iPods and Vacuum Tubes

[garthsj]

This article from the NYT says it all ... I wonder what other hybrids are likely to emerge in the near future? ... Has anyone tried any of these systems yet?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/business...amp;oref=slogin

[J Larsen]

I tried one at Stereo Exchange in December and wasn't even close to impressed. I went with the solid-state Tivoli system instead. The Fat Man system sounded brittle to me.

[Unk]

Several of these valve/tube iPod accessories around. I haven't heard one that really impressed me.

http://www.thanko.jp/ibluetube/

http://www.vuumaudio.com/

Cain Labs - http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2006/0...i2_ipod_do.html

RockridgeSound - http://www.i4u.com/article7207.html

Roth Audio (Cocoon) - http://www.rothaudio.co.uk/

[porcy62]

Maybe you should ask yourself: Am I impressed by the iPod's sound quality?

My thought is that you can hook an iPod to a 100K sound system and it will always sound like an iPod. iPod is great for its convenience and a lot of other things, but not for its sound. Use it for that and listen to cd, vinyl, Sacd, Dvd when you are comfortably seated in your house or, if you want really listen to iPod at home, just hook it to your system. Frankly I don't see any reason to buy a dedicated system for iPod.

[jazzbo]

I could see a use for it in the office. . . . If I were rolling in dough I'd grab a nice dedicated system for the iPod for the office.

[J Larsen]

I could see a use for it in the office. . . . If I were rolling in dough I'd grab a nice dedicated system for the iPod for the office.

That's exactly why I got my Tivoli. It doesn't stack up to my home system, but it sounds fine for background listening (which is, of course, the only kind of listening I can do at work anyway).

[jazzbo]

Right. I use a set of Bose powered speakers and some expensive Monster Cable interconnects that I don't use at home any longer (and an adapter for the 1/4" phono plug into RCA jacks). Sound is pretty good at the levels that I can get away with at work.

[porcy62]

I could see a use for it in the office. . . . If I were rolling in dough I'd grab a nice dedicated system for the iPod for the office.

Correct, if you can, I can't listen to music in my video editing studio.