Wadia 171i Digital Transport Sound Issues

It seems the weakness in my system between the iDock and D/A is the interface. I've tried three different well known interfaces with the Canare coming out on top, still there is something slight missing. Perhaps, this is the best I can get when I compare the sound to the CD, I'm adding a wire and two connections, the way I think I see it now is the interface must be invisible, does anyone know of a digital IC that can pull this off? Thanks!
Rpg

There may be another factor, and that has to do with the use of the 840c.

I have another post where I describe the use of the 840c as a player into a Bryston BDA-1. I found a similar reduction in clarity when using the upsampled digital outputs of the 840c into the Bryston. Only the raw 16/44.1 data from the player sounded as good or better than the CD player (840c) alone.

My point is that if you are comparing a digital input to the 840c vs a CD being played by the 840c, I suspect there may be a quality loss entering the digital process stream of the 840c. This is irrespective of cables.

This may be due to the 840c design where the system is optimized very well to take it's player output and upsample it to the DAC. If you interrupt this stream going either direction, audio quality suffers, even though its in the digital process streams where (theoretically) it should not make a difference.

I thought the Wadia dock was totally overpriced and lacking in quality. I sold it after I bought the $99 i-20 PURE dock which is sonically superior and much better than the Wadia in terms of build quality. A no-brainer audiophile purchase.

I use the i170 with a 160gb iPod Classic, and find it very sensitive to PC and digicable. With a Kharma Grand ref digicable (which I had lying around) and a Nordost Brahma PC connected to an adaptor for the Wadia electrical input, I get very near CD quality sound, especially with a FLAC download converted to iTunes.

It may not make much sense to use a PC and digicabkle that cost multiples of the i170 itself, but I had the wires anyway and the convenience and reliability is worth it! And a lot simpler, cheaper and more reliable than (ugh!) computer audio.

Neal

My quest to get what i think to be the best possible sound quality out of the Wadia ended up indeed to be the cable connection between itself and my DAC, it is sensitive in this regard. I learned a great deal about digital cables along my way and why they sound different, not enough space here to get into that, but bottom line I found my invisible cable! This cable blew away all others I tried some insanely $$. The cable I suggest you try for $25 is the latest Have/Canare GEPCO VSD2001 high definition 75ohm serial digital coax terminated with Canare's latest crimped, no solder, 75ohm RCA terminations. The cable is all business and nothing else, just a wire and terminations, they don't even add a braid over the cable which would make it more attractive, but so be it. Give it a try if you can handle $25 and be prepared to be blown away! Not only is this cable a champion on the test bench as it is designed primarily for the transmission of digital data, it killed all of the other cables in sound quality I tried and I tried many. Lastly, I think even though I finally achieved the best out of my set-up, I don't think I would recommend the Wadia, overpriced and I have heard trumped by other companies offerings, perhaps Wadia was in too bit of a hurry bringing the 171i to market?