The Daily Swarm

As a music addict I constantly download and stream tunes I cannot get in physical formats. As a HiFi enthusiast I also make every effort to ensure the music I am listening to sounds the best it possibly can—though it can be frustrating trying to coax quality sound from digital music devices. But if you know what you’re doing, it is possible to enhance the sonic integrity of your iTunes, iPhone, and iPod-based music systems at a reasonable price.

So how to do it? One of the answers lies in an essential part of any digital playback system, a component the high end audio community has been focused on improving for many years: the DAC (the digital-to-analog converter). Every digital player, whether it be a simple CD deck or a Blu Ray unit, has an internal DAC. We are analog beings and process auditory information in analog. No matter how many bits your digital system offers, the resolution, the sample rate, the bit rate; all the information needs to be converted back to analog in order to hear it. This is where some systems shine and others falter.

The biggest sonic obstacle lying in your digital path to better sound is your computer’s internal DAC. If you’re using the headphone jack/output (as most people are) to drive your desktop speakers or your stereo system you are relying on the computer’s internal DAC for the digital to analog processing which more often than not compromises sound quality.

Here I’ll discuss two different devices to improve your computer’s sonic performance, available at both your local HiFi dealer (yes, they do still exist) and various HiFi websites (like Music Direct: and Audio Advisor:). Some will even allow you to demo the unit before making a final decision.

Wadia 170iTransport (commonly referred to as the iTransport)
Price: $379

It’s an iPod dock, but it’s no ordinary one. Most consumer units allow for physical docking of your iPod, but do nothing in terms of digital processing music information. Most docks simply pull the analog signal from the iPod (relying again on the iPod’s inferior DAC). Wadia was the first to build a component that not only accesses the iPod’s digital datastream, but actually pulls out that datastream.

The Wadia is larger than other docks, but stylish. At 8” wide x 2.7” high x 8.0” deep, and weighing 4.6 lbs, this thing is hefty and about half the size of your average component. It supports most iPods and comes with multiple plastic inserts but does not support the iPhone. (Wadia is about a month away, last I checked, from introducing their new 171iTransport which WILL work with the iPhone.) Wadia is on their game and has a stellar reputation in audiophile circle.

When I first got the Wadia iTransport I was skeptical about how much better my iPod would sound. The iPod wasn’t, after all, something that I relied on for quality audio. Yet I was stunned to hear just how much better my compressed files sounded. Live DJ mixes, usually around 192k mp3s, sounded more dynamic and had far more bottom end than I thought possible for an mp3 file. The uncompressed files offered another level of musical reference entirely. The atmospheric sounds of Radiohead’s Kid A sounded just as lush and textural as the CD. However, as the old adage goes, crap in, crap out. If the files you are playing sound like shit to begin with, they’re not going to get any better with the Wadia, but if the file is decent you will be able to hear far deeper into the music than ever before.

Bottom line: The Wadia170iTransport will turn your iPod into a far better sounding piece of hardware and help unlock your iPod’s sonic potential, a potential most people don’t even know exists. (By the way: It also has video outputs so you can download movies to your iPod, dock to the Wadia and play movies on a big screen.)

HRT Music Streamer II USB DAC
Price: $149.99

High Resolution Technologies is a hot company in the HiFi world and their initial offering, the HRT Music Streamer + (also a USB DAC), was critically acclaimed, winning Editor’s Choice awards in high-end audio publications. I reviewed the unit earlier last year for Positive Feedback Online. The latest version, the HRT Music Streamer II, is close to half the original unit’s price and actually better in many ways. At $150 it’s also one of the biggest steals on the market.

The HRT Music Stream II is a very simple piece if gear. There is a USB input and a pair of RCA-stereo outputs. The greatest thing about the unit (aside of the sound of course) is that you can use any cable. Experiment with different cables (Audioquest, Cardas, Monster Cable, etc.) to get the best results for your system.

Cables are an important component and can affect your system’s overall performance and its ability to reproduce proper tonal balance, harmonic structure, and what is also known as “dimensionality” — the presence of space in and around the instruments. These details are also where the HRT Streamer II blossoms. It’s amazing how much better the sound can get after adding this little gem to your system.

A good way to demonstrate this is to hook up your desktop speakers or stereo system like you always have (possibly using the headphone output jack) and play something you know really well at a decent volume. Then, without changing anything (including volume) plug in the Streamer II and listen to the same song. After doing this at home, my wife immediately walked from the kitchen into our media/listening room and asked me what I had changed. I was listening to Martin Sexton’s “The Way I Am” off The American. She said the tonality and the subtle nuances of his voice seemed to not only become more coherent, but the overall gain sounded “louder” (her words, and she’s got great hearing, far better than I). I had, in fact, not changed the volume or any settings.

I continued to throw many things at the Streamer, waiting for it to show its weaknesses. I tossed in albums by Burial, Ani DiFranco, and Beth Orton and was impressed each time with the unit’s ability to capture both the subtleties and the energy of the music (which is the most important thing – a system’s ability to translate the emotive power of music or soul, for lack of a better descriptive term). We had similarly impressive results when streaming via Pandora, Last.Fm, and sites like Pitchfork and Trash Menagerie. The best hardware combination came when we used the Nucleus USB cable from Locus Design (expensive, but when you hear it, you’ll know why) with the Heimdall interconnects from Nordost (also not cheap, but outstanding cables). Fortunately for those still skeptical about cables, we were also able to get great results using average wires.

At $150 I would say that this little beast is a necessity for anybody constantly listening to music via their computer, whether streaming or playing your iTunes. The user can hear and feel, most immediately, the value of their investment. And to music execs always listening to files sent over the internet and needing a certain level of accuracy for referencing their final mixes, I would highly recommend the HRT Streamer II.

These units are only a fraction of what’s being offered on the market. Other companies (who we will cover in the future) like Peachtree, Music Hall, and AUDIOENGINE, for example, also offer killer sounding gear at affordable prices that integrate amazingly well into computer and music server oriented systems. Some even incorporate tubes in their designs (more on that soon when I tackle the DAC25.2 from Music Hall). You’d be amazed at how good tubes can sound in conjunction with your iPod or iTunes.

It’s a bright audible future for those willing to take step out of the murkiness and invest a little time and money in their beloved playback systems. We all have more music to access than ever before, why not have it sound good as well?