mp3s will always be the limiting factor in your system. Go lossless. FLAC or ALAC

Well, the Wadia 170i is excellent when played through an excellent DAC that reclocks the stream from the Wadia. I have files on my 160G iPod that I recorded in Lossless with error correction on my office computer. The sound quality matches the original CDs played through a $15,000 CDP/DAC. Of course, I'm using that DAC for the reclocking/umsampling/conversion. If you use an ordinary DAC you'll get ordinary results.

Fortunately, there are some excellent DACs for well below $15,000. There was a thread over on www.audiogon.com about the Wadia and some good DAC alternatives. I think that Benchmark was a good candidate within your stated budget.

Unfortunately, your mp3 files now or your iPod will alway stink. You can improve them slightly with an upsampling DAC with very good alogrythms, but you're starting with goop.

You might think of developing a music server on your PC and then feed the files to your newly acquired good DAC and use the same DAC with the Wadia. You couldn't get 1,000 CDs of lossless files onto a 160G iPod, but you could easily find the hard drive space to do the deed on a computer.

I've used a $160 Oppo as a transport through my excellent DAC to get very good results, almost rivalling the $15,000 Playback Designs SACD/CD player with it's incredible DAC. Most of the sound quality comes from the DAC and its clock. So, you might consider buying as good a DAC as you can find, to use in combination with your computer and iPod and then get an inexpensive Oppo or Pioneer to serve as a transport.

If you DO get a standalone CDP, make sure that it's got a Digital In input, so that you can use it as a DAC with your iPod or a computer. This is a little hard to find in your price range, but its valuable to anyone with multiple digital sources.

Let us know what you decide.

Dave

mp3s are "pure digital" ..as digital as flac, wave, or anything else..

but they are not lossless.
just rip the files, use
THIS (this streams the music wirelessly to your hifi setup)

with whatever speakers and amp you want(look on audiogon)

or...just get a great soundcard like the ESI Julia with a good DAC like the lavry blue, benchmark , mytek, etc..

OR skip the soundcard and go usb out of the computer with one of the usb-compatible DACs..

all of the above need an amp and speakers of course (thats a deep river to wade in..ill let you do that yourself)..

you can go active speakers(no amp needed)

or pre+power+speakers

or integrated(pre and power in one)+speakers.

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mp3s are "pure digital" ..as digital as flac, wave, or anything else.....

I think that by "pure digital" he was meaning to say digital of better sound quality than mp3, at least that's the way I read it.

My 22-year old daughter is upset that almost all the music she's collected over the last several years is mp3. When she puts her iPod into my system the sound degradation is obvious compared to my lossless files of the same music. Oh well... of course, I paid for most of those sucky mp3s.

Dave

Quote:
My 22-year old daughter is upset that almost all the music she's collected over the last several years is mp3. When she puts her iPod into my system the sound degradation is obvious compared to my lossless files of the same music.

I say we set her up on a date with Stephen Mejias.

Quote:

Quote:
My 22-year old daughter is upset that almost all the music she's collected over the last several years is mp3. When she puts her iPod into my system the sound degradation is obvious compared to my lossless files of the same music.

I say we set her up on a date with Stephen Mejias.

Self-

What she's done is bad, but I don't think it's that bad.

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:
My 22-year old daughter is upset that almost all the music she's collected over the last several years is mp3. When she puts her iPod into my system the sound degradation is obvious compared to my lossless files of the same music.

I say we set her up on a date with Stephen Mejias.

Self-

What she's done is bad, but I don't think it's that bad.

Ouch! Rim shot, please... a good one!

. . .plus, if I am not mistaken Stephen is around my age (early 30's) and 22 year old girls make one feel a bit like a dirty old man.

There are many possible architectures for digital music systems and not all of them require a NAS. The simplest and least expensive means to get top notch playback of digital audio content is to simply connect an external DAC to your PC or Mac. Good external DACs can be had for anywhere between $200 and several thousand. At the other end of the complexity and expense sprectrum are UPnP/DLNA networked systems. This architecture requires a NAS with media server software, a home network, a networked player and possibly a remote. All the parts to set up a good UPnP/DLNA system will run at least $1000. The cream of the crop for networked players is the Linn Klimax DS which runs a bit more that $15,000. The market for UPnP/DLNA systems is just getting going, and, hopefully, prices will come down as more devices become available.

Bottom line is that there are many ways to put together a very good digital music source. Pick a budget first and start investigating options that fall in that budget. And, of course, drop the MP3 habit.