Connecting I-pod to Integrated Amplifiers

Marco -

I am a regular 6 Moons reader. I simply chose the other article but I am glad you are exposing people to this one as well.

I don't think we disagree about much - but we seem to be coming at this from somewhat different points of view.

What I find exciting is that there is a sea change going on. All the details are not apparent but there is no doubt that things are changing. How do I know - well for the past year I have personally posted perhaps 150 responses to people who are curious about how to use the new digital stuff in their systems. Since all of these posts are on AGon and AudioAsylum (under xmasparty@mac.com) I assume that they are people who are at least somewhat concerned with creating good sound.

Here is the article in which Srajan addresses it - recommended reading for people getting into this area.

http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/harddrive/harddrive.html

Once again I find it startling that the reviewer in the article you selected is comparing a $400 unit to a $4,000 CD player. Generally one hopes that 10x buys you something more... I think that what is happening again and again is that these new 'consumer level' pieces are forcing people to re-examine their expectations about what their money will buy.

People who were never going to spend $4,000 on a CD player like the one mentioned in the article are delighted when they discover how much they can get for a few hundred dollars. I think that is the impetus for the original post - how do I hook my iPod into my system.

I think that part of it is audio quality - how much better is good enough, and the other part of it is a whole new metaphor for using their music. Read the posts - people who are doing this are listening to more music and more of their libraries. This may not be the ultimate audiophile concern, but IMHO it is the reason most people buy gear.

What we are seeing is Moore's Law at work - and the blurring of the traditional CE industry imposed lines between good, better, best. It seems increasingly likely that someone who buys a $500 or $1,000 or $1,5000 CD player and puts it up next to an iPod will most likely be disappointed by the performance of the CD player - both in terms of the sound and the value for the money it provides...

The implication for the audio industry is that there are 15,000,000 plus new iPod owners who will not be buying CD players for much longer because this iPod or the next one surpasses anything they ever heard. (same effect as we have seen with digital cameras)

I worked on the original introduction of the CD to the retail music industry back in the 80's. No one will argue that CDs - especially then - were better then vinyl. But the ease, the form factor and the pleasing albeit artificial sound spelled the immediate end of tape and an enormous decline in vinyl sales. In truth, most people though that they were hearing the music for the first time because it cost less then ever to get "good sound". That is what is happening now as well.

From my personal perspective, with my modded Squeezeboxes and USB to DAC systems I am getting better sound then I could otherwise afford - along with a whole list of features that are simply unavailable in traditional gear. I have similar hopes for the modded iPod I am expecting in the mail next week. In short, I am a happy guy, and since I enjoy writing I am trying to make it easy for others to try it themselves.

I totally respect the fact that there are people here like you who have spent years perfecting their systems and educating their ears. And that such people will not find the iPod a satisfying solution. (In fact we agree that its not the home unit of choice.)

But my thesis is that for every person like you, there are many more who are being blown away. There is no putting this genie back in the bottle.

Marco is exactly right. The iPod is brilliantly engineered to provide extreme portability. Ultimate fidelity isn't the point at all. If you go very far down the path of optimizing the sound by eliminating the DAC and amplifier inside the iPod you wind up with, in effect, a 1" hard drive tethered to a very large chain of boxes and wires.

There's no more expensive or less reliable hard drive storage than the tiny drive inside the iPod and anyone with an iPod is going to have the music duplicated on a larger fixed drive somewhere anyway. Why not just use that drive as your digital source and set your iPod free?

Excellent post CK! Thanks for re-introducing me to that 6moons article as it bears re-reading. I'll look forward to hearing your opinions on the your modded iPod vs. modded Squeezebox. I had a few email exchanges with Vinnie on the subject of getting adigital stream from the iPod as Monitor Audio is doing. Though he thought it was a good idea, he said he currently had too much on his plate to consider it at this time. He speculated that they must be using the USB out to an internal converter, but wasn't sure what they were using to interface with that signal, which would otherwise require some software. Somehow they seem to bypass the need for software and default to the iPods own controls. There's yet another review of the iDeck, along with a $3700 tube-driven iPod mini system from Goldster Audio that uses single-driver whizzer cone speakers. Nothing unexpected in that reviews by Michael Fremer in the current (March 06) Stereophile, and no mention of the Monitor Audio product using its own DAC either. He was impressed with both systems, each in a different way (the $3700 Goldster he seemed to find more myopic in it's realm of excellence, and in that way thought the money better spent on something else). Nothing revolutionary I'd say, but amazing, nonetheless, to get such good sound from a tiny iPod. As has been opined already, silly to compare it to much more expensive solutions.

Marco