HiFi Blog: digital audio goodness

Up until now, if you were a true audiophile chances are that you relied on your iPod dock’s line-out to get that clean audio signal. If you’re picky though, you know that there’s still some loss of quality due to the path the audio signal has to follow. The Red Wine Audio guys worked up a modification called the iMod that essentially gets you even closer to the iPod’s line-out. In their words:

The goal of the Red Wine iMod is to significantly minimize the analog signal path that follows the output of the internal Wolfson WM8975 dac chip. Using D.H. Labs silver wire, we take the analog output (line out) directly off of the dac chip and send it out of the iPod rear case (via a drilled 5/32” hole) to a custom made assembly that contains Black Gate Non-Polarized NX HiQ coupling capacitors soldered directly to a new 1/8” stereo line out jack.

They claim that with this mod you get a tighter, more articulate bass and “superior treble extension”, among other improvements. It’ll cost you $249.00 (plus $15.00 for return shipping), and—get this—if you want to have a new battery installed, they’ll change it for free (name me ONE person who’s gonna get the iMod and won’t take advantage of this option).

Note that the mod applies to 4th generation iPods only and your beloved DAP will work just fine after the mod, except that the dock’s line-out is now rendered useless (literally—not as in “you won’t need it because this sounds better”). [via]