Pure i20 iPod Transport/DAC

[Mochan]

Strange, I thought MBC had an i20 thread? I searched Headphiles all around and couldn't find it. If it's here somewhere please merge.



But man I just got the i20. This thing RAWKS!

Got it for 6.7k from Britain via Dinkoy. really good. It's an iPod/iPad (!) dock, remote, charger, DAC and transport rolled into one. I can finally use my iPad's nightstand as a real nightstand, haha. For under 7k landed what a deal.

Aside from the awesome utilitarian use, the sound is also incredible. Using the same MP3s I think I prefer this presentation as a source to the E7 + laptop combination. Very close actually, except the i20 with its internal cirrus logic DAC sounds a bit more energetic. This works to the advantage of my amps and gear -- the Maverick A1 is a bit laid back and sometimes loses details, but with the i20 the details come jumping back in thanks to the extra energy.

I20 is a very forward, aggressive sounding source with lots of energy all around. I know I typically like laidback gear but this forward nature of the source really works with a lot of my laidback gear. I don't know if I should say, "So this is what I've been missing!" or if it's just the right balance with my gear.

The bass is tight but very authoritative, I think it got a bit of an enhancement somehow but it's very punchy and authoritative. The treble is energetic but not harsh. I'm really liking this new sound.

More importantly it lets me get rid of the laptop from the equation, which is really, really convenient. Using nothing but a Nano 6G as source, the sound is better than the E7 DAC. It's actually quite close, but the i20 has more energy and feels like its bringing out the details more without sacrificing any of the strengths of the E7. The real advantage though is in the soundstage -- the i20 sounds even more open than the E7 does. Was surprised at this change in the sound.

Also the E7 has to work with Windows and Winamp in WASAPI mode to even compare. With WASAPI turned off the E7+m11 can't even compare as a source, it sounds dull, lifeless and boring in comparison.  Should note the i20 seems to have a lot more gain and headroom -- even at just half the volume it matches Winamp Wasapi E7 at 100% blast.

Very interesting piece of gear, and well worth the money for a desktop setup.

It doesn't fix my portable need, but I'll look into that separately. For 6.7k this piece of gear is a no-brainer for anyone with an iPod needing a desktop setup. The beauty is in the upgradeability -- later on if I want to get a better DAC I can easily add one to the chain as the i20 is made to serve a bit-perfect transport.

[Mochan]

Ohhhh...... I just heard a problem!!!


I heard JITTER!!!

I usually laugh at jitter... but this time I think it happened. Now I'm not like those audiophiles who can hear jitter, but in this case what I heard was an actual skip in the track at the very start of the song. I think it happens when the iPod changes tracks from the previous track... and I think it has to do with crossfade. The problem doesn't occur when I play a brand new track without fading in from the previous track.

I will disable cross fade and enable and do experiments. This bears looking into.  This could be a fatal flaw of this product.  Maybe it can't work with the iPod's crossfade feature because of the lack of that asynchronous function Marcus was talking about that the CLAS has.

[Mochan]

Ok did some more testing.

With crossfade on, their is a bit of skip at the start of the next track when it fades in. Clearly a jitter issue.
With crossfade off, no issues whatsoever.

It's not conclusive yet but that seems to be what's going on here. This kind of sucks since I usually play with crossfade on, but it's not as big a deal as I though, as long as it plays without jitter problems in the latter mode I am good.

Considering the sound quality and utility I am getting from this, I can live with turning off crossfade.

[KaliKot]

Interesting bro. Does it work with the iPod Video?

[Mochan]

You mean 5G/5.5G? Probably not. The compatibility list is here:

http://pure.co/products/ipod-compatibility/

For the record, it works with my 6G Nano, iPhone 3G, and iPad but not my Nano 2G. Which is strange as it clearly says it works with the 2G Nano.

[KaliKot]

You mean 5G/5.5G? Probably not. The compatibility list is here:

http://pure.co/products/ipod-compatibility/

For the record, it works with my 6G Nano, iPhone 3G, and iPad but not my Nano 2G. Which is strange as it clearly says it works with the 2G Nano.

Thats sad to hear I guess there is really no transport that supports the older iPods.

This dock is great for those with iPod Classics

[eargo]

nice! for me, this is absolute bargain for the price. its even more impressive when you use this as a digital signal transport and feed it to dac since it does the same job as the wadia and onkyo transports. i've read some impressions of the internal dac and most people rate it as average. but for £75 in the uk, its a great deal! too bad its hard to source this product

[marcusd]

So we now have the 3 combatants for kenjam 2011

The Clas
The fostex
The i-pure

Let's roll!!

[Mochan]

nice! for me, this is absolute bargain for the price. its even more impressive when you use this as a digital signal transport and feed it to dac since it does the same job as the wadia and onkyo transports. i've read some impressions of the internal dac and most people rate it as average. but for £75 in the uk, its a great deal! too bad its hard to source this product

The DAC isn't great but at this price, it doesn't have to be. And it's real use as you said is as a digital transport to get the sound to a berried DAC. That said, the DAC is actually better than the E7's Wolfson WM8740. Most of us here still use iBasso DACs... This is at least as good as those. Performance reminds me of the D4 DAC section actually.

It works well with the A1 Maverick which is too smooth and sometimes makes me feel it is veiled. This takes care of that problem. I would think this has great synergy with the Schiit Asgard as well.

[KaliKot]

The DAC isn't great but at this price, it doesn't have to be. And it's real use as you said is as a digital transport to get the sound to a berried DAC. That said, the DAC is actually better than the E7's Wolfson WM8740. Most of us here still use iBasso DACs... This is at least as good as those. Performance reminds me of the D4 DAC section actually.

Sounds great  to me! The D4 is definitely no slouch as a DAC

[Mochan]

Did I say berried? Lol what does that mean?

[mbc0528]

congrats mochan...
you can pair it with a much better dac like the maverick audio dac d1.

[ReturnToForever]

I've had this before and totally impressed.  Considering that this is the only dock built with a dac.  The internal dac is ok but of course mating it with an external dac will be better.  I bought it not for it's dac feature but as an ipod dock.  It was so good, I sent it to my brother in Manila and have ordered a new one today.

[Mochan]

I'll attend meets and check out what DACs are available and see how this sounds with them. I am pretty happy with how it sounds now without an extra DAC, so I just have to wonder how happy I'll when I hear it with the right DAC. I'll wait and test out the gears around here first to see how that goes.

[mbc0528]

its also better to bring your own optical cable, just in case...