Wadia ITransport

I have a 170 and enjoy it very much. I dont believe that it was intended as a replacement for a CD player nor it is intended to be a high end product. As a convientent music server it cant be beat.
As far as it sounding better than the source how could that be?

Thank you very much for your response. I agree, how can it sound better than the original source. I know from the Stereophile review, they verified, (I think in WAV) rip, that the data output was exactly bit for bit perfect, so, the question is, why the subtle difference? Might it be my interface cable? As far as better sounding than the source, Music Direct magazine states "As a result of retrieving a direct digital signal from the IPod, unadulterated, with high resolution files, better than CD quality is obtained" (note this is not an exact quote but conveys the message). As I've said, it's close to CD, but how to better it? Thanks.

the dac in the wadia is to blame. use a better dac.

Are you positive you are listing to the same mastering? You might be listing to the same song, but maybe the CD is a digital remaster and the Apple version is not...something like that.

I had this occur when listing at a dealer. He played a song that I am very familiar with, and I thought everything sounded like crap. Later, while at home, I realized I have a digital remastered version and the store was playing a downloaded crap older version...make since?

You might want to get an adaptor (Voodoo Cable) and use a first class PC instead of the stock. Made a large difference on my iTransport. I also use a first class digicable -- Kharma Grand Ref -- which also makes a huge difference. With these upgrades, I find little difference from CD to Apple Lossless songs on iPod Classic.

Neal