[gary]

When I got my iPod back from Vinnie I was anxious to plug it in and see how it sounded, especially because UPS cost me an extra day by not showing up until 7:15pm to deliver it when I had already had to leave home at 6pm. Unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations, the sound was clearly distorted (it made my ears ring almost immediately at moderate volumes), bass was flabby and poorly defined, and the highs were etched and brittle sounding. Basically it was about what you'd expect from a $50 dvd player from WalMart and I was put off by that.

I knew the BG capacitors are notorious for taking ages to burn-in fully, but in my previous experience with them in my Clari-T & Nixon DAC that meant that things started out sounding really, really good and just got better from there. I was skeptical that the iPod could go through a transformation that would make an acceptable digital source given how much worse it was sounding at time t=0 than my Clari-T had. So, I relayed my concerns to Vinnie and told him that I'd be more than patient with it as it broke in.

(As an aside I was never a believer in break-in or burn-in at all until I got my Prometheus speakers. They sounded so bad when I first put them together and plugged them in that I wanted to burn them. My girlfriend, who has better ears than I do, was horrified that I had sold my gorgeous Ref 1 monitors to buy more expensive speakers that sounded absolutely f’ing horrible (her words). Fortunately things did change in time… after 100 hours the speakers became listenable, after 200 hours they started to sound really decent, and finally after about 400 hours of use they came into their own as serious contenders against just about anything else out there. This pretty much convinced me beyond any doubt that equipment can and does break-in with use. However, like I said, I was doubtful that the iPod could go through such a transformation but patient enough to give it a chance.)

So far that patience has definitely payed off for me. I plugged the iPod in and I’ve let it run continually whenever I haven’t been busy uploading CDs to it. That means it’s been playing overnight and during the day for the last four days or so and I’ve stopped to listen to it about every 10 or 12 hours. It’s really surprised me how much the character of the sound changed during each of those intervals… each time I’d sit down to listen I’d find definite changes, most noticeably in the treble, which again started out so bad that it made my ears ring. By yesterday morning, around 75 hours or so, the system was sounding good enough that I could listen to it and enjoy what I was hearing and that meant I could have a decent listening session at night before going to bed. I did, and finally my system is back up to par, which to me means it can deliver a sort of spellbinding experience that lets me totally get lost in the music and forget about everything else. That’s not an easy thing for a system to do, and after 4 days of anxiety I was very relieved for this to finally have happened again to mine.

If I was to describe the way the modded iPod is sounding now I would say it’s extremely detailed and fairly smooth, it’s liquid and fast like my battery-powered Scott Nixon DAC but it doesn’t force you compromise with the rolled-off highs of the NOS DAC. Its signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range are probably the best I’ve heard, the battery power and lack of moving parts work their magic to give you a dead-silent black background. Because of the detail and lack of background noise I’m hearing a lot of things in my music that I never picked up before, and that’s a good indicator for me. Things like guitar harmonics and organs layered quietly in the background are now far more noticeable. The bass has also tightened up significantly and it now sounds basically the same as what I heard from the Nixon DAC. That’s also a good thing. Things are still changing though, I like the sound now an awful lot but if the highs get a little smoother and cleaner as I expect them to I’m going to be one very, very happy customer.  

Anyway, sorry for the length but I wanted to be explicit for the sake of anyone who goes the same route I did. And my system is extremely resolving, so who knows maybe other people won’t be as annoyed with the initial sound as I was but if you are… be patient, grasshopper, good things come to those who wait.  

Gary

[GHM]

Very nice mini-review Gary. I enjoyed reading it a lot. Didn't seem too long to me. You say the SN NOS DAC is rolled off? I've never heard one but have seen the comment before some where. Which one of his Dacs is it. Thanks

Enjoy the new toy

[gary]

Very nice mini-review Gary. I enjoyed reading it a lot.

Thanks...

You say the SN NOS DAC is rolled off? I've never heard one but have seen the comment before some where. Which one of his Dacs is it.

According to Scott, all NOS DAC's are rolled off by definition (see the Q&A with him in this review). Also, I believe Audio Note has white papers on the NOS approach and why hearing less "micro detail" is a good thing.

I've got a DacKit, which was a completed (non-tubed) circuit board that he no longer offers. Vinnie upgraded the caps for me and put it into an enclosure with a battery power supply.

I'm certainly hearing more detail with the iPod than with the Nixon Dac, whether that's a good thing or not I'm not positive yet... I supposed I'll know better when the iPod is fully broken in and I've had lots of time with it then switch back to compare.

Gary

[Paul_Bui]

Congrats and thanks Gary for posting your impressions.  I am sure Vinnie makes good sounding gear.  After toying with my 2 SB2s a little longer I will probably join your iMod camp.

[GHM]

Thanks Gary for the link. I see the comment about "All non-oversampled DACs are -3dB down at 22kHz due to not having a digital filter".  WoW that's quite above my hearing threshold ..maybe this is why I do not notice a roll off. I may hear to 18 Khz but that's it. Most guys can't hear above this frequency either. My NOS Dac is just the opposite compared to other digital playbacks I've had any experience with.
I actually hear deeper into the soundstage with micro detail out the wazoo!
The difference being no edge or grain on top.

I also noted where Paul Candy said "Playback was completely devoid of any digital brightness or hardness. At first I thought the frequency extremes were slightly rolled off but after further audition, I was convinced that this appearance was due to the utter lack of edginess and the slightly more present midrange. I certainly didn't feel I was missing any musical information during playback."

Very interesting stuff..what's the voltage output of the Imod unit compared the the NS Dac? Thanks again for the great info.

[Vinnie R.]

I supposed I'll know better when the iPod is fully broken in and I've had lots of time with it then switch back to compare.

Gary...

Hi Gary,

Thanks for posting your prelim review and I agree that once your iPod is fully broken in, do a switch with your SN dac and see (hear) what happens.  I am very confident that it will continue to impress you, and I would not bother going through the royal pain in the butt in modding these units if I didn't know that the end result is really, really good!  

Everyone who owns the modded iPod tells me that they have fallen in love with its sound...somewhere in the 200 to 300 hour range of burn-in.
I really like the fact that (after burn-in) it has a nice amount of detail, but the overall tone is warm, and as you mentioned, is one of the quietest sources out there (battery power, running off a hard disk and not a spinning CD, extremely short signal paths).    At lot of my iMod customers are headphone users (using a headphone amp), but recently there have been quite a few Clari-T + iModded iPod (+ a pair of Omega speakers, usually) orders.  I hope more feedback comes in soon.

I know you are using Apple Lossless files and have the EQ feature turned OFF, which I believe is the best way to go with this unit.  And proper burn-in requires that you have the the iPod connected to the preamp or integrated amp (the preaamp or amp does not need to be ON) in order for current to flow from "source to sink," which is what causes those Black Gate NX-Hi-Q caps to actually burn-in.  Connecting to a 10k load (in your case, your passive attenuator in your Clari-T) is a nice way to do it!    

Thanks again and hope you hear back from you in another 100 - 200 hours of use.  Just let is play on repeat during your upcoming business trip.  When you return, it will be time to relax and listen (of course, you might be tense and needing to rush to catch  up on holiday shopping   ).

[Vinnie R.]

At first I thought the frequency extremes were slightly rolled off but after further audition, I was convinced that this appearance was due to the utter lack of edginess and the slightly more present midrange. I certainly didn't feel I was missing any musical information during playback."

Hi GHM,

This is a very good point.  When we hear something new, we are most likely comparing it to something that we are used to (our previous source).  We tend to get used to the way something sounds (e.g. a source that is a little on the "edgy" side) and when we switch (e.g to a NOS source that is not "edgy"), we might first find the sound a little rolled off.  This is why is it very important to get as familiar with the new component as you can, and then switch back to the previous component (If you didn't already sell it off) and hear what happens and what we prefer.  

Very interesting stuff..what's the voltage output of the Imod unit compared the the NS Dac? Thanks again for the great info.
..

Good question....after the mod, it is approx. 1Vrms.  I didn't measure it before the mod, but it seemed to sound closer to a typcial 2V line out when using the iPod dock.  This is important to note because I believe the SN Dackit is around 1.8Vrms, so when Gary makes the switch, he'll have to make sure the volumes are adjusted equally, which is not easy to do and makes fast A/B switching a real pain (sorry, Gary   )

[Jay S]

Nice review.  Though I have a nice modded SACD player I find myself using the iPod as a source (through the dock) 99% of the time since the shuffle play is so convenient.  The soundstage shrinks by half but it is fine for background listening.

At this point all my files are 128 kbps AAC and I am not sure when I will go through the hassle of re-ripping my CDs into Apple Lossless then editing out the songs I don't like again as I did before.  

Vinnie and others, will the iMod make 128 kbps AAC files sound less listenable (e.g. hear all the flaws!) or overall would the mod help?  I am thinking that I should first re-rip into Apple Lossless in order for the iMod to make sense?

I also need to find a 60 Gb Photo iPod... I currently have a 3G 15Gb iPod.

Thanks!

- Jay

[gary]

Thanks Gary for the link. I see the comment about "All non-oversampled DACs are -3dB down at 22kHz due to not having a digital filter".  WoW that's quite above my hearing threshold ..maybe this is why I do not notice a roll off. I may hear to 18 Khz but that's it. Most guys can't hear above this frequency either. My NOS Dac is just the opposite compared to other digital playbacks I've had any experience with...

Yeah, I think the highest pitch sound I can hear is somewhere close to yours, maybe even only 16kHz. Far too many rock concerts in my younger days sans hearing protection. You're right in the sense that those frequencies are basically above the range of human hearing, but I'm not sure they're still not important in how we perceive sound from instruments and voices. There has been some pretty interesting research pertaining to this and I think there will probably be more.

I also noted where Paul Candy said "Playback was completely devoid of any digital brightness or hardness. At first I thought the frequency extremes were slightly rolled off but after further audition, I was convinced that this appearance was due to the utter lack of edginess and the slightly more present midrange. I certainly didn't feel I was missing any musical information during playback."

This caught my attention too when I first read that review, and I was convinced it was the case for me listening to the Nixon Dac. Now I'm not so sure since I'm hearing quite a bit more detail with the iPod... I've heard "microdetail" from a digital source that was more an artifact of distortion (edginess) than something real, and this doesn't sound that way at all. It'll definitely be interesting to see what I think about the Nixon Dac when I switch back to it after a few weeks with the iPod.

what's the voltage output of the Imod unit compared the the NS Dac?

Like Vinnie says it is quite a bit lower than the Nixon Dac so I’ll have to be careful with volume matching when comparing. On properly recorded CD’s without compression (which are sadly few & far between these days) the Clari-T can still drive my Prometheus speakers to very loud levels, although I’m turning it up to a little over 1 o’clock whereas 11 o’clock was more typical with the Nixon dac.  

Thanks again and hope to hear back from you in another 100 - 200 hours of use. Just let it play on repeat during your upcoming business trip. When you return, it will be time to relax and listen (of course, you might be tense and needing to rush to catch up on holiday shopping  ).

You're welcome Vinnie, although it’ll be coming with me for use with headphones on the plane… I ordered one of these things, which should be here before I leave. I’ll be sure to post my impressions of that amp too as there’s a good chance anyone who has a modded iPod would still like to be able to listen with headphones.

Gary