News
Wadia Digital to debut iTransport digital iPod Dock
By Charles Starrett
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Friday, January 4, 2008
News Category: iPod Accessories
Wadia Digital, maker of high-end digital audio products, has announced that it will demonstrate its new iTransport iPod Dock at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. According to Wadia, the iTransport is the “first digital player dock to retrieve a direct digital signal from an iPod.” The dock bypasses the iPod’s internal D/A conversion and output stage, allowing for output of pure, bit-perfect digital audio from full-resolution file formats (such as .WAV and Apple Lossless) stored on the iPod. “Until now, there has been no real bridge between the convenience of an iPod and the high-end audio listening experience,” said John W. Schaffer, president of Wadia Digital. “The goal of making the player a true high-end media server has been hampered by the need to send the digital signal through a portable player’s D/A converter rather than that of a high performance audio system. Instead, we designed iTransport to bypass the player’s converter and output stage altogether. When used with an iTransport, the iPod becomes a digital music source equal to some of the finest sounding transports in the high-end audio market.” In addition to S/PDIF digital audio output, the iTransport will also feature component outputs for DVD-quality video, as well as analog audio and video outputs, and will also feature compatibility with Apple’s standard remote control. Wadia Digital’s iTransport is compatible with all latest-generation, Dock-enabled iPods, including the iPod touch and iPhone, and is expected to be available in February for $349.
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1
Uhhh…$349 for a product like this from a super high end company like Wadia seems like a typo. If that is the correct price, I am SO BUYING THIS!!
Posted by Tenchi211 in California on January 4, 2008 at 7:59 PM (PDT)
2
I guess it’s no typo. $349 according to an announcement on their website. WOW!!
Posted by Tenchi211 in California on January 4, 2008 at 8:04 PM (PDT)
3
Look out…$349 for a product like this for a delivery mechanism that NEVER gets content above a bitrate above 320k, and even then only rarely…I am so NOT buying this. Besides, why not just stream the data directly off of a computer HD? Why intro the need for another intermediate device like the iPod?
Why? Why? Guess ‘puters don’t look really purdy while they’re docked?
Posted by flatline response on January 5, 2008 at 4:45 AM (PDT)
4
flatline response, that was… really thick. You know as good as everybody else that you can play ALAC, AIFF & WAV from iPods. I have no clue what “delivery mechanism” you are talking about. Besides, nobody cares what you are buying and what not. While you are correct that it does not make much sense for the regular PC-based audio nut at home, who likely has his archive in FLAC/ALAC streamed to his rig via some wireless solution, it does make sense if you consider this guy *might* still have some friends bringing music over. It’s also great for HiFi retailers, and largely everyone who wants to offer the best quality connection.
The real question is: How does Wadia do it? How do they get to the digital signal?
Posted by Bad Beaver on January 5, 2008 at 6:20 AM (PDT)
5
Doesn’t streaming via an Apple TV connected with toslink, or HDMI remain digital the entire time?
Posted by Galley in Greenville, SC on January 5, 2008 at 7:58 AM (PDT)
6
I guess lugging an Apple TV around doesn’t sound too appealing as a portable solution, but hey, an iPod still seems to be the way to go. Although I’m not too sure how many people will casually have lossless or WAV file loaded on their iPods to really take advantage of the iTransport. Time will tell, hopefully more people are wanting to experience better quality (sounding) music in the future.
Posted by Ironyman on January 7, 2008 at 2:26 AM (PDT)
7
Bad Beaver:
Very good question. I remember reading about a custom mod that a company was performing some time ago to achieve this result - they had to open up the device to bypass the built in D/A converter and disabled the headphone jack in the process!! It seems odd that these guys can avoid this problem without modifying the iPod. It must access the iPod as a harddrive and process the data itself, rather than using its audio output?
Posted by WhoCares? on January 7, 2008 at 10:40 AM (PDT)