Apple TV vs Wadia 170i?

Assuming you will be using an external DAC and not the analogue outs, I would go with the Wadia. I did a fair amount of research on this and found some decent threads on Head-fi.org from people who had owned both. The general drift of the comparisons was that the sound quality of the Apple TV was not as good as the Wadia iTransport, falling short in terms of resolution. (It also has only an optical digital output, which is generally regarded as inferior to coaxial and seems to be losing favor among some DAC manufacturers.) Obviously, the Apple TV has greater functionality for home theater, but for two channel audio I decided to go with the Wadia and have been very happy with it. I don't find the lack of a menu on the Wadia to be a big hassle...just create a playlist on the iPod, plug the iPod into the Wadia, and select the playlist.

These are both intriguing products.The Apple TV has much a much better interface and saves the steps of creating play lists and transferring to ipod. I would think the Wadia would be the ultimate audio boutique machine,in that any customer that came in to listen to whatever gear they are demoing,could snap in their own ipod and bada bing they can hear their own music.I am sure the Wadia has fantastic sound and build quality.Apple products have always been well made and offer excellent support.
I agree it would be nice if Apple would offer a massive hard drive multi output (I2S?)model.

I have had both of them - and I liked the Wadia atad better in terms of resolution, but the Apple TV ergonomics and user interfase is a big plus.

Would it be nice to have a coax/AES-SBU digital out from this box?

Next step is surely a Mac Mini running thru a USB DAC.

I'd have to agree with most folks here and vote for the Apple TV. It does everything the Wadia does, and then some.

Plus you can use your ipod touch as a remote instead of as a source. I believe that with a proper reclocker or suitable DAC, the differences in coax vs toslink would be null. Personally, I've used a Benchmark DAC1 with excellent results.

I use a MacMini with an external terrabyte drive. I go Lossless out the optical port. I also use it for DVDs, Netflix streaming, Pandora radio, my Time Machine back up of my laptop. It's easy to control iTunes from my laptop or using the Apple remote/TV. Lastly I have Elgato's EyeTV hooked up to an HD antenna (less compression than cable/satellite HD and cheap).

MacMinis were just announced to be in short supply, which could mean updates. Also AppleTV is long overdue for an overhaul into a real piece of equipment.

I also like that the mini holds its value pretty well.