IPod to home stereo - How to get best sound?

For the best sound, I would suggest the following.

160GB AppleTV Classic (New or used). Basically an iPOD with a digital output and TV interface.

DAC: Bryston BDA-1 or Pass Lab D1.

You can control the AppleTV using the supplied remote or use the remote app on your iPhone.

If you wont the best sound use only Ipod touch last generation ! I use it with Onkyo NS-D1 digital dock!
Cheaper and better than WADIA and the sound is absolute killer !

I'm surprised no one asked what kind of music you listen to and how you listen to it. Classical, classic rock, country? Do you sit in the sweet spot or is you music on while you do other things?

Personally, I have a Wadia i170 fed via digital to a Bryston BDA-1 DAC, fed into a McIntosh MA-6900 and finally into Paradigm Reference speakers. Source is an iPOD Nano, some AIFF, some lossless. I cant tell the difference by the way, between the two. Remember, even with lossless, the best you're getting is CD quality.

Good luck. It would be good to hear what you end up deciding.

+1 for the Apple TV using Airplay. Ipod Touch, Iphone , Ipad2 to Apple TV. Optical out from Apple TV to external DAC. Line ouput from DAC to Stereo.

Airplay is wonderful for Internet listening ( Spotify, Mog, Pandora).

Like so many others I have a Wadia 170 dock going into my Audio Research gear.
All my files on my iPod at in wav form which I found is by far the best format without using a lot of memory.
As far as cabling goes, I am using all Nordost cables along with Kimber digital cable( tried lessor cables but wound up spending around a grand on the digital cable).
My gear is ARC ref3, transport and dac, d400mkii, into Thiels.
Final note is that I am going change my dac to the dac8.