[canbus]

Hi.

I currently own an 80 gig ipod video. I was wondering what would offer better sound- a CD player or having my Ipod Imodded by Red Wine Audio? I have about £300. So its either the Imod or a £300 CD player.

My music will be played via a rotel ra 04 amp, and possibly some B&W 685 speakers. Headphones are grado 80's and goldring DR 150's.

Thanks.

 

[Nuwidol]

Completely off topic sorry but what are the new 6 series B & W like?

Apart from gorgeous.

 

[Ichinichi]

Depends heavily on whether your main storage format is CD or not...do you need it portable or not?

edit: I mean, ~$600USD will get you a pretty decent CDP. The iMod does nothing with your DAC. And I've asked the underlying question before: at the cost of an iMod, would I be getting a better DAC in an equivalently priced CDP to the iMod's wolfson DAC? The consensus was that, if portability is not a selling point, and if discs are preferred (i.e. you have or plan on growing a library) you are better off investing your money on a CDP. Assuming your speakers are nice (given the inquiry above this post) you'll probably be better off going the CDP route. The iMod is a product of balancing cost, performance, power consumption and space; a CDP is more so only the cost and performance - none of your pennies go towards purchasing the portability and power engineering. Meaning you'll give your speakers that much better of a music source.

 

[325xi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by canbus /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi. I currently own an 80 gig ipod video. I was wondering what would offer better sound- a CD player or having my Ipod Imodded by Red Wine Audio? I have about £300. So its either the Imod or a £300 CD player. My music will be played via a rotel ra 04 amp, and possibly some B&W 685 speakers. Headphones are grado 80's and goldring DR 150's. Thanks.

If you already considering something beyond CDs then Squeezebox (get a standalone DAC on your next bonus) would be the best investment.

 

[canbus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nuwidol /img/forum/go_quote.gif Completely off topic sorry but what are the new 6 series B & W like? Apart from gorgeous.

No idea im afraid. I bought a 40 watt rotel ra 04 last week, and am using some old 120w accoustic solutions powerforce 2000 speakers &they sound utterly pants. So im after some new speakers. The B&W's are high on my hitlist for auditioning as they are reckoned to match well with the rotel amp and most importantly sound good. If you can suggest any other speakers in that price range that are worth audtioning, please let me know!


Quote:

Originally Posted by Ichinichi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Depends heavily on whether your main storage format is CD or not...do you need it portable or not? edit: I mean, ~$600USD will get you a pretty decent CDP. The iMod does nothing with your DAC. And I've asked the underlying question before: at the cost of an iMod, would I be getting a better DAC in an equivalently priced CDP to the iMod's wolfson DAC? The consensus was that, if portability is not a selling point, and if discs are preferred (i.e. you have or plan on growing a library) you are better off investing your money on a CDP. Assuming your speakers are nice (given the inquiry above this post) you'll probably be better off going the CDP route. The iMod is a product of balancing cost, performance, power consumption and space; a CDP is more so only the cost and performance - none of your pennies go towards purchasing the portability and power engineering. Meaning you'll give your speakers that much better of a music source.

Portability is largely irrelivant, the best sound quality (for my budget) is my highest priority. Also my CD collection was stolen some years ago. After loosing my collection and getting no insurance money and having no audio kit at all, i used to buy CD's and listen to them in the car. So what CD's i do have are now scratched. Which is why i like the Ipod. I can cherry pick music from my past collection via itunes. But itunes purchases are not in lossless... (edit: i believe)

Also, there is the 24 bit downloadable master recordings- like those sold by Linn records. Are Cd's 16 bit? I have downloaded the Linn test files to my Ipod (24 bit) in lossless. But to my ears at least, and using the Grados 80 and Golding dr 150's the downloads do not sound as good when played through my PC.

(Slightly OT, but try hooking your phones up to your PC and listening to some of these tracks. watch the volume though. http://www.linnrecords.com/recording...-espanola.aspx)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 325xi /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you already considering something beyond CDs then Squeezebox (get a standalone DAC on your next bonus) would be the best investment.

Looks interesting. Im currently using a mini to rca interconnect to supply the amp with music. Origianally i was after a headphone amp, but somehow convinced myself to buy a stereo amp. In the future when funds improve, i will go for a headphone amp. The graham slee solo, caught my eye. But for now its Source and speakers.


What about an Ipod audio dock out as opposed to the headphone mini out? would there be a performance gain from using a cheap dock out with rca to rca, as oppossed to what im using now, which is mini to rca?

 

[wmbow]

One other thing to keep in mind if you are imoddng a 5th gen ipod, is you will need to buy a dedicated cable from audio line out to hook it up to your amp. ALO does makes a mini to rca cable that runs around $285 US if memory serves. You would need to figure that into your cost. If portability is not a concern, then you can probably find a pretty good CDP for around $600, especially if you're willing to buy used. However, I own a 5th gen 30G imod and will probably get a mini to rca interconnect in the future so I can use my ipod with my stereo. Like the idea of having a 30G audio jukebox. With most rigs, you would probably have to spend a lot more money to make a noticeable improvment in the sound over the imod.

 

[eric5469]

how about a 160gb appletv? sound is really good and so is interface

 

[Icarium]

Dude a 300 pound cd player (ESPECIALLY if you go used) will crush the hell out of an Imod.

 

[meat01]

Quote:

Dude a 300 pound cd player (ESPECIALLY if you go used) will crush the hell out of an Imod.

Take this with a grain of salt, because these comments gets thrown around all the time without actual testing. The above quote assumes that all 300 pound cd players are great, yet most are afraid to actually backup their comments and test the 2 players blindly and would just rather make general assumptions.