Wadia 170i vs Onkyo NDS1

[John Duncan]

matengawhat:the wadia has a built in dac to offer analogue out if needed

Ah see I made that mistake when I was a callow youth - there's no DAC, it's just a passthrough using the iPod's DAC.

 

[matengawhat]

oops - not sure where that came from! just to stress no it doesn't have a dac it is just pass through

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the review, very useful.

Is the confusion about the alleged internal Wadia DAC maybe due to the reclocking in the Wadia? A review at http://www.soundstage.com/digitaldomain/200902.html mentions the following:

"Of course, most iPod owners care more about the
quantity of music on their players than the quality of the files, so the standard 128
kilobit per second (kbps) data rate of Apple's standard AAC file format will be
presented to a 170iTransport far more often than should ever be permitted by law. These
files, once whole musical beings, are nothing more than a shadow of their former selves
when they enter the Wadia dock. Letting them out into the world wouldn't do much for
Wadia's reputation, so the company's engineers planted a little surprise inside
the 170iTransport: reclocking, which is applied to all incoming data regardless of file
type. Wadia's digital masters couldn't add
many features to the 170iTransport and still deliver it at an appealing price, so they
focused in on what really matters: sound quality. As mentioned, with lossless or WAV
(uncompressed) files, quality wouldn't be an issue, but AAC files might well be a
mess. Upsampling wouldn't make much sense with low-quality files, but reclocking
those files did. When the 170iTransport senses that it is receiving a compressed file, the
iPod's clock signal is discarded and the unit's internal circuitry inserts new
clock timing. The major benefit of this is what seems to be a considerable reduction in
jitter. Indeed, when listening to files ripped at AAC's default 128kbps, the
170iTransport sounded consistently better than the same file played off my music-server
laptop. Of course the 170' isn't magic and it couldn't make these files
sound as good as real high-quality files, but the improvement was impressive nonetheless
and would likely be good enough for casual listening or less discerning music lovers."

This could be the major difference between the Wadia and the Onkyo? The Onkyo states that it possess a "High-Precision Circuit Clock (ñ10 ppm) for Precise Digital Processing", but I assume this is not the same as what the Wadia does?

Can anybody comment on this. I would like to buy one but cannot decide...

Matengawhat, could you make a comparison between your Onkyo and Wadia for a highly compressed file (128kbps)?

Thanks

 

[matengawhat]

not sure i can as the onkyo has no analogue output only digital so the only way to compare the two with a 128kbps would be to take the digital feed from both and run through my dac which i am pretty sure re clocks and would removes any jitter so in the end it should end up exactly the same

i hate 128kbps files they lose all definition to both bass and vocals and just sound wrong to me

 

[idc]

oldntired:Thank you for the feedback idc. I hadn't used my PC as a source as it doesn't have a separate digital output (integrated sound board?) but a suitable sound card might be the quick and cheap way way to test the theory as post Christmas the Onkyo won't slip into the budget just yet!

I have only just noticed this post, apologies as I suspect it is too late. Your PC does have a digital output, any USB port outputs a digital signal, so you can connect to any DAC with a USB.

 

[Anonymous]

Sadly idc my dacmagic is older than you think (more '98 not '08) and only has BNC connections. C`est la vie!

 

[Anonymous]

I have had an Onkyo for about three months and I can say that straight out of the box it has performed very well . I did listen to the Wadia and it had a very slight audio advantage but not enough to justify the cost difference .

One thing that has changed and has upp the performance of the Onkyo is a replacement power supply from Russ Andrews. This has made the Onkyo not only sound better but moved its performance well above the standard Wadia . I would suspect that up grading the Wadia with an RA replacement power supply would change that but the Onkyo with RA power supply is at least £100 less than the Wadia and is far better .

I would rate the Onkyo as a great product at what is a very cost effective product that gives you the basis of a home juekbox with in my case 11,000 songs that is movable form room to room for a minimal cost . I know that many will moan about the lack of being able to use the iPod interface while it is plugged but for 99% of the time I just plug it in and hit shuffle . If I reaaly want to hear a track then take the ipod off the stand and search as normal but in truth if I really want to hear a piece of music then I take out the CD and play it better quality . iPod music even at its highest bit conversion rate is good but not that good all I can say about this dock is that it does allow you to hear that music at the best level it is going to be which is is all it is made to do in the first place.