iPod Hifi

iPod HiFi. Now that's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one.

Don't get me wrong the iPods/portable players have a place in this world but, not in tru HiFi.

Art,

From the cutaway of the internals and driver choice.

I listened to one at the Apple store in Burlingame yesterday. Sounds about what you would expect for the money. To me it sounded very forward and a shade bright. No immense soundstage or pinpoint imaging coming from this little speaker. It started to distort at moderate listening levels.

The conditions were less than ideal. It was a crowded and noisy store and I couldn't get more than 6 ft away from the speaker due to the furniture. The Bose soundock was not positioned in a spot where I could easily make A/B compairisons. I have one of those and enjoy it.

I heard it in a store today. To me it sounded better than the other products aimed at iPod with powered speakers. But I've not heard any of the better ones, like from monitor. Still it was a breath of fresh air as I find the smaller ones difficult to enjoy. I think I could enjoy this piece. Still, if I decide to use iPod as a home source I'd probably get a cheap integrated and small speakers.

I heard this in the apple story yesterday, granted playing mp3s...

i thought it sounded pretty awful, not nearly as good as a wave radio even. Very harsh sounding, no "soundstage", all seems to come from the box, really not much interesting about it. ipod hifi vs. nad int. and ascend speaks for $500 total?