Wanted: Portable DAC wanted $100

Do you have a modded iPod Classic? Because you know a "regular" iPod Classic won't output a digital signal to a portable DAC, right?

Wadia and Onkyo (and maybe other companies now too) make desktop docks that will take a digital signal from an iPod you can send to a DAC. But those are not portable. Portable solutions come into play with a Red Wine iMod, or a similar diyMod, but those don't send the digital signal out through a USB connection.

change which caps are in the signal path

Hey Now,

I think the only portable DAC solution is the Cypher Labs AlgoRhythm Solo, which is a few bucks. I use an iStreamer, but I need to be plugged in. 

I also have a RWA iMod, it bypasses the analog section of an iPod, takes the signal right off the iPod's DAC. You need to have some capacitors in the chain and in my case a 5th gen iPod - I have external caps, iso of 4th gen which are internal to the iPod. Then there are a slew of DIY iMod solutions for different gen iPods. Good luck on your search.

--

Finest kind,

Chris

A regular iPod has two analog outputs-- the headphone jack at the top, and the line out at the bottom. The line out dock is considered to be better, so many who use portable amps have a line out dock (or LOD) to feed the signal from the bottom of the iPod to their headphone amps.

The Red Wine mod passes a digital signal (as ccklone says, bypassing the iPod's analog circuitry) straight from the iPod's DAC either to the headphone jack or the line out dock (depending on the iPod generation). Various diyMods do basically or exactly the same thing, again depending on the generation of the iPod.

When Wadia came out with their digital dock it became clear that you could get a digital signal out of the dock at the bottom of the iPod but you needed to license a chip from Apple to do so. One reason why the Wadia, Onkyo, and Cypher Labs products are pricier is presumably because the first chunk of change you spend goes to Apple. So you're not going to find anything for 100 bucks for the desktop, let alone portable.

You can find that sort of thing to use with a MacBook-- most Apple computers have a digital output minijack. Somebody has a Carrie amp listed here which takes power and a digital signal via the USB jack. But for an iPod Classic, for a hundred bucks, stick to a decent LOD and a little amp. It'll sound a bit better than the headphone jack and not that much different from an iMod (in my opinion).