Wadia Digital, maker of high-end digital audio products, has announced that it will demonstrate its new iTransport iPod Dock at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. According to Wadia, the iTransport is the “first digital player dock to retrieve a direct digital signal from an iPod.” The dock bypasses the iPod’s internal D/A conversion and output stage, allowing for output of pure, bit-perfect digital audio from full-resolution file formats (such as .WAV and Apple Lossless) stored on the iPod. “Until now, there has been no real bridge between the convenience of an iPod and the high-end audio listening experience,” said John W.
Schaffer, president of Wadia Digital. “The goal of making the player a true high-end media server has been hampered by the need to send the digital signal through a portable player’s D/A converter rather than that of a high performance audio system. Instead, we designed iTransport to bypass the player’s converter and output stage altogether.
When used with an iTransport, the iPod becomes a digital music source equal to some of the finest sounding transports in the high-end audio market.” In addition to S/PDIF digital audio output, the iTransport will also feature component outputs for DVD-quality video, as well as analog audio and video outputs, and will also feature compatibility with Apple’s standard remote control. Wadia Digital’s iTransport is compatible with all latest-generation, Dock-enabled iPods, including the iPod touch and iPhone, and is expected to be available in February for $349.
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