Krell Interface Doc (KID) for your ipod....

[freethegeek]

Anybody else come across this?....

http://www.krellonline.com/misc/0269_001_MAN.pdf

also mentioned on

http://www.avrevforum.com/showthread.php?t=976

(hopefully this is the right forum - amps seemed less appropriate)

Besides the 1500$ price tag...there appear to be a lot of interesting questions raised by this..

Wonder what this means?...
"The KID is the first product of its kind to utilize the fully differential output of the internal
DAC for iPod devices—unaltered or modified"

...and...

"Opto-isolated digital connections between device and KID"

if it's just a fancy lineout doc/preamp, maybe all those with gen 5 iMods could hack the krell to unclude coupling caps inside the box ..

if it's acutally a dac/preamp combo. may actually be worth the money...

hmmm... interesting

 

[Logistics]

Well, I've only ever seen two connections used on the iPods, the 1/8" (analog) headphone jack and the line-out (which is also analog) from the bottom connector. But they claim it's a digital connection, so maybe it interfaces with the iPod like a PC would and gets the data off of it rather than letting the iPod convert it to analog.

Edit: But then, it says it uses the internal DAC of the iPod... hmm.

 

[lextek]

I'm pretty, sure it's been posted before that there is no digital out from the iPod. Unless Krell mods the iPods for the docks. I am a huge Krell fan!

 

[audiomagnate]

Krell is the the new price no object Bose/B&0. It's good stuff, but they lost their soul about 12 years ago. I smell sh**.

 

[lextek]

The KAV-400XI still has soul..........

 

[Quaddy]

i think they are somehow quasi-acoustically DSP'ing the output via a bose-ism device of sorts. flavouring the sound, just like a DFX plugin!. its gotta be before the horse has bolted not after!

 

[Logistics]

Actually, I just talked to my cousin tonight, who works for Apple, and he said there is Digital Out, and pointed out that even on his iPhone that there are four such pins in it's connector. I don't know if it's common knowledge, but he said the voltage of the analog output at line-level is about 1.56V.

I guess this makes sense... I mean if you can transfer data on and off of it, it has to be able to give a digital signal. It's not SPDIF, but it's technically digital. I guess Krell's site did mention RS-232.

 

[Scottsmrnyc]

I have been researching the Krell Kid for about a week now and I find it a very interesting piece of equipment. I was thinking about getting a high end Cd player but I have no patiences for getting up and changing the cd each time it ends. I wanted then to buy a multiple changer with balanced stuff in the back; but found that there weren't any on the market. Next I was lucky to find a number of I Pod Docking stations which would allow me to have onlimited music playing through my headphones and or external speakers. This seemed like just what I was looking for. With that, I decided to purchase a Wadia 170i Docking station for Ipods; thinking that it had a lesser price of $379; just to see if I could get the decent sound improvement. The Wadia will arrive via FEDEX in about two hours. If I do infact get an improvement, then I will be happy. I might also purchase the Krell Kid at $1500 as well in the near future. It is truly sad that no high end audio company to my knowledge at least makes a multiple CD player with Balanced ins and outs. I think it is stupid to buy a high end single play cd player/ transport and have to get out of your comfy listening seat every 50 to 70 minutes to change the cd. I also believe that the sound quality on these new Ipod docking devices is improving rapidly. In a couple of years, no one will be listening to Cds any more. The future is with Ipod like devices. My Ipod classic holds almost my entire Cd collection of over 1000 cds and I have only used up about 50% of my total space. The sound quality is pretty good as well. The Krell Kid is way less in price than a high end Cd player/transport as well. The future is here/Hear!!! Scottsmrnyc

 

[Scottsmrnyc]

Okay I have been listening to my new Wadia 170i Ipod Interface. I do like it but it doesn't seem to offer much of an improvement to what I had before. Prior to the Wadia 170 i, I had my IPod Classic hooked directly into my Preamp using Monster Cables M1000i. How do you compare the Wadia 170i to the Krell Kid in terms of sound quality? Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Scottsmrnyc

 

[iriverdude]

Scottsmrnyc, why not just buy a standalone 3.5" hard disc based player or media streamer? I cannot see the point of spending hundreds if not thousands of pounds, when you're limited to ipod capacity and user interface control.

Request/Naim server is higher end digital audio server, if I had the cash I'd but that...not DAP + Dock :-/

 

[Scottsmrnyc]

Those sound interesting to me. I must be honest and say that I am very new to the world of Ipods. I am looking to weak the sound from my external speakers at the low to mid volume levels. My investment for the Wadia 170i was about $379 which was not too bad. I do own a lot of high end gear as you can tell from my list at the bottom of my posts. Can you tell me more about the 3.5 hard disc based player or media streamer- as I am not familiar with these products.

In other news, I have listened some more to my Wadia 170i and I have notice that when I play a well recorded Ipod album through the Wadia there is more than a 3% improvement in sound quality. It might be as high as a 5% ot 7% improvement. I figured that if in a year I upgraded to the Krell Kid, that I would probably get an even greater improvement in sound at the low and mid levels. As you can see that I live in an apartment building and can not blast my music and I don't generally like listening to music at high volumes therefore, I am looking for improved clarity and definition at the low and mid levels. Iriverdude- I will now look into your suggestions. Thanks Scottsmrnyc

 

[iriverdude]

I have not used the higher end sound servers, I do know Naim, Arcam and Request have own systems. I don't know how open they are (I use Erland Custom Browse A-Z artist plugin, it makes a large collection so much easier to browse) They're out of my price range though.

It's pity Slim Devices don't make a transporter with CPU and SATA controller for HD built in, that way just fit one, install slim center copy music and you have a self contained server/music player.

I can use my H140 digital out to a DAC, or line out to pre-amp but I just can't see the point. Even if I had IR remote for the iriver I can't see what I'm doing, so I'd need two way remote. And still limited to 38GB storage.

 

[nc8000]

As I understand this (and I could be absolutely wrong) Wadia and Krell ahve worked with Apple and licensed a special chip that does allow you to get a digital signal out of iPods (ie. one that has not been processed with the internal dac of the iPod). The KID has an internal dac and therefore sends out a much better analog signal. The Wadia has no internal dac so can send out either a digital signal to be used with an external dac or can essentially pass the normal lineout signal from the iPod on and so in that mode shouldn't be much different from any other dock you can buy.

Another way I could see these docks working would be that they simply use the iPod as a harddisc and does all the signal processing internally but I don't think that is how it works.

 

[nc8000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have not used the higher end sound servers, I do know Naim, Arcam and Request have own systems. I don't know how open they are (I use Erland Custom Browse A-Z artist plugin, it makes a large collection so much easier to browse) They're out of my price range though. It's pity Slim Devices don't make a transporter with CPU and SATA controller for HD built in, that way just fit one, install slim center copy music and you have a self contained server/music player. I can use my H140 digital out to a DAC, or line out to pre-amp but I just can't see the point. Even if I had IR remote for the iriver I can't see what I'm doing, so I'd need two way remote. And still limited to 38GB storage.

Another option for home music servers is the Popcorn Hour http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinesto...option=catalog that one of my friends have and like a lot.

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lextek /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm pretty, sure it's been posted before that there is no digital out from the iPod. Unless Krell mods the iPods for the docks. I am a huge Krell fan!

there is absolutely a digital out on the ipod; its there in the form of an i2s ( a serial connection for digital audio, the basis of spdif) signal. now whether this is entirely different to what it uses when you dock your ipod to your computer i'm not entirely sure; in that case it could be using the usb data transfer, not i2S, but there is a signal there; you just gotta pay mega$$$ to get the unlock chip. there are some high-end car stereos that use it too

Scottsmrnyc: to get the improvement you really must be using it with an external dac. otherwise its no wonder there is little difference between using it that way and via your normal DOCK; its the same thing if you use it without a dac you are simply using the analogue lineout the same way you would with an LOD