Received my Wadia i170 transport today.

Yeah, thanks Mrstark. Have you heard the mods?

I wish they'd moved to a high quality digital output rather than going to the Vampire RCAs. The other mods make sense to me, but I'll be using it purely to get a digital signal to my Playback Design's DAC, so I might not really need to full mod.

I worry a little when they say that maple is the best wood for damping, when archtop guitar builders say it's the best for resonating with a sharp edge to the tone. Oh well... ;-) There's got to be better damping materials than maple!!!

Still it may be worth giving them a call. First I need to buy my 170i.

Dave

Thanks Mariusz.

I'm viewing it as a device used merely to extra a digital signal from my iPod and get it to my DAC; however, I assume there must be a conversion in there, otherwise we'd only need a simple wire.

I guess that I need to order one. It'll be interesting to compare the Lossless files to the original software through the same DAC.

Dave

I suspect that within the next two years I'll be building a Mac-based server system. There's a program called Waasoo, or something like that, that'll work with the Mac a true hi-rez sampling rates. If I can store my hi-rez at hi-rez rates and then play them through this Playback Designs DAC, then I'll be very happy.

Meantime, I'm going to get a Wadia and run it through the PD. That should be "pretty good", just not as good as it can be with a higher sampling rate.

Dave

I'll report back in a few weeks. I'm VERY optimistic that the i170/iPod/Playback Designs DAC will indeed competer with the "well thought out machines". I'm hoping that this DAC will be the center piece of my digital system(s) for the forseeable future. It's that good.

Dave