Apple TV vs Wadia 170i?

Agree on this completely. I looked into both of them, and not only is there more to the AppleTV, but the ergonmics and functioning of the unit will be much more consistent with the idea of a music server. Plug it in and it works. Sound quality is likely be a bit better from the Wadia. Haven't heard it. But if you plan to use the AppleTV as I do -- a second source for when you want to shuffle songs instead of listening more intensely to CDs/Albums, I think the AppleTV fits the bill much better.

Another Apple TV vote here. If you want audiophile quality playback, rip using Apple lossless, run the Apple TV into an external DAC and you're in business. Plus the added bonus of synching with your computer and iTunes makes it easier to manage playlists.

I also love the movie rental feature on the Apple TV... need pretty fast broadband though because it's streaming video. Youtube on your TV is also lotsa fun.

Although I have not used Either... The cheaper, more direct, and quality ergonomics solution for many reasons does point to the Apple TV being the way to go. I am setup for it, but gonna wait it out another year or 2 for better models with a little more space etc... And being movie downloading is starting to catch up it will be an all in one universal solution for me, but there is a few people that see the benefit having their IPOD for portability in the car and being able to just bring it in and drop into the Dock on your big system. For me this is low to no priority so I prefer the best way to actually have a music and movie server if I do it.

I don't know much about the Wadia, however I am a fan of the Apple TV together with an iPod touch as a remote. I use the Apple TV through out the day as a music server. For the ocasional serious dedicated listening session my CDP is just a little more involving.

As i understand the Wadia does not show the menu on your TV so even though it comes with a remote.. you have to be able to see your ipods screen??? which defeats the purpose. The apple TV has a digital out so it is accomplishing the same thing as the wadia by bypassing the DAC in the ipod so in theory it should reproduce sound as well as the wadia.

I just wish Apple would make a really cool audiophile class component out of stainless steel or aluminum that had a huge terabyte size hard drive and coax and optical outs. The wadia sounds cool but the whole remote/display thing kills it for me. i even emailed them once asking about it with no response.