Received my Wadia i170 transport today.

As silly as it may sound.......it makes perfect sense.

Would you be willing to take it even farther??????????

If the answer is yes, follow this link to get the most out of your iTransporeter. I believe Audio Tone will have this version up for review.

Wadia iTransporter - extreme mods

Mrjstark, thx for recommendation. The digital output of the Wadia is indeed very flimsy and not worthy of the Wadia name. This way Wadia gets also a bit of a "midfi" status. Also the external power supply/wall wart is just adequate but not very oldskool Wadia like. In short, we need a "signature" version of the 170i.

Chris

Yeah, thanks Mrstark. Have you heard the mods?

I wish they'd moved to a high quality digital output rather than going to the Vampire RCAs. The other mods make sense to me, but I'll be using it purely to get a digital signal to my Playback Design's DAC, so I might not really need to full mod.

I worry a little when they say that maple is the best wood for damping, when archtop guitar builders say it's the best for resonating with a sharp edge to the tone. Oh well... ;-) There's got to be better damping materials than maple!!!

Still it may be worth giving them a call. First I need to buy my 170i.

Dave

Chris is right:

"In short, we need a "signature" version of the 170i. "

I'll be willing to pay extra for "all out assault" Wadia iPod transport (iTransporter).

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Dcstep,

No I have not. I suppose to get my iTransporter a while back but I have not heard from the dealer yet. I will get it in a week or two one way or the other and hope to try it with my build-in Isabellina DAC (RWA).

Jeff Dorgay of "Tone Audio" pub. might be the one who will review the modded Wadia iTransporter in the near future.

I will wait for his comments and try to draw my own conclusions.

Modification might make audible improvements in Wadia's budget offering - considering the target price, you can not expect high quality parts and finish........can iTransporter be improve ? I think so.

It is relatively new product and only time will tell the whole story of Wadia's budget wonder and how far it can be taken - performance wise.

Regards
Mariusz

Thanks Mariusz.

I'm viewing it as a device used merely to extra a digital signal from my iPod and get it to my DAC; however, I assume there must be a conversion in there, otherwise we'd only need a simple wire.

I guess that I need to order one. It'll be interesting to compare the Lossless files to the original software through the same DAC.

Dave