brown) all in one. Has a digital out so the internal DAC can be bypassed. Only downside is that the CDP power likely has to be on for the iPod to play (I'm just guessing here). On the plus side, if an external DAC is added later on, both devices could take advantage of it, since the iPod runs through the CDP.
Of course, there are other options too, like the Wadia or the Onkyo transport dock (NS-01?), but these are somewhat spendy by themselves and require an external DAC to work, so your total investment gets pretty high pretty quickly. It also looks like Peachtree has some ~$1k docking devices, but those are way out of my price range (that is, if I want to avoid a divorce
).
So for all of those running an iPod or MP3 player through your system, what's your set-up? What do you see as the best option going down the road?
Steve
1. Pure i-20 dock: $99. Docking station with a built in DAC, though not the highest quality (Cirrus Logic) chip. BUT, it has digital-out so a higher end DAC could be linked up down the road, turning this into a transport dock (and still only half the price of Onkyo's offering and far cheaper than the Wadia Transport). That said, I have heard rumors of positive reviews by HiFi Choice and What HiFi, though i haven't been able to locate them online. If I went this route, I'd likely eventually add the Musical Fidelity V-DAC down the road, which gets stellar reviews across the board by audiophiles. Total investment: $350.
2. HRT iStreamer: $199. Looks like a pretty good transport/DAC (Burr Brown) but reviews are sparse. Their other DACs get very good reviews, though. Only problem is that the DAC cannot be bypassed (device cannot be used as a transport) if one wants a better DAC down the road.
3. Teac CD-P 650 CD player: $170 online. You get a decent CDP/transport/DAC (Burr Brown) all in one. Has a digital out so the internal DAC can be bypassed. Only downside is that the CDP power likely has to be on for the iPod to play (I'm just guessing here). On the plus side, if an external DAC is added later on, both devices could take advantage of it, since the iPod runs through the CDP.
Of course, there are other options too, like the Wadia or the Onkyo transport dock (NS-01?), but these are somewhat spendy by themselves and require an external DAC to work, so your total investment gets pretty high pretty quickly. It also looks like Peachtree has some ~$1k docking devices, but those are way out of my price range (that is, if I want to avoid a divorce
).So for all of those running an iPod or MP3 player through your system, what's your set-up? What do you see as the best option going down the road?
Steve
