First off, what is a DAC (or in French, un convertisseur de signaux numériques en signaux analogiques)?

There are DACs in almost every piece of equipment that carries digital information. For example, a compact disc is a digital storage format where information is recorded in the form of binary code, with “1′s” and “0′s”. This information has to be read, decoded and interpreted as an electrical signal (analog signal) to be able to continue down the path all the way to the speakers or headphones. Today, HD televisions, DVD players, CDs, Blu-Ray players, computers, MP3 players, camcorders – that is, any kind of equipment that works with digital signals and produces visual or audio output – has to have a DAC.

The essential idea behind Wadia’s 170iTransport is to allow the iPod to attain the level of performance of a true “audiophile-grade” piece of equipment.

Millions of people around the wold have gotten an iPod since the release of the first generation in 2001. With 19 different models spread out over seven generations, all iPods have always had the same problem; when used to play audio through a sound system, the fidelity and quality of the sound is always a far cry from what a music buff or audiophile would expect. Wadia is offering THE solution to this problem in the form of the 170iTransport.

With capacities nowadays of up to 160 gigs, you can now record up to 245 hours of music in uncompressed CD format (WAV) which requires no alteration to the data of the original recording. Therefore, by docking the iPod on the 170iTransport and connecting the transport to an external DAC via its digital coaxial output (S/PDIF), or to one of your own units that has a digital coaxial input and handles digital to analog conversion, you can take advantage of the full quality of your music with the same accuracy and detail of the original disc.

In the end, after running the transport through several tests, there were two interesting points that came up for me. Initially, like many other people, I found that the product really does allow you to achieve a level of performance that comes incredibly close to the same musical experience you’d get from playing the original compact disc, given that your files are recorded in WAV format. But I noticed afterwards another interesting thing- when the 170iTransport is connected to a unit that has an “upsampler”, even files that have been purchased and downloaded from iTunes become more interesting to listen to. When you do this, you don’t necessarily achieve the same quality of the original recording due to the fact that the downloaded files are so enormously compressed, but all the same, it’s still much better than the standard audio output of the iPod.

In closing, Wadia is the first company in the world to have developed this type of transport for the iPod. Yet keeping in mind the popularity of the iPod since the beginning of the new millennium, it’ll be interesting to see what other rival companies will have to offer in response to this first initiative…

Happy listening!