Awesome! I'm glad we pushed the issue.
Okay, back to main topic. I can only speak theoretically as I don't have the Wadia, but since the Benchmark re-clocks, the Wadia should sound the same as anything else.
Remember what re-clocking means. It means that there is something like a buffer device in front of the DAC, and it reformulates the signal, and then feeds it to itself in perfect time (no/little Jitter). So, then, the transports/digital sources are truly just storage.
And some above said data can still get lost with bad transport - well I don't know what protocols are used exactly, but with computer file transfers or TCP/IP there are methods where the computer will ask for the info again if there was a mistake. (It runs an algorithm over the data that results in a single number, runs that same algorithm over the source and compares that number to the other one. It is possible to erronously generate the same number but that is super rare, like 99.999999%) There are virtually no errors in file transfers on computers - otherwise programs wouldn't run! They would get to the place with the missing info and then crash. FTP isn't 100% perfect, which is why people do checksum verification - it uses a different algorithm for validating that the data it has sent is good which is still over 99% but not 99.99999%. So if the music systems are using protocols similar to computers then there really shouldn't be any lost data at all...
The only drawback/advantage with the Wadia is that some people prefer a richer interface and would prefer to spend the 300 just going to music storage server. If you really want to use your IPod as the storage device then the Wadia can't be beat!
Some people are running a long cord from Wadia to DAC, so that they can place the IPod next to the listening position for choosing tracks and all that, rather than having to get up each time.
Okay, back to main topic. I can only speak theoretically as I don't have the Wadia, but since the Benchmark re-clocks, the Wadia should sound the same as anything else.
Remember what re-clocking means. It means that there is something like a buffer device in front of the DAC, and it reformulates the signal, and then feeds it to itself in perfect time (no/little Jitter). So, then, the transports/digital sources are truly just storage.
And some above said data can still get lost with bad transport - well I don't know what protocols are used exactly, but with computer file transfers or TCP/IP there are methods where the computer will ask for the info again if there was a mistake. (It runs an algorithm over the data that results in a single number, runs that same algorithm over the source and compares that number to the other one. It is possible to erronously generate the same number but that is super rare, like 99.999999%) There are virtually no errors in file transfers on computers - otherwise programs wouldn't run! They would get to the place with the missing info and then crash. FTP isn't 100% perfect, which is why people do checksum verification - it uses a different algorithm for validating that the data it has sent is good which is still over 99% but not 99.99999%. So if the music systems are using protocols similar to computers then there really shouldn't be any lost data at all...
The only drawback/advantage with the Wadia is that some people prefer a richer interface and would prefer to spend the 300 just going to music storage server. If you really want to use your IPod as the storage device then the Wadia can't be beat!
Some people are running a long cord from Wadia to DAC, so that they can place the IPod next to the listening position for choosing tracks and all that, rather than having to get up each time.
