Wadia Digital debuts the iTransport for the iPod
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 4, 2008 at 1:40pm
Wadia Digital, a high-end audio company, will debut the US$349 iTransport for iPod at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company says it’s the market’s first digital player dock to retrieve a direct digital signal from an iPod.
As a result, the audio signal remains pure and unadulterated, providing CD-quality resolution from full-resolution file formats such as .WAV and .m4a (Apple Lossless), according to Wadia President John Schaffer. In other word, it turns any currently available iPod player into a high-end media server by providing a bit-perfect digital audio output to an audio/video system, bypassing the player’s internal D/A conversion and output stage, he adds.
Subsequently, the audio signal remains clean and unadulterated throughout the path, Schaffer says. The iTransport, due in February, is compatible with all currently available iPods, as well as the iPod touch and theiPhone.
Along with turning an iPod into a high-performance audio server, iTransport is one of the first such products to access video content stored on currently available iPods. Similar to the audio section, the video signal is made available via high performance component outputs that
provide up to DVD-quality video, Schaffer says.
The iTransport measures 2×8 x 8 inches and incorporates a S/PDIF digital audio output and high-resolution component digital video output, as well as analog audio and video outputs forconnection with most audio/video systems. iPod players are charged while in the dock, and can be operated via Apple’s standard IR remote control.
The “Macsimum MWSF 2007 Coupon Book” is available for download. You can find it here and print it as a PDF. It has discounts, special offers and promotions in conjunction with the upcoming Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.
Billy Gore Says:
Well, as an analog-addict I do love my vinyl. And I definately do not prefer heavily-compressed tunes. But, as I’m using ‘Apple Lossless’ and higher bit conversions I do feel that if anyone could pass this along it would be Wadia. They do know their ‘numbers’.
Posted on January 04, 2008
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Mr Roberto Says:
Well, at least this is real hi-fi, as opposed to the hype that was put out when Apple launched that white boombox. But I will move to this new format as reluctantly as I did with the “forced” migration from analaogue to digital in the 80’s. This dumbing down of fine taste does not sit well with me at all. How will the iPod ever sit in a respectable position when the format it suports (digital bit conversion) is flawed to begin with?
I doubt this new-fangled thing will be any better than my Primare D30.2 CD player. And THAT previously-new-fangled thing couldn’t hold a candle to my Rega turntable, which had cost half the price.
Posted on January 04, 2008