Ipod to Digital Out

Hey Peter - According to Vinnie at Red Wine Audio there is no SPDIF tap within the iPod. I asked him this same question at someone elses suggestion when I started a similar thread. He does some kind of modifications to the line stage of the ipod. One thing he could not figure out was how a company called Monitor Audio, claimed to be utilizing their own DAC in their mini-iPod system. You can read that claim in the AA description here.

Marco

and it does appear like the Monitor Audio unit takes digital out of the ipod.

I don't know; I seem to recall that Vinnie was very skeptical as to how they might achieve that, and why more companies do not do the same thing. You might write to him if you want to get his input on the subject. That said, my car stereo has an iPod interface that I plug into which requires a separate box to achieve. I don't understand what the box does and why the stereo isn't just taking the line-out from the iPod and amplifying it (why would you need an interface for that? Other than to get another $100 from your customer.). In the case of my car deck (an Alpine), the CD player does sound superior to the iPod playing the same material for whatever that's worth.

I seem to recall a review in either Stereophile or TAS where they put three iPod mini-systems through the paces and the iDeck was one of them. I could swear they cited the same specification and that it succeeded because it used its very own (superior) DAC - though I recall it was bested by some very expensive German speakers without a DAC, but with tube amplification perhaps(?). The little misinformation probably originates from P.R. at Monitor and has just never been questioned by anyone selling or reviewing the stuff. Interesting that someone at Monitor divulged that discrepancy to Peter.

Great news that Apple is addressing the digital-output for those who may like to take advantage. Thanks for investigating Peter.

Marco