Surprisingly loud. Surprisingly heavy.
by Volker Weber
I have used an Apple iPod Hi-Fi to provide sound for a presentation at the edcom conference this week. You just hook it up to the headphones out and then push one of the volume buttons to wake it up. Since I did not have a cable with a 3.5mm plug at both ends I needed to do some creative wiring.
This thing is surprisingly loud, and actually sounds very nice when played loud. Not as nice at lower volumes, but if you want to blast a party of 50 people, this is what you get. It is also surprisingly heavy, especially when equipped with six D batteries. You don't want to lug it around if you are not traveling by car.
The box contains quite a few iPod adapters, but none for the current models. Each of those come with an adapter, but what are you supposed to do if you already used yours for a docking station?
Comments
I've had the opportunity of hearing the HiFi next to a Bose Sounddock in my home. Without adjusting the equalizer for each system individually, I have to say the Bose was less muddy in midrange and bass, and had more presence. For sheer volume, I'd bet the HiFi would trounce the Bose.
I own the HiFi, chosen specifically for the battery capabilities. I find it's a strange combination of heavy ruggedness (it feels like you could damage a brick wall with it), and fragility (the dock connection). I think they should find a way to make iPods flush with the case, so they don't risk the dock connection.
I am very happy with my new Logitech® Z-10 Interactive Speaker System. Excellent sound, both music & spoken word. Connect via USB and/or sound card. Best PC / notebook speakers I ever had.
vowe,
Is the Hi-Fi worth the price?
Tough question to answer. If you really need an iPod dock with speakers, it is a very good one.
You will never travel with it, but you can annoy your neighbours by taking it out into the garden. Since it runs on batteries (if you want) it will play music from your iPod even if you don't have power.
I suggest to go to an Apple store and compare it to the Bose SoundDock which is $50 less. I find it sounds better at lower volumes than the Hi-Fi. If you like your music loud, then the Hi-Fi beats the crap out of the SoundDock.
I have the HiFi as well, which is really loud and does have good bass, just waiting for the neighbours to come complain. I have see another device which had a RCA out for the video ipod, anyone know what this one was? It looked useful to hook up to a beamer, so then you could use the ipod to watch movies too.
They should have figured out a way to move thru play lists and menus on the ipod from the HiFi remote.. that annoys me that you have to use the ipod to change playlists.
It is indeed missing two connectors of the original dock. The other one is the USB connector which would be useful to sync the iPod with a computer.
