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Pandora One on Home Audio System

Sorry if this has been covered before. I tried doing a search but couldn't find relevant threads.

My home system is relatively modest: An NAD C 725BEE receiver driving vintage JSE Infinite Slope Model 1.2's.

We are playing Pandora through an iPod and the NAD IPD 2 dock.

We've upgraded to Pandora One, but can't get the higher bitrate audio through the iPod (or even the 128k). We don't really want to hook up a laptop or PC to the system.

What device can receive the Pandora One and other streaming music services at maximum bitrate through our home network? It would be easy to run an Ethernet cable to the receiver if wireless won't do.

My budget isn't unlimited but I want the best sound possible through the rest of my system.

Thanks in advance.
nicholas_fivepennies
b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,274 posts
 
Nicholas, it looks like your original nad ipod dock doesnt bypass the dac in the ipod. If you get a dock that bypasses the ipod doc, and hook it up to a good external dac and stream mog or spotify premium, you'll be happy imho. I bought pandora one at the same time as spotify premium and hardly ever use pandora one because spotify sounds better (very close to cd's ran through an external dac). You could get an ipod dock, like the one mentined above and get a good external dac, pay for a mog or spotify premium subscription, and you'd get better sound than you have now, again, imho :-)
Good luck!!
nicholas_fivepennies OP
13 posts
 
Yep - you're right - the NAD dock uses the iPod's DAC.

The Stream Magic 6 can also be used as an external DAC (same circuitry as the DACMagicPlus).

Looks like I'll be eBaying the NAD dock and getting one with a digital out. I've been looking at a couple of options. I'd like one as small as possible. Any recommendations besides the Pure I20?

Thanks to everyone for all the help. I'm getting a quick education.
onemug
784 posts
 
You're on your way to greater sound.

The Pure i20 is a good rec. It has a digital out if you want to use an external DAC and it has analog outs where it uses its own internal DAC which should certainly be better than the one in the iPod. All that for around 100. Never used that specific one but have heard good things about it.

I have 2 docks that I use. One is a Cambridge iD100, which is a Dock only and therefore have to use an external DAC (300). The other is an Arcam drDock which does what the i20 does but costs more. I don't know if its internal DAC is any better than the i20 and it's around 300 also.
nicholas_fivepennies OP
13 posts
 
The models you have are two that I am looking at. Both are about $300 now.

Is there anything to recommend them over the much less expensive Pure i20?
onemug
784 posts
 
Never used an i20 so can't say first handed anything about it.

Speculation...."maybe" the drDock has a better on board DAC. It has a sturdy base that I sometimes use my iPad on.

On the Cambridge, remember you "have" to buy a DAC. It does not have one onboard like the i20 and Arcam does.
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