Advice re upgrade of hi-fi - possible ipod dock?

[The Fat el Hombre]

Basically I'm thinking about updating my hi-fi a bit. Got my budget system about 8 years ago, it's a NAD C320 BEE amp, NAD C521BEE cd player with Mission Volare V60 speakers, QED cables and atacama nexus speaker stands. Firstly - not sure the speakers were ever really up to much, so I'm thinking of replacing them. I was gonna buy a new pair but then thought about picking some in good condition off ebay as I might be able to get a better sounding pair for the money I'm paying. After a little looking it seems that the now discontinued B & DM 602 S3's are a good bet at around £180-200.

But from here on in I'm not sure what to do. Is it worth buying a cd player? I put all my CD's into a wallet that I can't find, I suspect someone half inched them at a party somewhere along the line. Also, my current cd player has stopped working as it can't read any cd's (this coincided with my nephew staying in my room when I was on holiday funnily enough). I'm hoping it's just a bit of dust on the lense or something that can be easily sorted.

So I was thinking of getting an ipod dock to connect my ipod to my amp. After a quick look it seems that there aren't very many of these and that they are in the early stages of their devlopment. I looked at one for about £200 and what hi fi said that it's ok but a cheap cd player would beat it for sound. So is it better to just get a cd player and burn loads of cd's rather than use an ipod dock? I've got a lead to connect my ipod to my amp at the moment and I tried it out last night compared with my logitech S715i portable dock and truth be told there really was very little difference in sound (obviously my amp and speakers had more depth but as far as quality was concerned there seemed little difference). Is this due to the cheap lead being used or the ipod itself, or both? I don't want to shell a load of money out on a dock and speakers only to find that it is dependant upon the poor quality sound of the ipod.

Any advice welcome please

 

[bigfish786]

speaking from experience, burned cd's are not the best sound quality,

i bought a cambridge audio ipod dock years ago, it was ok, but nothing to write home about.

i think technology has now moved on, whearas you can now buy dac's for ipods now, which should sound much better.

 

[manicm]

Look, I bought an Arcam drDock to go with my Arcam Solo Mini, I bought an iPod classic 160GB, and while the sound was good - the drDock bypasses the classic's DAC - it was slow with my Mini, but I had it integrated, standalone might be a bit better. Also note you'll need an adaptor with the latest iPod touch's / iPhones.

After two docks and devices, I've decided I'm not going near an iPod fo hifi duty - ever. It's invariably a finger and wallet burning exercise.

Also, I'd agree that if one can avoid buying another CD player, one should. So I'd seriously think of getting a DAC and a cheap laptop for hifi duty. That should be possible for about 600 quid, give or take.

 

[Ajgarnham]

Have you thought about getting an Apple TV and a DAC? Can do lossless streaming, that's the route I'm taking. I've already got a couple of apple tvs in the house so shall pair one with my new system using an Arcam rLink.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

To be honest guys I didn't really know what DAC's were. I'd heard the term here and there but wasn't actually sure of what they do, but it's seemingly the way forward so I'll look into that route.

manicm - I had a look at the drdock myself and was considering it. If I was to buy a DAC and use my current ipod with it would that not be as good as using it with a laptop!? Would the DAC not bypass both the laptop and ipod DAC's the same!?

Ajgarnham - no I haven't, I'll look into it