Received my Wadia i170 transport today.

Steve ,
what is your take on taking the iTransporter "off the grid" ?
(keep in mind that we are only speculating on this thread about options and such. Non of this is the rule or solid advise.)

I met you and heard your gear at CES - it was top notch.

However, you've never answered my question:

When we are going to see entry level product from your stable? - reasonably priced.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Mariusz

It is obvious that the "hardcore" proponents of megabuck super transports aren't eager to give their response to this thread. I think they are afraid that their super expensive transport might not be superior to this "poor man's" CD solution. Has any of you also compared the Ipod/Wadia 170 combination with the top of the line Esoteric or CEC transports? What is your experience? Some of those transports cost 10-20 times the Ipod/Wadia --> so they should be better!! Heheh.

Chris

Chris - a good transport will crush a stock iTransport. It uses the PCM270X part from TI to generate the S/PDIF output and reportedly has high jitter. This is not surprising since the AirPort Express uses the same part and has high jitter as well. I used to mod the crap out of the AE (called it the Off-Ramp WiFi), Superclock4, new power supply etc., and it still was not very good, so I discontinued this product. This chip is beyond help IMO.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Steve, I have an off topic question for you: Why don't you team up with guys like Keith Johnson or Alex Peychev (APL Audio) or Dan Lavry so you can design together a no compromise digital playback system that is truly state of the art? In my opinion the knowledge about digital audio technology is pretty much scattered among the experts around the world and there is little co-working between the different experts. That is a pity because it slows down the speed of progress.

Chris

Sorry to ask a question that's not on the original topic, but since Steve brought it up, FWIW, John Atkinson measured the jitter level of the Airport Express' digital output to be 258ps, which in absolute terms is not high.

http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple/

Steve, in at least one of your past posts, you've said that you do not use jitter measuring equipment, so how can you conclude that the AE has high jitter and that jitter is the reason why it didn't sound good to you? I'm not saying that you didn't hear *something* that you found to be wrong with the AE, but I am just doubting that jitter was the reason behind it.