| How To Make An iPod Sound Like a $1.5K CD Player [message #67276] |
Thu, 28 April 2011 13:34  |
AudioFred
Messages: 377
Registered: May 2009
Location: Houston
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Illuminati (1st Degree) |
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I just received my new Onkyo ND-S1 Digital Media Transport. "Digital Media Transport" is a pretentious name for iPod dock, but that's what they call it, and it's sound merits a pretentious name. The ND-S1 is an iPod dock with no analog outputs - it outputs only the iPod's raw digital signal via a coaxial, optical, or USB cable, to your own DAC.
I assume most users would use the DAC in their HT receiver, but I'm using the digital input on my Cambridge Audio 840 CD player, which has a very good DAC section. I can synchronize a CD with my iPod and do an A/B comparison of the two, and the signal from the ND-S1 is every bit as good as the sound of the actual CD I ripped into Itunes. Of course you have to rip your CD to Apple Lossless or some other like-quality file and not to a lossy format like MP3.
The good news is the ND-S1 is only $165 versus $370 for the only other iPod dock that accesses the digital signal, the Wadia. According to some reviews by knowledgable technowoks the Onkyo is a much better design. The bad news is the Onkyo isn't sold in the US - you have to buy it on Ebay from a Japanese exporter and pay $38 air freight, but that's not exactly an arm and a leg in high end audio.
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