wadia / onkyo comparison
ok here goes - the onkyo looks pretty smart in silver and blends well with my silver ipod. Was a little bigger than thought was going to be and could do with some weight adding to it, weight to me means quality and this feels a little flimsy - the connections on the back feel solid and includes digital, optical, composite and usb connection - the onkyo comes with remote (although doesn't seem to skip up albums even though there is a button - my ipod needs updating so this could be corrected), mains leads, usb cable, optical cable and the yellow one for conneting to av amp ect No ipod inserts come with the onkyo so you will need to dig your old one out. The dock has a sliding tray to pull over the ipod connector to prevent dust
the usb connector is a nice touch and a button on top swaps between the two - it says you can synch ipod whilst in the dock although not tried yet but def a worthy adition also imagine you can plays tracks straight from computer using this but again not tried
ipod connects very quickly and is ready instantly - well now the important bit sound - there are no analogue outs so needs connecting to a dac using either optical or digital - i used digital as my dac has no optical in. It sounds far better as expected than any other dock that uses the internal ipod dac. The sounds is pretty tight and detailed and has weight and punch whilst reamining open no problems with the sound stage, personally think internal ipod dacs sound flat. Using my cdp player as a transport through same dac still edges it but not by much its very close. All in all a great product for the money and a steal at £150.
The wadia in comparison is also light, perfectly square and twice as thick - the wadia is rough to touch not smooth like the onkyo but probably beats it for style but personal choice. The connections on the wadia feel cheap to me and never liked the mains connector. The wadia came with digital cable, remote and mains lead. The remote is very cheap even though the one with the onkyo isn't much better but is better. From memory i think the wadia came with ipod inserts.
The wadia has both optical, digital and analogue outs - its has an internal dac but no computer connectivity, i have never tried the internal dac so can't comment. It also lacks any light to say whether its working or not. The sound between these two is even closer but going to hold judgement and will update this shortly as trying to get an identical digital cable as to me there seemed to be a difference in volume between the two which i wouldn't expect going through the same dac and the wadia seemed to sound a little more exciting but could be the cable/difference in volume as the only spare cable i had was a standard interconnect - if i can't get matching set with try the freebie out of the wadia box as seemed decent cable to be fair - not easy for me to swap the two over due to cabinet watch this space as need to do some more experimenting and have an in depth listening session.
Although to be honest at this moment in time i think the onkyo could be the better option at half the price and with the added computer connectivity is the one i would probably go for - would be keen to hear what hifi thoughts on the comparison.
please ask me if you have any direct questions and will try to answer
MF Xray V8 CDP, MF Xray V8 DAC, MF X-170, MF A5CR Pre Amp, 2 Arcam P35 Power Amps, MA PL100s, Rel B2 Subwofer, Little Dot MKIII with Senn HD650, Wadia 170i, 160gb classic, Merlin Tarantula Mains, Chord Odyssey Speaker Cable