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Upgrading Wadia 170i IDoc to new 171 IPod dock

I have owned for about a year now the first Wadia 170i IPod dock and the $280 ICAudio upgraded power supply and lastly am using the Kimber illuminations D60 cable going to my DAC, which is actually a Cambridge AZURE 840C CD player. my question is has anybody upgraded to the latest 171i IPod dock and was it worth it? My current setup using lossless files sounds pretty good, but not quite as good as a CD. So please, with my current configuration and your experience with the new dock, is it worth the investment - Thanks!
Rpg
rpg
elberoth2's avatar
elberoth2
1,219 posts
 
If someone could explain that -- and how -- 171i is superior I would look into upgrading.

Beefier PS may mean that its digital output may be less prone to jitter. I'd love to see some measuremens.
rpg OP
126 posts
 
I should add when I first mentioned "not sounding as good as CD" to sounds slightly different than the CD. In fact, there are some areas such as the bottom end which sounds better through the Wadia and the top end slightly sweeter through the CD. Having the CIAudio external power supply instead of the little wall-wart supply helped, along with a good digital IC. So, bottom line, there is some music that may indeed sound as good, if not better on some recordings and others sounding better spinning the disk, so, the proposed improved new Wadia 171i product sounding better than the original says to me better than the CD, possible?
kbarkamian
647 posts
 
Nglazer -

Not being a smartass; I have to ask...

If you don't trust computer music, etc., what exactly do you think an iPod is? How did you get the music onto it?
rpg OP
126 posts
 
Dear Kbarkamian, I ripped the files from my computer to my IPod in WAV format or Apple's LossLess Rip to the IPod which was verified as bit for bit perfect from the original source according to a Hi-Fi rag which made the measurements. I do have some Mp3 files on it that do not sound near as good as Lossless.
Rpg
brianmgrarcom
1,317 posts
 
Wadia's iTransport has always garnered a wide array of opinions and, it seems, results.

I have had a 170 since the day they were available and like a couple others here, I have had zero issues with using it, I use an iPod Classic.

Also, some report not getting as good results as they do with their CDP. When I purchased my 170 I was using a Meridian G08 CDP and spent a lot of time comparing, in various ways. In the end I could not distinguish between the two if blind folded. My personal opinion is that results vary based on the DAC used and one is best served by using a DAC that does a great job at re-clocking the signal, if so one will garner great results. (My opinion.)

I can't imagine having to go back to a stand alone CDP again.

Disagreements about function and performance of the iTransport have been around since day one, I do not see that changing.
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