iPod to DAC Connection

I have the AirportExpress, use for hours every day to play playlists (everything from classical/opera to 60's soul music) and love it, but it doesn't help when you want to get maximum fidelity in a portable pkg (i don't have a laptop). I don't think it is asking for too much to want a digital output on the iPod. They cound put it on the dock. The Airport Express has a digital output, so it isn't like they don't recognize the value of providing it!

Budrew: I'm sure you are right about the size of the market, but that is true about most of audiophile equipment, so I'm hoping that if it can be done some company will be willing to sell such a cable. I wonder what you'd see if you cut open a Firewire cable and an S/PDIF cable? Samething inside? I know Apple provides an accessory cable that is Firewire and one end and splits into two USB connectors on the other end, so maybe this idea is feasible.

Tarsando: I recall that TAS article (couldn't lay my hads on it right now though), but I'm guessing that Wilson used the mini to RCA stereo cable connection that you can get now with the iPod (hooks up through the dock). I think the iPod could sound quite a bit better if you could hook it up through a DAC. John Atkinson said in his tests of the iPod on p. 141 of the 10/03 issue of Stereophile that its measured behavior is "better than many CD players" and that is when the internal DAC was being used. I'd love to hear it playing uncompressed AIFF files through a really good DAC.

All interesting comments and suggestions. I am now leaning toward getting the Slim Devices Squeezebox ($200) mentioned by Macallan25, which is hooked up to the computer (iMac in my case) by either an Ethernet cable or wireless system, and which has coaxial and optical outputs to connect to a DAC (in my case the MF Trivista CD/SACD player is my DAC). I will add a LaCie Big Disk HD, probably the 500GB ($550) model, so I can rip hundreds of uncompressed files to play via the Squeezebox. This is beginning to look like the best option since the iPod-to-DAC doesn't appear to be an immediately available option. I listen to my analog system for most of my serious listening sessions, but for $770 I can assemble a pretty good computer based digital system that allows me to put together my own playlists. Reactions?

An update: I got the Squeezebox, hocked it up with an ethernet cable and, with much help from Kevin at Slim Devices, got it to play my iTunes playlists. Then I noticed it would not play all the songs on the playlist. Turns out that because of some licensing policy, no 3td party device hooked up to an Apple computer will play songs that have been downloaded to the iMac. So I could either keep the Squeezebox and not be able to play downloaded music, or get an Airport Express and play everything, but through a optical output instead of coax into my DAC. I chose to go the Airport Express route but use the ethernet cable I already had for the Squeezebox. I get the computer programmed at the Apple store in Chicago for this, come home... and it doesn't work. Apparently the ethernet switch I'm using (so I can hook up both the Airport Express and my cable modem) is not allowing the connection to be made to the Airport Express. I'm going to try a "Dumb" hub in place of the switch, and if that doesn't work I'll have to get the Airport Extreme card and do it wireless. That is, unless one of you knows of some way to do this with the ethernet cable that I haven't tried?

Jayboard,
I was never able to find a "dumb ethernet hub", which the people at the Apple help line said I would have to use instead of a switch or router. It would have worked to run an ethernet cable directly from out of the computer to the Airport Express, but then I would have to physically change the cables at the back of the computer to listen to music or be on the internet--unacceptable. So I returned the switch and cable to OfficeMax (who gave me a refund no questions asked, God bless them), and got the Airport Extreme card from Apple, snapped it in place (very simple and easy to do), ran the software that came with the AE, and voila!, I've got iTunes playing on my main system. Using Apple Loseless we can't tell a difference between the original CD and the iTunes copy (so far--more listening necessary). As the Slim Devices people explained it, Apple is not eager to license the ability for a third party device to be able to play downloaded iTunes. Short term they will have people go my route and buy an Airport Express to be able to play downloaded music, so it appears to be a good strategy, but longterm this reluctance to license technology explains why the arguably best computer operating system and hardware has a worldwide market share of less than 2%. Apparently it is the Sony Betamax case study all over again. Being best and first doesn't mean you'll win in the end. Apple will face increased competition for the iPod, iTunes, and Airport Express, will slowly lose market share and by the time they change their strategy to try and regain lost market share it will be too late. The good news is that I'll have another example of what not to do to use in my classes (I teach graduate marketing courses at a state university).

Apple's 5th generation ipod was introduced this past week and their lack of interest in the audiophile market was once again evident. Like past generation ipods, their newest model lacks a digital output for connecting to a DAC. So, we still wait for a model that we can download music on to take to audition high-end DAC's at dealers.