Ipod + Wadia 170i Dock OR AppleTV + Airport Expres


I find it hard to believe that I am having such a tough time putting together the right ripped digital audio source so I'm putting this question out there.

Option 1: Ipod(s) + Wadia 170i Transport

OR

Option 2: AppleTV + Airport Express (connected to an iMac in a different room)

Relevant Rest of System:
-Headroom Desktop Ultra Amp & Ultra DAC
-PrimaLuna Prologue 3 Preamp
-Wyred4Sound 250 Monoblocks
-Gallo Reference 3.1s (with Gallo sub amp)

I like the expandability and stability of the iPod + Wadia option, and I do not have a TV or monitor in my listening room. Option 2 seems like it should be "better".

Any thoughts or experiences?

Tim
tjnindc
I agree with Ejlif. I love iPods, I think I have six of them if I count my iPhone, but I've never understood why anyone would build a high-quality home system around one. Everything about them is designed for portability and they do that better than anything else but the imperatives of that design goal mean compromises in storage capacity and accessibility that there's no reason to deal with in your main system.

Having a simple dock with line-out capability plugged into your main system does make a lot of sense for those tunes you have only on your iPod but beyond that some kind of music server like an Apple TV, Mac Mini or PC connected to a good-quality DAC and on to your other gear makes a lot more sense to me.
Do folks who use the AppleTV route have one big enough to store most of the music on or do they stream to the AppleTV from another Mac?

Is there an advantage going via an AppleTV over going directly from the Airport Express into the DAC?
Here is the other thing that kind of makes the Wadia option attractive: I rip a lot of music onto my Mac at work. Having the option to bring different iPods from different places is also attractive.
I am going through the same situation.I like the convenience of a music server.At first I thought I buy the Wadia itransport 170 and use it with my ipod classic 120gb latest generation BUT I thoroughly checked the forums here and at audioasylum as well as various other websites and realized that the best solution for the money is the Mac mini hooked to a DAC with two external 1 Tb hard drives (one for storage,the second for backing up data).Some upgrades include 4 gb RAM plus a solid state drive for the OS.
Your miles may vary.
Regards
George
George: Are you going to put the external drives in the same room as your system or have them accessed via a wireless network? Do you have a monitor in your listening room?

Thanks,

-t