Wadia 170i
This review first appeared in hificritic magazine 1n 2008
The Wadia 170iTransport, despite its grandiose label, appears at first glance to be little more than a chunky, prosaic-looking iPod dock.However, its appearance sells it short because its aim is loftier: According to Wadia, it will turn your iPod into “a high-performance audio server.” Okay, all you audiophiles at the back of the room, please stop tittering now!
Before we go any further there’s a problem I must address: and that is what we call a loaded iTransport, which cannot make music alone so we cannot refer to its sound in isolation. As it has to be used in conjunction with an iPod, and knowing how much Mr Messenger loathes the term ‘transport’ when used wrongly as it is here, I proposed calling this merger of Wadia and iPod a WadiPod.
The WadiPod does not, like most docks, simply use the analogue signal output from the iPod but digs deep inside, bypassing its DAC andanalogue output stage, to pull raw data from its hard disk. This can be fed out from the unit as a converted analogue signal or as a digitalstream that can then be routed to a suitable DAC or the digital input of an amplifier. Of course, one would not want to do this with low-rentcompressed files so WAV and m4a (Apple Lossless) format files are the order of the day here.
Wadia says that the 170iTransport makes it possible to achieve true audiophile performance from your iPod. This is a claim that I will admit that I viewed with some suspicion. Just how much audiophile capability could something as puny as an iPod possess? And when the company points out that the 170iTransport is “one of the first such products to access video content stored on currently available (as of January 2008) iPods. Similar to the audio section, the video signal is made available via high performance component outputs that provide up to DVD-qualityvideo”, my eyebrows nearly hit the ceiling.
Physically, the iTransport is not the most impressive or appealing device you are likely to encounter this year. Measuring 2.7 inches tall, the 8-inch square slab is coloured a dull grey (that Wadia calls Silver) and sits on pointy, hard rubber feet. The top of the unit has what appear to be receptacles for a similar set of feet which seem to be redundant when one considers how one could stack another box atop it when it hasan iPod plugged into it. The facia bears an engraved Wadia logo with below a receiver window for the six-button IR remote handset. The rear panel houses the audio, component video, and power connections. Power comes from a plug-in 12V switching supply, which I was careful to connect to a separate mains feed from the rest of my equipment: there’s enough noise floating about on the mains without adding to it! I would have appreciated some sort of indicator to let me know that the unit was powered up but there is nothing to indicate any signs of life or activity.
I listened to the WadiPod through a Naim SUPERNAIT and Neat Petite combination as well as through my primary active DBL system with my Naim HDX/XPS set-up as – an albeit far more costly - point of reference. I used both the WadiPod’s analogue output and the digital output fed through a Behringer SRC2496 Ultramatch Pro AD/DA 24-bit/96kHz sampling rate converter. Both sources were connected to the amplifier/pre-amplifier with identical length Chord Company Indigo interconnects, and supported by Quadraspire Sunoko Vent tables.
Before I make any comments about the performance of the WadiPod it is worth getting one factor firmly in perspective: this is not an expensive device. Costing about £350 it might help to adjust one’s expectations accordingly. To run my tests I requisitioned my son’s iPod, vaped his collection of chav’n’bass toonz and replaced them with more appropriate material for a gentleman of taste and discernment…
Operating the WadiPod is not always as simple as one might hope – and will depend on the particular iPod model one is using. For example, in my case, the digital connection was active by default and the analogue outputs were not simultaneously active. Pressing the remote control ‘mode’ button activates the analogue outputs and deactivates the digital output. To reactivate the digital connection, one has to remove the iPod from the WadiPod, and then re-insert it. And whenever one inserts the iPod into the iTransport the devices need to handshake, for which one should allow ten seconds. Plug and play? Not exactly: more Plug and go have a cup of tea.
Wadia’s web site does point out that while “current generation iPod products provide full user menu and click wheel function when docked. These product (sic) also allow simultaneous digital audio output. iPod nano 1st generation and iPod 5th generation (video) lack this same ability. These products allow digital output, but do not provide full user menu and click wheel function while docked.”
I don’t know who is to blame for this infuriating interface inconsistency, but I’ll wager it’s probably not Wadia. Were I an iPod owner I would almost certainly want to buy a new machine and transfer all my music onto it so that I could access the menu and click wheel functions. However, I do not own an iPod. I’ve bought one for my son but that is the extent of my interest in the devices. I am no fan of portable music.
Playing through the SUPERNAIT’s analogue ports, music sounded encouragingly vibrant and well paced with reasonable dynamic compass and instrumental definition. However, the sound was not as detailed as that of the HDX nor as substantial or realistic. The WadiPod sound had neither the weight nor the sure-footed conviction of the appreciably more expensive hard disk player, even if you cranked the volume up, which seemed to help. A case in point was the title track from John Martyn’s CD Solid Air where the bass and Martyn’s voice both had markedly greater substance and presence, and the sax appeared far breathier on the more expensive unit… as one would hope and expect.
This comparison, however, hardly represented anything approaching a level playing field so I resolved to concentrate on listening to the WadiPod in isolation. I failed.
Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter has long been a favourite album of mine featuring as it does the evocative voice and idiosyncratically tuned guitar of Joni Mitchell along with the magnificent bass playing of Jaco Pastorius. All these elements were portrayed with delightful clarity on ‘Talk to Me’: Joni’s busy chord work and Jaco’s jazzy punctuations coming across clearly and never interfering with the lucidity of the singer’s diction. Nonetheless, the track was far better presented by the HDX whose timing more precisely defined the starts and stops of notes and more clearly preserved the gaps between them. It also better conveyed the human qualities of the singer’s voice: she sounded not only more convincing but more expressive, and Jaco’s Bass of Doom, as he called it, had more of that de-fretted, 1962 Jazz’s distinctive, rich, tone, bite and sustain—that extravagant mmmwah detonation when plucked.
I realised the best WadiPod performance, surprisingly, using the cheap and cheerful Behringer DAC, which contributed an enhanced sense of precision and improved timing to the presentation, albeit with the addition of a little sibilance to some vocals. The overall sound improved dramatically and really snapped into focus when the Behringer was switched to provide the clocking for the signal. It also usefully enhanced the performance with its 24-bit/96kHz oversampling, adding an extra degree of credibility and human warmth to Mitchell’s voice and richness to the track’s instrumentation.
I still harboured reserves about the WadiPod, though. Listening to Nils Lofgren’s Acoustic Live! on both CD and the HDX showed that the guitar playing was up to Lofgren’s usual impeccable standards, clean with distinctly separate notes whereas the WadiPod tended to blur faster played passages, diminish leading edges slightly and allow notes to run into one another, which did little for the songs’ timing. Feeding the signal through the Behringer SRC2496 brought greater clarity and definition but the replay still didn’t approach the CD for presence, speed, dynamics or musicality. While the CD sounded like a performance the WadiPod sounded like a recording.
Ultimately the WadiPod is not a bad piece of equipment but neither is it a world-beater. It could do better but then it would likely cost more. As it is, it looks like a fair option for those who own and want to enjoy their iPods at home through their hi-fi system, provided they can tolerate the iPod and iTransport’s idiosyncracies, which I found annoying.
I notice that there are sellers on eBay offering power supply upgrade kits for the iTransport, which add about £250 to its cost, and upon whose performance I can not comment. However, even if you were to buy an iTransport, have it upgraded, and add a reasonable, inexpensive DAC, you could still walk away with change from £800, which I suppose is not too bad, even for a package that I think is best suited to providing decent background music rather than rigorous, hard-core listening.
