msb Ilink vs. wadia 170i ipd docks

I spoke with Wadia today to get their side of the story.

First let's clear up some misconceptions:

1. The Wadia re-clocks all signals before digital output.
2. The Wadia is not just a bunch of wires inside. It actually has 2 very large circuit boards inside. The reason they used such large boards was to isolate the video, digital, and analog sections from one another to prevent any leakage.
3. The difference between the MSB and the Wadia is that the Wadia let's the Apple chip convert part of the apple loss-less data into a format that a DAC can understand(no dac would understand the apple lossless signal. The Wadia finishes the process. MSB does the whole process thru it's DSP.
4.The engineer at Wadia laughed when I told him how much jitter they claimed the Wadia is producing. I will have the exact specs in a couple of days of what the actual amount of jitter the Wadia is producing but it is no where near 10,000ps which is = to 10ns of jitter.

It's only fair that we get the correct information to members of audiogon so that they can make an informed decision.

I am in no way putting down MSB. They make a great product. I just don't like propaganda. People shouldn't be lazy. Call companies and find out both sides of the story. Most companies appreciate people who take interest in their products and are glad to give out information.

Nrostov i agree, i would like to know what the exact amount of jitter the wadia i170 produces. My question is why didn't the wadia engineer give you the jitter levels of the wadia i170 then? you would think he knows. I called msb and they told me the msb ilink has 7ps of jitter.

Hi Usarmyvet,

What's your real name? Mine is Justin. Just like to be more personal.

Okay, the reason the engineer didn't give me the amount is because he was not the one who designed the 170i. That guy was out of the office yesterday. I am hoping to know by today.

I too spoke with MSB and got the same info about the msb. They also gave me misinformation about the Wadia. I don't blame them it's just part of the business. My experience has been that almost everyone fudges their numbers. I am going to take what Wadia tells me with a grain of salt. The same goes for MSB.

At the end of the day all you can trust is your ears. You like the MSB better and I like the Wadia. Who is right? Both of us. People like different sounds. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many audio companies.

Nrostov,
my compliments for taking so much trouble in finding out the info from both Wadia & MSB. You certainly have gone above & beyond all other members who have participated in this thread.

>> They also gave me misinformation about the Wadia. I
>> don't blame them it's just part of the business.
Yes, it is unfortunately the truth in this country! It just plain sucks!
From where I come from, no negative advertising is allowed - You want to sell your product more? Advertise the positive things about it & show the public what benefits they would be getting if they bought your product compared to the others WITHOUT bashing or providing misinfo on the competitor's product.
I personally think that this is a better way to do biz rather than getting your sales up by bashing the other guy.
I think that MSB could have easily made their point by advertising their 7pS of jitter & stating that it was the lowest in the industry for this type of product (if it turns out that it actually is. we need to wait for Justin to post the info from Wadia) WITHOUT giving misinfo on Wadia. I would have had more respect for MSB than I do now. I think that this is piss-poor attitude from MSB. :(

Unfortunately, this trend of bashing & misinfo on companies does not stop at manuf only; many of the members here are happy to post misinfo & bogus data on companies' products. Worse, they state/write it with much conviction as if it were the truth! :(

Hi Justin my name is jerry. Justin i have gear from wadia and msb and i have e-mailed and talked to both companies about which product is better and of course they will tell you their product is better. I have the wadia i170 mod version by gns and it's great piece of gear. I hope that wadia will come out with a higher end ipod transport in the near future. Until then i am using the msb in my main system.