Pure i-20 v Onkyo DS4

[paul stacey]

I'm getting bored of fishing my cd's out of cupboards, so want to connect my ipod to my seperates.

Whats the better dock out of the Pure i20 or Onkyo DSA4 in terms of sound quality?

Pure has had quite good reviews on amazon etc, but when reviewed on here, was described as a good "occasional dock"

I wondered it the Onkyo might sound better. They both seem to cost about £75 & wasn't really wanting to spend loads, but at the same time would like something half decent

Thanks

Paul

 

[ayjaycee]

Paul, There are probably more knowledgeable people on this site than me and I only have experience with the Pure i20 but I think the answer would depend on your amp. Certainly with the Pure dock, you can choose to either connect via analogue (ie. phono cables) and the Pure takes on the DAC duties or you can do as I do and use an optical digital cable, in which case, the amp does the DAC work. Therefore, if you have a half decent DAC in your amp, use a digital cable and it should sound good. Certainly, I have no complaints with mine which feeds a Marantz AVR in that way (with a Chord optical cable which may or may not improve things further - that's another debate entirely!). Indeed, if the Onkyo works in the same way as the Pure (ie. feeding the digital data to the DAC in your amp), I doubt if there would be any difference in SQ between the two of them and it would all come down to cosmetic appearance.

Doubtless there are others on the site who would disagree with my view but that's my contribution for what it's worth - hope it helps.