Impressions of Wadia 170i

TLH28,
I have owned one for about a year now. As long as you save your music in apple lossless it sounds pretty darn good. I am running mine through a MHDT Havana Dac with A GE396A tube. I have read a lot of people state that a computer based system can sound much better, which is why I'm getting a Mac Mini. I will still keep my Wadia as my daughter uses it for her itouch and people bring there ipods or iphones over with new music to listen to.

Good Luck,

Greg

Hi
It's a matter of preferences,I have one and I love it.I was a late buyer I only bought it last year and have been using it the last few months.Mine is hooked up to an older DAC I had in the closet,the Stax Talent.I use the classic ipod 120gb with it and is set up in my second system in the family room in my basement and only use it for casual listening with my family when we cook ,entertain, or just relax and for that purpose the quality of the sound is exceptional.I also use the Apple TV 160GB which can do what the ipod/wadia can do except one thing the ability to take it to the car.But what I particularly love with the Wadia/ipod solution is the freedom to take my tunes, in my ipod ,with me to the car or back from the car into the house.Just dock or un-dock the ipod.I only have mp3 and apple lossless formats.Recently I discovered a website to free download some very good Greek tunes from the 60's and 70's and 80's that me and my wife love to listen too.Old forgotten songs that would be hard to find.For formal listening I still use a cd transport on my main system up in the attic.I hear good things about the Logitech touch but I haven't use it and again it is a home based system and as I mentioned earlier the ipod goes in the car with me.
I would recommend the Wadia 170i.
Regards
George

I have one, which I used only briefly with an iPod until I moved to streaming directly from a Mac Mini to my DAC. It works fine if you prefer to use an iPod as your source and configure it to bypass the iPod's internal DAC. The sound is good, but not as good as streaming directly from a server to the DAC -- and of course the iPod only works with files in a format iTunes can handle. And so far as I know you have to do all your music selection from the iPod interface (the Wadia has a very limited remote control, but it is not much use), which isn't very convenient.

Bottom line -- you can often get a Wadia used, inexpensively, here on Audiogon and if you have an iPod then the Wadia is a cheap, easy entry into digital music. But in terms of both convenience and quality, you might want to save your shekels until you can afford a more comprehensive, convenient solution. Or, if you have a wireless network at home, you might want to look at a Logitech Touch for roughly the same money -- it is way more versatile. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have bothered to buy the Wadia, and the only reason I haven't sold it is because I would only want to sell it to someone who would really get some benefit out of it.