Received my Wadia i170 transport today.

Chris - a good transport will crush a stock iTransport. It uses the PCM270X part from TI to generate the S/PDIF output and reportedly has high jitter. This is not surprising since the AirPort Express uses the same part and has high jitter as well. I used to mod the crap out of the AE (called it the Off-Ramp WiFi), Superclock4, new power supply etc., and it still was not very good, so I discontinued this product. This chip is beyond help IMO.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Steve, I have an off topic question for you: Why don't you team up with guys like Keith Johnson or Alex Peychev (APL Audio) or Dan Lavry so you can design together a no compromise digital playback system that is truly state of the art? In my opinion the knowledge about digital audio technology is pretty much scattered among the experts around the world and there is little co-working between the different experts. That is a pity because it slows down the speed of progress.

Chris

Sorry to ask a question that's not on the original topic, but since Steve brought it up, FWIW, John Atkinson measured the jitter level of the Airport Express' digital output to be 258ps, which in absolute terms is not high.

http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple/

Steve, in at least one of your past posts, you've said that you do not use jitter measuring equipment, so how can you conclude that the AE has high jitter and that jitter is the reason why it didn't sound good to you? I'm not saying that you didn't hear *something* that you found to be wrong with the AE, but I am just doubting that jitter was the reason behind it.

I love mine i had it modded by steve and the guys at great northern sound co. I dont know how i lived with a cd transport. I have all my cds in lossless formate and the sound is really good better than my old transport bel canto cd-2. I have people over and they cant believe thats music from my ipod. The dac iam using is the ensemble hi dac its a great dac however you can you any dac and the sound will blow your mind. I am very happy for now, asi has a mod for the wadia i170 with battery supply and other opt for around 1800. I think i will send a new wadia to them to mod it is alot more money than the gns mod will see which one is better.

Dazzdax - As a matter of fact, I am currently selling OEM USB interface modules to several companies, including Ultra-Fi (the iRoc DAC). The new version iRoc will debut at RMAF in Oct. Larry of Ultra-FI and I are tentatively talking about a collaboration too. Nothing serious yet. He does analog design and tubes really well and I do digital design really well and Larry does not have the usual giant ego that comes with most audio designers so there is potential there. I know Lavry and Peychev pretty well, but never met Keith Johnson, or at least I dont remember. Getting pretty old and the solder fumes are having their effect....

The problem with these types of collaborations is the business end of things. I have seen so many audio companies that have partnerships end-up in ruins or litigation etc. I'm too old to deal with that, and it's really no fun. I already have patent infringement on my cable products....

Steve N.
Empirical Audio