Apple TV vs Wadia 170i?

AppleTV, a lot more to it.

I agree on the Benchmark, it was very bright. I tried it 2 different times just to make sure. I love my Bryston BDA-1 now, after trying many others.

Shardone makes a great point about integration. I can't take anything that sounds bright with Maggies and a less than perfect room. I need things that add warmth, that's why I have a lot of Cary gear (SLP98, CAD 500 MB amps) and for some reason the Bryston sounds much warmer to me than any other DAC, including the Berkeley, that I tried.

If you have B & W's, Klipsch Heritage, Eggelstons, or other slightly warm speakers the Benchmark could be the be-all-end-all of components.

Roccoriley, that's not correct. The AppleTV does not use an iPod at all. It takes the file directly off of the hard drive of the computer holding the iTunes account. So it absolutely can be processed then by an external DAC, or use the internal DAC of the AppleTV. Most AppleTV users, such as myself take the base digital music files and have them processed by an external DAC.