iPod Classic... DAC and output stage info from Vinnie of RWA

[sugarinthegourd]

Props to Vinnie for saying the mod is not needed on these units. He could have taken a lot of orders and made a bunch of do-re-mi and I bet none would be the wiser...

[Bigmike34]

So wait. If you want to use the iPod's line out, you have to buy a dock? Then you can't use it except for home listening.

[lithe1]

Originally Posted by sugarinthegourd

Props to Vinnie for saying the mod is not needed on these units. He could have taken a lot of orders and made a bunch of do-re-mi and I bet none would be the wiser...

I definitely agree. Vinnie is definitely an honest and upstanding commercial dealer to be doing business with.

Now if what Vinnie says it is true about the 6G then I might want to sell my 4G and then mod my 5.5G and get a V-Cap dock... I guess it all depends on what the other listeners will be judging on the quality of the sound.

[spraggih]

Originally Posted by sugarinthegourd

Props to Vinnie for saying the mod is not needed on these units. He could have taken a lot of orders and made a bunch of do-re-mi and I bet none would be the wiser...

I read it the same way and think is indeed honorable. *But* I think Vinnie's assessment is for now-- I bet as he and others get to hacking around the Classic and seeing how this affects that and that affects this he/they may come up with a method to mod the Classic to improve the sound *substantially*.

I think the Classic mod is not on the table today. But tomorrow is another day. (Remember he could not find a way to improve the sound of the 5.5 initially and months later that all changed).

My two cents... worth about a penny or so.

[gnychis]

Originally Posted by Bigmike34

So wait. If you want to use the iPod's line out, you have to buy a dock? Then you can't use it except for home listening.

a dock *cable* which you connect to an amp which you connect your headphones to

[bigshot]

Do we know the specs on the Apple DAC yet? I would bet that it's comparable to the Wolfson.

See ya
Steve

[spraggih]

This is related (just a wee bit OT)... does anyone know if the iPod 5.5 radio remote works with the Classic?

[mirumu]

Originally Posted by spraggih

I read it the same way and think is indeed honorable. *But* I think Vinnie's assessment is for now-- I bet as he and others get to hacking around the Classic and seeing how this affects that and that affects this he/they may come up with a method to mod the Classic to improve the sound *substantially*.

I think the Classic mod is not on the table today. But tomorrow is another day. (Remember he could not find a way to improve the sound of the 5.5 initially and months later that all changed).

My two cents... worth about a penny or so.

That depends. From what Vinnie is describing, the actual output stage is embedded inside the DAC chip with very few components on the outside. You can't feasibly mod a piece of silicon inside a surface mount chip. This doesn't leave a lot of room for modding and any mods done will most likely be adding components into the signal path which is in itself detrimental and would tend to lead to trade offs. To really mod the classic it would seem you'd want to replace the DAC with a better one and hang a quality output stage off it but that wouldn't be a simple mod and would be prohibitively expensive.

[philodox]

Originally Posted by spraggih

*But* I think Vinnie's assessment is for now-- I bet as he and others get to hacking around the Classic and seeing how this affects that and that affects this he/they may come up with a method to mod the Classic to improve the sound *substantially*.

Not unless he replaces the DAC they are using...

EDIT: mirumu beat me to it.

[mirumu]

Originally Posted by bigshot

Do we know the specs on the Apple DAC yet? I would bet that it's comparable to the Wolfson.

Apple don't normally release specs of their proprietary chips. Personally though I suspect it actually is a Wolfson designed DAC either made under license by Apple or used a a module inside a larger chip designed to match Apple's requirements. That sort of thing happens all the time in the semiconductor industry.