iPod as a source 80 gig model, lossless

Marco - no question that there are much better ways to play digital music then an iPod. It's a convenience or form factor thing. Makes no sense with a nice rig in place. But nice by the pool, on a boat, at the mountain cabin, the guest bedroom etc.

David - IME many of the people who come looking for this kind of advice are computer newbies (this is very generational). Old school audiophiles arre looking for the sort of guaranteed performance they are used to with their Denon or Wadia or whatever - you push the button and it works. That is why I recommend a wired solution, the odds tilt a bit more in your favor - truth is even then there is still no guarantee.

Looks like Steve has unleashed another one of his conceptual breakthroughs. Anxious to watch it roll out and to see market acceptance. Remember that you still need a DAC after the Offramp...

Yes - this stuff works really well and inexpensively compared to getting equivalent performance from a traditional rig with its tweaks, power cords, ICs and all the other folderol.

Marco's U24 set up is inexpensive - I ran one into a fully modded TriVista, a nicely modded Squeezebox is in the realm of the reasonable as are an ever growing number of USB DACS.

Watch for wireless USB coming soon, and the new WiFi standard 802.11n

listenable, fine for background but not for critical listening.

FWIW, I purchased an Apple TV and it beat my Arcam CD92 senseless.

I was willing to trade-off sound quality for the convenience of Apple TV's GUI, but I was gladly surprised. So this may be an option for you.

The convenience of playlists can never be overstated. My system is a Blue Circle NSCS and Von Schweikert VR2s.

BCH, please describe in more detail. Are you saying that you drive sound from your computer (iTunes lossless?) to Apple TV wirelessly and then the Apple TV drives your high end rig? Is the DAC in the computer, Apple TV, or external?
Thanks,
Art

Hi Art,
The DAC is in the Apple TV (should be a Wolfson, like the ipod and newer Arcams). There are 2 choice: playback from the apple tv internal hard-drive or streaming. I use the Apple tv internal hard-drive, with my music ripped in apple lossless.

The apple TV does have a toslink (optical), but I don't have an external dac.

I can't hear any difference between streamed lossless and the playback from the hard-drive in the apple tv, but I know that the streaming can be tweaked to sound pretty good (some driver swapping, etc...)

Whatever doesn't fit in the Apple TV's HD, I stream from my computer. BTW, Apple Lossless is a very good format size-wise (about 300MB per CD, average).

Hope this helps.