I have recommended the i20 to several friends, audiophiles or not and they have all worked fine. The dac in the i20 is much better than the one in your ipod and you can use it with a better dac and get very good results. Just remember you have to use a lossless file to get good quality sound.
iPod headphone to RCA jacks adapter cable
Wanting to use a first generation iPod Classic, with the highest resolution song recordings on my home stereo system and would like a recommendation for which iPod headphone to RCA jacks adapter cable to use.