My daughter made me a paper necktie for Father's Day & I like it much better than the Burberry tie I have in my closet.

Kidding aside, the iPod + Wadia + killer DAC would surely be one of the best solutions for digital music. I'm going to take the plunge and try myself. I have one of those older 4th gen iPods... one of the crappiest that Apple made. So it's time that I upgraded. I think I'll either go for iPod Touch or the iPhone just because they're solid state memory. I've tested the iPod Touch vs. iPod Classic & the Classic sounded MUCH better than the Touch, no contest. But via Wadia, the player's inherent SQ wouldn't matter at all anyways, and I like the idea of using solid state memory much better than the spinning hard drive.

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I added the basic $35 a meter Audioquest mini to RCA cables and it was well worth the investment.

Congratulations on having such great kids that they'll give you such a nice gift! You are connecting through the docking connector of the iPod, not its headphone output right? The signal at the docking connector bypasses the headphone amp (but unfortunately the volume control/equalizer are still in the path). The internal DAC is most likely a Wolfson.

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The internal DAC is most likely a Wolfson.

I could very well be wrong, but I think Apple went with Cirrus Logic chips this time around in their iPod Classic?

You're correct. Found this interesting set of measurements that delineate the differences between 5G (Wolfson) and 6G (Cirrus) iPods.

$35/ 3 feet of RCA-mini is "basic".....holy moly....try Parts Express or MCM Electroncis.....Stellar Labs or Dayton home brands, even some nice upper end for a few dollar$ more with Nuetriks or Switchcraft plugs. When a $35 3 ft lent of wire is "basic" you know the ad depts have succeded......funny stuff

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You're correct. Found this interesting set of measurements that delineate the differences between 5G (Wolfson) and 6G (Cirrus) iPods.

That guy's whole site is an engrossing read! Bookmarked.

It goes without saying but make sure to turn the volume all of the way up when using headphone out to drive inputs on a pre or integrated

Good for you. I have certainly enjoyed my 20 gig U2 IPod I also received as a give years ago. With my Grado 80s I have enjoyed carrying around 20 hours of wav files in my shirt pocket.

I have been curious about the Zune player and have not heard much about it in the press. I would love for someone who owns one to chime in.

Have a great time with your IPod. Nothing like the gift that keeps on giving.

Jim, haven't heard the Zune, but the best DAP I've heard, purely as a portable device, was the Sony 8XX series. I liked it much better than iPod.

funny you should mention the rolled off high end. i swear my ipod classic 160gb sounds like an improperly equalized dolby tape of years ago. i thought it was me. anyone else notice this???

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funny you should mention the rolled off high end. i swear my ipod classic 160gb sounds like an improperly equalized dolby tape of years ago. i thought it was me. anyone else notice this???

I've found that the Classic (I have an 80GB) is rather unpleasant to listen to unless (a) you use a headphone amplifier or (b) use a pair of Grados, which have a slightly boosted high end anyway. (And that's the way I use it-- at work with a headphone amp and a pair of noise-cancelling Sennheisers, and at home with no amp and a pair of SR-125s) The interesting thing is that compared to my previous iPod (a 3G) the sound is *much* clearer and more focused- and a more *extended* high end after the latest updates-- the new one may sound rolled off to some, especially with lossy files, but the old one barely felt like it had extension to 13khz. The old iPod was more "analog" sounding, like FM is analog sounding. This one feels like it's out to 16 or 17,000hz, (maybe more, since that's the limits of my hearing) but with a dip between about 5khz and 10khz.