Apple TV vs Wadia 170i?

I just had the opportunity to listen to the Benchmark DAC at a friends place which I am very familiar of, and agree on the "bright" presentation the unit has, I removed it from my wish list right away.

One thing, if you are using plastic Tos, do yourself a HUGE favor. GO GLASS!!! Tos-Link (Toshiba Link) itself is in no way inferior to the other formats...it is the plastic cable that kills the sound. I have experimented with both and my glass TOS out of my Cambridge DS500SE used as transport (I use it as a test device for experimentation, not a source) equals my very very expensive ref coax FIM digital cable.

I would have to go with the Apple TV. I believe it offers a higher quality of sound and an overall better listening experience.

I do not believe the Apple TV allows access to the direct digital feed of the ipod prior to it's D-A conversion. The advantage of the Wadia 170i is that it accesses the music files before they are converted by the ipod d-a converter and they can then be converted by a DAC.

Roccoriley, that's not correct. The AppleTV does not use an iPod at all. It takes the file directly off of the hard drive of the computer holding the iTunes account. So it absolutely can be processed then by an external DAC, or use the internal DAC of the AppleTV. Most AppleTV users, such as myself take the base digital music files and have them processed by an external DAC.