[moodyrn]

Well in that case it's not any more portable than the i20. I don't own the i20, but very experienced headfiers like Skylab and some others who own much more expensive idevices, said that it's just as good at extracting digital from an idevice as any of there expensive idevice transports. Skylab even said that if he hadn't already bought the ones he had that he wouldn't spend that kind of money on something when the i20 was just as good for much lower. I was fairly interested in the nuforce until I read it wasn't portable. So I guess I'll continue to hold out until something much cheaper than the clas and fostex comes available.

 

[zzffnn]

I would buy the iDo right off, if it is battery powered. I still think iDo is very nice for those who want a compact and all-in-one headphone system, although it uses a wall wart.
 
I am using Pure i20 to get digital signal out of iPhone, which is streaming 320 kps MOG (internet radio). For its price and features (provides video output for Youtube as well!), i20 is hard to beat. 
 
I wish I can have a cheaper version of Fostex HP-P1 (at iDo's price or lower) so that I can enjoy internet radio anywhere I want.....

 

[VncentValntine]

This is such a cool product and funny enough, I was never in the market for one until just a few weeks ago when I started my first "real" job =p.  I have my iphone's dock at my desk and I want to use my grados, but that line out port behind the dock just teases me with it's un-ampedness.  This would be perfect to plug in behind the iphone's dock and have both standing pretty at my desk =).  It's just too bad this product couldn't be just a bit more integrated and actually have the dock built into the device.   But, oh well, I'll still most likely be getting this

 

[shrimants]

Its not battery powered. Its like a cypherlabs Algorhythm solo, but without a battery, without any word on internals or FR test charts or anything, and without the portability.

Its so that you take your ipod and an ipod USB cable, plug the cable into the ipod and the USB end into the iDo, and then listen to music out of the iDo. Sure, you can use the iDo as an amp, but with so many better sounding, better looking, cheaper options availble for an ipod line-out -> amp line-in connection, why would you ever go with the iDo?

Its excellent for the following setup:

• you want to listen to ipod at work
• you do not plan to move around with the ipod (thus eliminating the point of the ipod.....)
• you dont want to listen to ipod's headphone output at work
• ipod's LOD -> amp is not of acceptable quality to you
• you cannot afford/dont want Fostex HP-P1
• you cannot afford/dont want cypherlabs algorhythm solo

If you do not fit any of those criteria, iDo is not the product for you, and there are plenty of alternatives. I initially thought iDo was an affordable alternative to CLAS and HPP1, but then the guy said it was a desktop sort of deal.....It is basically like the Fiio E9i, but instead of using ipod's LOD, it reads the file itself off of the ipod, unencrypts it into the original content, then uses its own internals to play it. Its like using the ipod as an external hard drive/controller combo connected to your laptop, but in a much smaller and more convenient package.

Also, given what I found out about NuForce purposely giving their products a "fun" equalization (enhanced bass+treble, recessed mids. NOT a "pure" dac/amp combo) and how closed source the company is in regards to what their chipset or implementation is (like Fiio, Headroom and iBasso, for example), I would never buy a NuForce product. Heck, just read their responses in this very thread.

 

[Mochan]

You are absolutely incorrect, shrimants. It's not like an E9i. The E9i doesn't have a DAC.  This does. the entire point of the entire iPod transport branch of gadgets is that they bypass the iPod internal DAC by extracting digital data bit-perfect. Whatever that means. And feeds it to another DAC --> either externally only like the older stuff -- Wadia, Onkyo --> or with option of an internal DAC like the iDo, Pure, CLAS and HP-P1.
 
It's nto just iPod Line Out -> Amp Line in.  You didn't even see the DAC portion in the equation. That misses the entire point of this entire line of products.
 
 
That said... I see a lot of people dissing the Pure i20 as some cheap poor man's iPod Transport. I can assure you, that's absolutely incorrect. The i20 sounds fantastic, and actually its internal DAC sounds better than a lot of mid-end DACs I've heard such as the Beresford TC7510.
 
I am finally getting an iDo tomorrow, I am going to pit it head to head against the i20 to see just how good its DAC is, but in terms of serving as a transport to another DAC these all pretty much sound exactly the same. And in fact, the i20 is the most hassle-free of the lot. The CLAS, HP-P1 and I hear even the iDo have issues where you sometimes need to disconnect and restart your iDevice because of poor performance with the dock.  I have never had to do this with the i20. It works perfectly 100% of the time with four different iDevices I have (Nano 2G, Nano 6G, iPhone 3G and iPad)

 

[shrimants]

I think either you misunderstood me or that i was unclear in what I was trying to say. I know the E9i has no DAC and that the iDo does. I stated that the E9i is more of an LOD-> amp whereas the iDo is a proper DAC bypass for the ipod.

 

[Mochan]

My bad, you are right, I misunderstood your post. Having re-read it you are spot on. My apologies. 
 
Anyway I've never been a fan of NuForce, I was pretty disappointed in their Icon Mobile and uDAC, and now I have the iDo. Well the iDo is actually not half bad as a transport. the iDo's DAC section IMO doesn't sound as good as the i20's DAC. The i20 has a more forward, colored sound though whereas the iDo's is more neutral, but still has a noticeable bump in the midbass. 
 
Overall I think the i20 still sounds better and has a higher degree of clarity. The iDo's DAC is a lot better than the other DAC I have, the Beresford TC7510, which just sounded flat and dull.
 
However, the iDo on the other hand has a very iffy amp section. I'm not impressed by its headphone amp at all. It sounded rather dull and flat with my modded SR80, and it didn't really play ball with the K701. I will try it with my LCD2 tomorrow morning, but the amp section was not even as good as some portable amps I have, in fact I think a Cmoy might even sound better. This is a bit disappointing considering it's a desktop-powered model.