Not sure if I get the point of the Wadia iPod dock

It's quite simple. It's for people who have their music on their ipod and don't have a pc in their living room and/or know better than to use wifi. And it's silent.

And they own a DAC - thus ruling me out.

Regards,

The Wadia by passes the internal dac that is in the iPod. You can choose your own dac for better performance. GHS

there are other solutions out there that don't require an iPod or computer. I've been looking at the Western Digital TV which is about $100 and connects directly to a usb hard drive. Unlike the Wadia, it must be connected to a TV but also plays high def movies.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

Can you run the Wadia without a dac ?