Wadia ITransport

You might want to get an adaptor (Voodoo Cable) and use a first class PC instead of the stock. Made a large difference on my iTransport. I also use a first class digicable -- Kharma Grand Ref -- which also makes a huge difference. With these upgrades, I find little difference from CD to Apple Lossless songs on iPod Classic.

Neal

the dac in the wadia is to blame. use a better dac.

There is no DAC in the iTransport.

I am confused how you are using the iTransport, what do you have it connected to? Are you using the DAC in your Cambridge CDP?

It has been reported that the iTransport has a fair amount of jitter, so it is important to use a DAC that reclocks the signal. If the Cambridge does not do so, or do it well, this could be the difference.

People will argue endlessly about hearing differences in the formats, such as Apple Lossless vs, WAV, which is what CD's are; I have yet to dicern a difference, but that can simply be the way my gear does the conversion. All things being done right, I do not see why there should be a sonic difference.

As for "how can it be better than the CD", well there can be more than one reason and those smarter than I may chime in. But for one, a CD transport isn't always a stable platform and it reads once, as I understand it. A server based platform, like an iPod, "can" be more stable, plus when I copy my music to my iPod I use error correction, so it may take several reads to get it right, This may be overkill, but it doesn't take that much longer.

Brian, first, I looked at your system, very nice! As far as how I have the Dock integrated in my system, I am using Canare 75ohm digital interface cable connected to one of two digital inputs on my Cambridge Audio Azure 840C. The 840C then re-clocks the data to reduce jitter then upsamples the data to 24/384. Again, the "slight" improvement when comparing the sound quality to the disk leads me to believe it may be somthing small I can do to get that last bit of sound quality out of the Dock. I am by the way, importing using the Lossless feature with error correction. I wonder about my interface cable, but it has been well reviewed. RPG

Dear Nglazer, Forgive me, but I could not quite understand your suggestion inserting a computer in the system with some kind of adapter. Would you be so kind as to bring it down a notch? Also, your interface cable suggestion, do you have a dealer name I can talk to about the cable? I'm not quick to jump around with cables. Corey Greenburg (sp?) of Stereophile past claimed my inexpensive Canare was one of the best he had heard. Thanks! RPG

I might as well chine in here too. When Corey Greenberg spoke about the Canare, I believe, that was a few years ago. Your best bet is to sample as many coax digital cables as possible and, one of the most important but overlooked pieces from the cable is the connectors themselves. Neutrik is a good brand but overall, I had to sample 20 cables over a period of three years to find the one that really works with my system: Wadia 521, B&W, Pass Labs, Wadia 20, Wadia ipod dock, AES/EBU and balanced throughout.