Tube Playback for Apple iPod...

Now I HAVE seen everything!

A $4000 dock for a $500 iPod is ambitious, I'll give them that.

Same idea - a lot more sensibly priced

http://www.tubeaudiodesign.com/

The weakest part of listening to an iPod using any of these gizmos, or through your main system for that matter, is that you are limited to the performance of the DAC in the iPod, which leaves something to be desired, in my experience, when compared to playing a digital feed through a decent convertor/DAC (you'll need a computer for that - you can't do it via an iPod as far as I know - if so someone tell me how). For $4k you could buy yourself a very respectable system, especially buying used gear. If you're going to listen to amplified iPod music, the only excuse I can think of is portability I suppose. I brought my iPod into my hotel rooms on some recent travels and played it through Swan M200's, which beat watching cable TV, and cost a whole lot less than $4K for the speakers. If it's at home, why bother....use a better rig if you've got four grand to play with. Fer'chrissake!

Marco

When did ipods become hi end equipment. Oh since Stereophile and absolute sound were payed to push them and say great things. The ipod is not a hi end source to me - sooo why get tube anything for them.

Definitely check out the Musical Fidelity X-10v3 tube output buffer to put a definitive end to this thread. Tube playback for ipod is easy, cheap & necessary. Hooked up in between your ipod and your preamp it makes ipod sound like a multi thousand dollar cd player - given that the music files are of decent enough quality..no mp3's or anything below 320mps aac. The MF X-10v3 should be thought of as the ultimate ipod toy. I'm selling mine on 'gon as i type this, so consider this a blatant ad!

I have a 40gb ipod and only apple lossless and wav files on it and the quality is bar none. ipod is what you make of it, which is cool. Fact is that I have 2000 songs on mine which are cd quality & thousands of other songs on me hardrive cd quality too. The trump is that most of my lp collection is on ipod - try out a vinylpod before poo pooing it. Vinylpod + MF X-10v3 presents a 3-D soundstage, huge bass and a live performance.

If you have a good ipod cable put Eichmann Bullett RCA plugs & WTB silver solder on it...these things are genius for ipod and turntable cables, not to mention sources and amps.

I also treat all my cd's with mapleshade records Mikro Smooth cd polish before transfering to itunes...this makes a HUGE difference before compression. that stuff does amazing stuff on Netflix DVD's & all blank media (especially live music shows downloaded from the 'net) too.

Ipod rules. Ipod + MF X-10v3 will change your life and allow you to enjoy music rather than analyze it.