Pure i-20 iPod/iPhone Dock as a DAC

[daximus]

This dock (digital media transport) is reviewed in both HiFi Choice and What HiFi this month - with Choice giving a very favourable 5 Star review and What HiFi offering 4 stars with highly favourable editorial. Looks to be be a bit more than just good for the outlay

 

[pinoyman]

from hifi choice:
 
PURE has drastically lowered the price of digital iPod transports with the launch of its i-20, a dock with the all-important optical and coaxial outputs for connection to an external DAC�..This delivers �true hi-fi audio performance levels�, including signal�to-noise and distortion measurements.�
 
 
 
 
i think, this answers if this performs as the onkyo nd-s1 transport.
 
the answer is YES.

 

[cooperpwc]

Quote:

from hifi choice:
 
PURE has drastically lowered the price of digital iPod transports with the launch of its i-20, a dock with the all-important optical and coaxial outputs for connection to an external DAC�..This delivers �true hi-fi audio performance levels�, including signal�to-noise and distortion measurements.�
 
 
 
 
i think, this answers if this performs as the onkyo nd-s1 transport.
 
the answer is YES.

That sounds like the reprinting of a press release (which is standard practice). The PURE may indeed be amazing - I am hoping so - but it is to early to say that it matches the specs of the Onkyo.
 
It might.

 

[pinoyman]

woohoo!!!
 
cant wait to here more on this!

 

[pinoyman]

i wish we could you the apple remote with it...

 

[pinoyman]

i wish you luck!
im still waiting for amazon us for the stock.
do you know where can i buy one of this that can ship to the philippines?

 

[daximus]

Hello everyone, i'm new here but the reviews in HiFi Choice and What HiFi were good and as per my avatar - I have one
 
I can also tell you that you CAN drive with the Apple uni - remote but there is no back/up key on the Apple remote so you need to press menu or back on you ipod/phone to go up a level in the music library
 
But navigation and play work fine for me

 

[daximus]

My remote seems okay to be fair but PURE are nice people generally to deal with, once you get dialogue they solve the troubles. I had a radio with some odd power issue once and they happily swapped it out for me and pretty quickly, so i think you'll turn out OK.
 
Did you try a new battery - also I got totally caught out recently with my MCE PC remote apparently failing or working very kranky and it turned out that the new spotlight bar in my room was affecting the IR - when the light was off the IR was fine... just a thought incase you have interference of some kind...
 
Good luck - oh and I am VERY happy with mine, the onboard audio (analogue) is suprisingly good - which is bad because now i'm going to have to "race" it against an external DAC or 2 to see if different is better, worse or just different - lol

 

[pinoyman]

im very happy with all the owners here...
i wish i could see the availability now in amazon...
 
so sad..

 

[hugo5282]

 


Had mine now for 2 days. Using with an ipod touch receiving music via wifi via the stream t me app.

Out of the box with a couple hours of play, it sounded quite good. Overnight burn in, next day the quality picked up. I still felt that it sounded slightly veiled and slightly slow.

Upgrading the power supply to a regulated one, greatly improved dynamics, detail, and paced better. I would highly recommend trying this out for so much gain.


Cant wait to hear what tomorrow brings. Ultimately I will buy an external dac, but will live with it in the meantime and just enjoy.

Hope this is helpful. Killer value for money product.

 

[sz1999]

i need help to clarify, does ipod connect output digital signal. I always though ipod connect is analog lineout only. If ipod is lineout only, then i-20 is not passthrough, it used its own A/D to convert lineout to digital (like optical).

 

[nc8000]

Newer iDevices contain a chip that allows digital out on pins in the normal dock connector and this can be activated by devices that contain another chip licensed from Apple. The Pure, Onkyo, Wadia, Solo and other docks that allow digital out all contains this chip

 

[sz1999]

Good info, is both optical and SPDIF treated as same raw digital?

 

[nc8000]

I would guess so but don't possitively know

 

[Steve1456]

I managed to borrow an i-20 from a friend today and can highly recommend it.
 
I set up a nice little mini system of i-20 > Graham Slee novo > Sennheiser HD580 and the result using lossless tracks from an ipod classic was really impressive.
 
Being curious, I also hooked up an Arcam rDAC between the i-20 and the novo using coaxial digital and I can confirm that definitely improved things further.  The biggest improvement seemed to be an expanded soundstage and a slight improvement in the midrange.