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The Times name the best iPod Speakers

Chris — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:52:34 +0000

Everyone’s at it; producing their Top 5 or Top 10 list of the best iPod speakers for 2009 that is. It’s all expected.

I think it’s the time of year. Just as Channel 4 are always going to review the best 100 Musicals Ever Written in a 3 hour homage to cheese, then the tech publications are bound to bring out their favourites lists and review the year just gone.

It’s also because the CES 2010, the world’s largest Consumer Electronics Fair is going to open its doors in at the start of January, so there will be lots of new goodies to review. So the techies just need to clear their desks ready for the event.

So the latest reviewers are The Times and they’ve taken a nice fresh take. Instead of going for the countdown, they’ve looked at the best iPod speakers in various categories.Best iPod speaker for All Round appeal – B&W Zeppelin Mini

B&W Zeppelin Mini iPod Speaker

Described by the Times as a ‘proper hi-fi’ and ‘easy on the eye, the Zeppelin Mini is the latest must-have of iPod speakers. It has been voted into most people’s favourites lists and its easy to see why. Compact but with plenty of sound on offer, with elegant good looks and enough onboard goodies to produce a beautifully warm and rich sound, the B&W Zeppelin Mini is tough to beat this year.

Price: £299 at John Lewi s

Best for Net Addicts – Yamaha PDX-50

Now this is a nice speaker, but I’m not sure would make it to my Top 5, but I guess it’s not me we’re talking about. The Times love it beacuse you can surf the internet on your phone while playing your music and I can see the appeal of that. The joy of this speaker is also that you transmit your music wirelessly to the speaker, so no need to get up to change the track. Downsides are with 30 watts of output, it’s not quite enough to get the party started, but a nice speaker dock none-the-less.

Price: £142.95 at Play.com

Best for Sound per Pound – Klipsch iGroove HG

Klipsch i-Groove iPod Speakers

I totally agree with The Times on this one. They say that Klipsch make “well-priced iPod docks that deliver the sonic good” and I couldn’t agree more. Great sound, and amazing value the iGroove is a tough one to beat and also comes with a remote control so you don’t need to keep getting up and down to change your playlist.

Price £89.99 at Amazon

Best for Party Animals – Bose Sounddock 10

Music fans and audiophiles love Bose and its easy to see why. With the Sounddock 10, Bose have carried on their tradition of sonic excellence. The sound profile is realistic, warm and expansive and really brings your music to life. The only downside is that you pay for excellence and the Bose Sounddock 10 is not the cheapest of iPod speakers.

Price: £699 at John Lewis

Best for Teenagers – Gear4 Sound Orb Aurora

Gear 4 SoundOrd Aurora iPod Speakers

The Times say ” An enticing package for less sophisticated ears” and I can see what they mean. The Sound Orb Aurora comes with a separate sub woofer unit that doubles as a mood light and changes in time with the music. The sound is not bad, although the bass is a bit muddy sometimes. A nice package, but for the price I might choose the Zeppelin Mini over the Aurora just for sound.

Price: £299.95 at John Lewis

John Lewis predicts Christmas success for Zeppelin Mini

Chris — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:36:19 +0000

B&W Zeppelin Mini iPod Speaker

With very few shopping days left until Christmas, the retailer John Lewis have announced what they think their Top Ten Digital gifts will be this Christmas.

Helen Keppel-Compton, head of consumer electronics for the department store, said that new technologies had featured heavily in the stores top-sellers. “We have seen some great technologies introduced and developed in 2009 and the list is a reflection of this”

Amid the usual mix of digital cameras, digital photo-frames and laptops is a rather surprising entry.

The lushessly design B&W Zeppelin Mini is probably the surprise entry in John Lewis’s Top Ten.

As I alluded to in my original review, the Zeppelin Mini is an exceptional piece of engineering, that produces a big and warm sound from a very modestly, but perfectly designed body.

So it’s no surprise that people are flocking to buy this truly great iPod speaker. What is surprising is that it makes it in to a Top Ten.

Usually you find gadget top seller lists dominated by smaller, fairly low priced iPod speakers as we noted in Amazon’s Top 5, but it is understandable that the more affluent shoppers at John Lewis are looking at an iPod speaker crown jewel.

It’s unlikely that a higher priced item, like the B&W Zeppelin Mini will make it to number one, but it should still be very proud of it’s Top Ten achievment.

Price: £299 at John Lewis

Cygnett Unison i-TS Tower speaker for iPhone and iPod

Chris — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:06:57 +0000

Cygnett Unison i-TS Tower iPod speakers

Cygnett have been very busy this week. Firstly they announce the small, stylish Cygnett Micro and now they have announced their new Cygnett Unison i-TS speaker system for the iPod and iPhone.

The two couldn’t be further apart, mainly because one of them measures just 47mm high, 105mm wide with a depth of 23mm and the other is 820mm high x 210mm deep and 265mm wide.

The new Cygnett Unison i-TS is the latest in a recent and growing line of tower iPod speakers. If the Intempo IFI-01, the Regen Reverb and Phillipe Starck’s cutting edge Zikmu speakers are anything to go by, this year tall is definitely beautiful.

Cygnett have said that the Unison i-TS is ‘A statement of powerful and precise performance, this freestanding vertical speaker system ensures crisp and authentic playback of every song on your iPhone or iPod playlist.’

Well lets hope so Cygnett, because your tower looks pretty good.

The Unison i-TS as they’ve told us is principally an iPod speaker dock; it’s also an AM/FM radio and an alarm clock.

Now Cygnett come on. Is this not supposed to be an elegant piece of technology/furniture to adorn a living space. Is someone really going to use this as an alarm clock and sit it by their bed so they can hit snooze? Hmmm.

That aside, the Unison i-TS could do just what Cygnett say as far as the sound is concerned as its got most of what it needs to give a good account of itself. Onboard are 2 x 2.5″ Woofers, a 5″ sub-woofer and a 0.8″ Tweeter from which the melodic result of a 2.1 stereo output should be heard.

The speaker dock comes with a handy remote control that lets you control the usual power/volume/mode as well as letting you adjust the treble and bass aspects and lets you move through your playlist.

You have the choice of whether your LED display is white or blue (slightly weird) and the top of the speaker around the dock, has a nice glossy piano black finish.

According to Cygnet, the Unison i-TS is compatible with all iPod Classics, all Nano’s, all iPhone’s, all Touch’s and suprisingly all Shuffle’s, (although my guess is that the Shuffles might be connected via the headphone jack) and all those iPods and iPhones that can dock with the speaker system will be charged while their sat up top on their lofty perch.

The Unison i-TS has a total power output of 36 watts which is a little underwhelming for its size, but should be plenty for a pleasurable day to day listening experience, if not enough for a completely bombastic party.

VERDICT – At first sight this is a nice looking speaker and should provide a nice experience. Although it’s not as good looking, I’d prefer the Intempo IFI-01 for sheer power, but I know many of you will prefer the Cygnett for its looks and at £50 cheaper than the IFI-O1 that’s not a bad decision at all.

Price: £199 at Play.com

Panasonic D-Dock SC-HC3 and SC-HC4 iPod Speakers

Chris — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:54:56 +0000

Panasonic SC-HC3 and SC-HC4 iPod Speakers

Just like model Gisele Bundchen, the new Samsung LED TVs and many lamp posts around the world, it’s cool to be slim right now.

So Panasonic’s new speakers must be the height of cool as they have come up with a very slim and sleek design for their 2 new iPod speakers that are just 69 mm deep.

Very Bang & Olufsen, the SC-HC3 and SC-HC4 are designed to be lightweight and compact and comprise of 2 speakers either side of a central unit that houses the iPod or iPhone dock and the CD player.

Yes I said it a CD player. Let me speak directly to the iPod speaker designers of the world now when I say, ‘If I’m going to have an entertainment/audio system for my home I want it to be an iPod speaker, a CD player and a DAB radio. I don’t want 3 different devices on my book shelf or kitchen worktop and I’m not alone!”

So well done to Panasonic for getting it much more right that many manufacturers out there by giving the SC-HC3 and SC-HC4 speakers an iPod dock, AM/FM radio and a CD player.

The SC-HC4 is expected to arrive very soon in the UK, but the SC-HC3 is already here and has already received some serious recognition.

The European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) have awarded the SC-HC3 the European Micro System 2009-2010 Award.

The judges said, “Derived from the long audio tradition of Panasonic’s one-time sister brand, Technics, this micro audio system enhances any table or bookshelf like a piece of audio jewellery. Its slim and compact vertical design features a sliding door which opens to reveal both a CD player and an iPod docking station. Overall, it’s a system that’s slim in size yet big in sound.” High praise indeed.

Both the SC-HC3 and SC-HC4 comprise of two proprietary, 2.5-inch full-range bamboo cone speakers with a dual passive radiator design that produce 4o watts of power between them thanks to the onboard stereo amplifier. A Dual Passive Radiator design cancels unwanted vibration and helps deliver pure bass sound with minimal noise allowing a compact unit to deliver a robust and full-bodied sound. If you want even more body to the sound profile, there’s also the option to enjoy the Panasonic’s Surround Sound option if you wish.

The position of the motorised door on the front of the speaker dock dictates whether you’re listening to your favourite CD or the iPod, which I am quite excited about no matter however people judge me for that. Sadly though if you want to listen to the AM/FM radio then there’s just a boring button to get that started which isn’t so geek cool.

Panasonic have brought out the SC-HC3 and SC-HC4 out in Japan in a range of colours so they say; what they mean is that you can buy these iPod speakers with different coloured doors – so if you fancy a pink or blue door to front your new Panasonic speaker dock you might be in luck sometime soon – just not yet.

Hmm…what else is there to tell you? Well, the remote control for both devices has almost as many buttons on it as a Panasonic TV remote and is a similar quality, which is in contrast to many other iPod speaker remotes which often feel like they’ve been moulded from reformed clingfilm and only let you change the volume. The remote not only allows you to switch between the CD, iPod and Radio functions and step in to the iPod menu and move through the artist, album and song menus, it also lets you adjust the Treble or Bass and select your prefered EQ preset.

As far as the EQ presets, Panasonic let you choose from:

HEAVY Adds punch to rock
CLEAR Clarifies higher frequencies
SOFT For background music
VOCAL Adds gloss to vocal
FLAT No effect

Another clever little feature of both speakers is the Digital Remaster setting, which you can use when playing CD’s. Panasonic say that the Digital Remaster feature reproduces the frequencies lost during recording to give you a sound closer to the original. Nice, huh!

The iPod dock is compatible with all iPods with the ability to Dock, which is just about them all apart from the Shuffle, which you could connect via a 3.5mm jack if you wanted to.

That’s pretty much everything there is to know about both speakers, there’s just one major difference with the still to be released Panasonic SC-HC4 and that is that it has an SD card slot and the SC-HC-4 allows you to rip your CDs straight on to the card at speeds of up to x8.

VERDICT – Both units come with an impressive list of features. Although not the loudest speakers, they should both provide plenty for a casual home user. Panasonic have produced two very well crafted iPod speakers which feel a little superior to some speakers from slightly lesser manafacturers.

As I mentioned the SC-HC3 is already available in the UK and as soon as I see the SC-HC4, I ‘ll update the post and let you know where you can buy it. For now check out the links below for the SC-HC3.

Price: £167 at Pixmania

Intempo IFI-01 iPod speaker system

Chris — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:51:59 +0000

Intempo IFI-01 iPod speaker tower

Having recently reviewed a couple of the tallest iPod speakers out there in the Regen Reverb solar powered iPod speaker and the Philip Starck’s Zikmu iPod speakers, I felt compelled to review the Intempo IFI-01 iPod speaker.

In some circles the IFI-01 is known as a tower, which is an understandable description of a device that measures 1090mm.

This latest design from Intempo is another example of designers taking iPod speakers off the book shelf and making them a piece of furniture in their own right, which I applaud. When got right, some of these speaker docks like those mentioned above are a triumph of design and much better looking than a lot of the tat sitting around my house.

Looks wise I think the IFI-01 is best described as Petronas towers-esque with a hint of oil barrel chic – and it works. As a design I think most people would be happy with this technological tower sitting in their living room.

The central ‘barrel’ houses the generously powered 30watt subwoofer and the iPod dock. The dock, thanks to a few handy adapters will accommodate all iPods apart from the Shuffle I think and will also charge your favourite Apple device (apart from the 2nd gen iPod Touch or 4th gen iPod Nano).

A nice touch is that the IFI-01 has USB connectivity which lets you charge the speaker via USB (why I have no idea), but more importantly it allows you to sync your iPod or iPhone. It still surprises me that there aren’t more speakers around that let you do this, so a little round of applause for Intempo on that one.

The two tube silver tubes house the 2 x 2″ midrange drivers and 2 x 1″ tweeters that complete the IFI-01’s speaker ensemble. Both of these towers/tubes are movable; well twistable would be more accurate, so that you can direct the sound around the room the way you want it. This doesn’t really provide you with the faux surround sound the makers would have you believe, but its a nice option to have.

Altogether the IFI-01 provides 90watts of power, which is a good bit of welly and definitely enough to get your party started. The sound clarity is decent and rich, but not quite as defined as the Bose SoundDock or Zeppelin Mini produce, but this is understandable as both of these speakers are £50 to £100 more than the Intempo speaker and the Intempo compares well to other speaker docks in the £150-£200 range.

My verdict – Lacking a little sound finesse, but much better looking than other speakers in its price range and a lot of volume for your money. If your looking for an iPod speaker that makes a statement in your room and the Philip Starck Zikmu speakers are out of your price range, this is a good bet.

Price: Intempo IFI-01£199 at Amazon

Regen Reverb Solar Powered iPod speaker

Chris — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:17:23 +0000

Regen Reverb Solar Powered iPod speaker

Regen are the innovative company based in San Francisco who earlier this month announced the launch of the ReNu, a solar powered personal device recharger that is powered by solar energy.

The ReNu + iPod charger is not only a great Green product that allows you to enjoy your iPod or iPhone and be environmentally conscious, it looks great as well.

This is exactly what Regen do; green products that work well and look great. So it comes as no surprise that their new iPod speaker, the Reverb is a stunning looking device.

The Reverb is 3 feet tall, which is big for an iPod speaker and in this respect is in the same territory as Philipe Starck and Parrot’s Zikmu speakers.

There’s an obvious reason for the size of the Reverb; around 80% of the height of the speaker dock is taken up by a photovoltaic panel which the unit uses to gather sunlight which it transforms in to power that it stores in its Lithium Iron Phosphate battery.

When fully charged the battery life on the Regen’s Reverb is 12 hours if you’re listening to your music at ‘normal’ levels. If you’re really turning up the volume, then just as a car drinks more fuel the quicker it travels, the Reverb uses more power and therefore battery life is shorter. Estimates are that at high volume levels, the Reverb should give you around 4.5 hours of play on a full battery charge.

Regen’s iPod speaker dock doesn’t just rely on its battery; it can also be plugged in to mains power, so you can use the Reverb in battery mode, mains power mode or solar/electric hybrid mode.

It sounds like the designers of this environmentally conscious iPod speaker believe that most people will use it in its hybrid mode. The hybrid mode enables listeners to be green and enjoy the conveniences of listening to a device powered by a mains supply; lets face it most people will probably not want to wait the 40 hours it would take the Reverb to charge its battery fully if it was inside and away from direct sunlight.

Regen are pretty confident that the sound quality is going to match the speaker’s high standards of innovation and design, telling us that the Reverb will produce the equivalent of 60 watts of power and that “The ReVerb has been designed to provide brilliant acoustic output that sounds flawless regardless of where it is placed in a room”. To support these not shy or retiring claims, the Reverb is equipped with a 35cmx50cm flat panel speaker with stereo drivers and a sub-woofer measuring 15cmx22cm.

The Reverb has a 30 pin connector so is compatible with all docking iPods as well as the iPhone and you can also connect other devices via the 3.5mm audio input.

There’s also a USB input which you can also use to charge the speaker is you wished.

There’s also a smart looking backlit LCD screen at the top of the speaker that tells you about the usual kind of stuff like EQ levels and volume, how much battery life is left, how much energy has been gathered over time and amazingly how satisfied the Reverb is with the users energy consumption habits!

The Reverb should be out in the US in April 2010 and in the UK sometime after that.

I love the look of the Reverb and like Starck’s Zikmu speakers, its design takes iPod speakers of the bookshelf and makes them a glamorous feature of your room in their own right. I’m not sure I want my gadgets telling me how environmentally good or bad I am, but if it sounds as good as it looks and can help me save the planet a bit, I’ll excuse it this little imperfection.

Pricing should be somewhere around £1,100, but I’ll get a precise figure as soon as I can. As always, as soon as I find out where you can get your hands on this new speaker, I’ll update the post and let you know.

Let me know what you think of the Reverb, just leave me a comment.

Best iPod Speakers to give this Christmas 2009

Chris — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:12:49 +0000

These days many people are lucky enough to have an iPod. So with that option already gone, what do you give to a friend of loved one in your life this Christmas?

Bearing in mind the website you’re on, I guess it’s going to come as know suprise that’ll I’ll say…an iPod speaker of course.

It makes sense though. Everyone loves their iPod or iPhone and for the same sort of cost and in most cases less, you can give you’re friends or loved ones an iPod speaker so that they can not only enjoy their favourite music through their headphones, but in the comfort of their home or on their travels as well.

So what are the best iPod speakers to give to your loved ones this Christmas?

I thought about how best to define the best iPod speakers for this Christmas and the best I could come up with was the ones that I’d want someone to give me!

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Mini

2 years after the iconic Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin iPod speaker staggered the world with its concical design and impressice sonic performance those clever guys at B&W have brought us the Zeppelin Mini

The Zeppelin Mini carries on the Zeppelin’s tradition for design and excellence in a smaller package and at a better price.

This design goodie is going to take pride of place in anyone’s living room.

Price: £299 at John Lewis

Fatman iTube Valve Dock

The Fatman iTube Valve Dock’s appearance is best described as the result of an industrial accident involving your dad’s 1980’s Hi-fi separates and a skater boy with attitude.

The iTube’s sound experience though is where it excels. It combines cutting edge digital technology with refined analogue valves that produce a warmth and depth of sound that other purely digital iPod speakers find hard to compete with.

Price: £204.99 at Play.com

iHome IP1 Studio Series iPod Speaker

The new iHome IP1 is a great design statement and an iPod speaker you’d be proud to have on your bookshelf.

The sound elements on the IP1 are designed by Bongiovi Accoustics the best feature of which is the Digital Power Station processor. This little gizmo analyses the sound about to go through the speakers and dynamically adjusts the output so you get the best sound possible on every beat.

With 100 watts of power the IP1 is a serious bit of kit.

Price: £269.99 at Amazon.co.uk

Gear 4 Duo Portable iPod Speaker

Gear4’s Duo speaker was nominated in the Best iPod Accessory category at this year’s Macworld awards, was listed in their Buyers Guide 2009 as a ‘Gift to Hunt For’ and is one of the best selling iPod speaker docks on the market.

One of the best home/portable iPod speakers on the market with a removable faceplate that houses a rechargeable battery so that it transforms in to a travel speaker as well. Very Clever!

Price: £79.95 at John Lewis

Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere

The Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere is a true travel speaker.

Beautiful with its black gloss finish, the Anywhere is an attractive but highly portable iPod speaker.

The sound has clarity and the stereo separation feature is definitely a plus, pleasingly widening the sound field.

You’d definitely want to be packing the Pure-Fi Anywhere and its 10 hour rechargable battery in to your suitcase, wherever you were going.

Price: £74.00 at Pixmania

So there you have it. The iPod speakers I’d like as a gift this Christmas.

If you’d like to read more about these and other iPod speakers just click here.

iHome iP1 Studio Series Speakers for iPod + iPhone

Chris — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:05:48 +0000

iHome IP1 Studio Series iPod and iPhone Speaker

iHome are not a company you’d usually expect to produce a high-end iPod speaker; they have a good track record in producing good value travel and home/portable speakers.

So it’s somewhat of a suprise to see iHome playing in same area of the market as the like of Bose and Bowers & Wilkins.

But play they are, with their latest addition to their range of iPod speakers, the iHome IP1 Studio Series.

I’m sure iHome will not mind me saying, but their other cheaper models have always been heavy on the plastic and never too imaginative in their design. It’s therefore a nice suprise to see that they had taken a complete departure from their previous iterations to produce something that looks, well…very Apple.

What I mean by that is that this iPod speaker is a design piece in itself, like many of Apple’s own products and just what many Apple owners are looking for.

Apple owners buy iPods, iPhones and Macbooks etc not only for their technological prowess but for their iconic designs that are a wonderful accent to our modern lives.

So here iHome may have got it right. The speaker unit comprises 2 black cans, housing 4 drivers, suspended in a chunky piece of 1/2 inch plastic.

There’s a black platform that houses the IP1 Studio Speakers electronics as well as the iPod/iPhone dock that protrudes from the front of the unit.

The design works and is striking, making iHome’s IP1 something that you’d want to put at the front of your book shelf as a feature so that people could see it (and you could show off). I think the only shame about the look of this iPod speaker is that the plastic front plate is smoke tinted, rather than simply clear.

The iHome IP1 is not just about looks though and considering the price (£269.99 from Amazon.co.uk), that’s a good job.

iHome have showed clear ambition with the IP1 by bringing on board the experts a Bongiovi Accoustics to help make the audio experience of this speaker as impressive as its looks. Bongiovi are not a name you might instantly recognise but they have an impressive pedigree in studio session recording and car audio systems.

Should you forget, you will always be reminded of Bongiovi’s involvement as one of the main features of the IP1 is the “B” button that is evident on the front of the speaker unit.

The B button activates the IP1’s party trick which is know as the Digital Power Station processor. This is a digital processor that asseses the audio that is about to go through the speakers and makes adjustments to the sound to make sure that you hear the best sound possible from the iHome IP1. This is a really good feature and all reports seem to suggest that it creates an impressive sonic experience.

Not only does the IP1 create great clarity of sound, it also does it with a kick! The iHome IP1 produces 100 watts of power through two 1” tweeters with two 4” midrange and bass woofers making this not only a fantastic ‘book shelf’ speaker but a great party speaker as well.

Feature wise this is just about it. The iHome IP1 is just about looks and sound, apparently, so don’t expect a radio, alarm clock or LCD screen to entertain you because what you see is what you get.

There is a remote control, as there should be with an iPod speaker at this level, that allows you to make the usual changes to treble, bass, volume and also allows you to step in to your iPod own controls that’s a bit basic looking, but does the job at the end of the day.

The IP1 is compatible with the iPod mini, iPod nano 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, iPod classic 4G, 5G, 5.5G, 6G, iPod touch 1G, 2G, iPhone 1G, 3G so most Apple loving audiophiles should be able to enjoy the IP1 experience.

iHome are making a big jump with the IP1, putting it up against some established and impressive names like the Bose SoundDock II and the B&W Zeppelin Mini, but the IP1 would seem to be a good match for these other iPod speaker heavyweights.

The IP1 doesn’t have the established name of Bose, but does probably have the edge on the SoundDock II as far as size and clarity of sound. The IP1 doesn’t quite have the seductive looks of the B&W Zeppelin Mini, but is a pretty good looking speaker in its own right and again has the edge on power. Conclusion: A good buy, fabulous sound, good looks, good value.

Price: £269.99 from Play.com

The B&W Zeppelin Mini has arrived

Chris — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:29:36 +0000

B&W Zeppelin Mini iPod speaker has arrived

The B&W Zeppelin Mini’s arrival in the UK has been the most anticipated iPod speaker arrival of the year and it’s finally here, the B&W Zeppelin Mini has arrived and is now available at John Lewis priced at £299.

News came back in September that the clever guys at Bowers and Wilkins had developed a follow up to the highly successful Zeppelin which I covered in our initial review.

The Zeppelin Mini is about half the size of the original Zeppelin, but still packs a punch thanks to the talents of a group of designers and engineers at B&W that have worked on many high profile audio projects like the new sound system in the new Jaguar XJ.

The rumour mill has been very active since the Zeppelin Mini’s launch about when it would be available in the UK.

First thoughts were that it would come to Amazon.co.uk first as Amzon.com had been one of the first retailers in the US to get their hand on Bowers & Wilkins latest addition to their range of iPod speakers.

But iT turns out that Bowers and Wilkins have preferred to initially ship the Zeppelin Mini to specialist audio stores and John Lewis.

Best price: £299 from John Lewis

Fatman iTube Valve Dock with Speakers

Chris — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:55:14 +0000

The Award Winning Fatman iTube Valve Dock with Speakers

T3, Stuff, What Hi-Fi? magazines all gave it 5 stars out of 5 stars. It’s taken as a given that this thing could seduce an audiophile at 100 yards and it looks like the result of an industrial accident involving your dad’s 1980’s Hi-Fi separates and a skater boy with attitude. So what is it?

The (in)famous Fatman iTube Valve Dock with Speakers of course.

The Fatman iTube Valve Dock with Speakers is the bad boy of iPod speakers. If the Valve Dock was walking down the street all the other docks would cross to the other side of the street or hide behind their mum when they saw the iTube coming, because this iPod speaker from Fatman screams attitude.

So how can an iPod speaker dock that so gleefully rejects the norms of modern design thrive so well in the eyes of so many people in the know?

I think the first thing is the East meets West element. People are always fascinated when opposing factors join together and that’s what the iTube Valve Dock does, bringing together MP3 technology with traditional valve technology. But this fusion isn’t just for effect, it serves a real purpose.

The classic looking valve amplifier delivers just what you’d expect. Digital systems inherently have a sharp ‘edge’ to their sound, but the addition of valves here gives the listener a smooth, warm and rich sound, which combines with the precision of the digital elements to produce a stunning overall sound experience.

Whilst the 2 x 25 watt power output is just fine, it’s not going to be enough to make your ears bleed inside an aircraft hangar but like I said, just fine.

The iPod dock is a separate unit to the Fatman’s valve amplifier and is styled with the same ’skaterboy meets dad’ looks. The only slight issue here is that a lack of GSM shielding means that iPhone users may have some issues unless they use the iTube whilst in Flight Safe mode.

Apart from this issue, Fatman say that the iTube Valve Dock is compatible with all iPod Nanos, both the 1st and 2nd generations of the iPod Touch and the 80gb, 120gb, 160gb iPod Classic; no mention of the Shuffle though.

The ‘Fatman iTube Valve Dock with Speakers’ package includes a the valve amplifier, the iPod dock which is connected via a line-level input, plus a pair of compact black speakers as you can see in the picture.

The high-gloss piano black compact speakers supplied do the job just fine, but they are optional and you can just buy the Fatman iTube Valve Dock if you’d prefer and hook up your own speakers.

The Fatman iTube Valve Dock with Speakers package also comes with an Aux source audio cable so you can connect the iTube to your TV as well as Video cable to link the unit up to your TV.

The Fatman iTube Valve Dock is a truly iconic design, breaking from the industry norms much like the B&W Zeppelin did in its own way, but this is not where the iTube excels. It is the unique approach to the design of the sound experience that sets this Fatman speaker dock apart from many of its counterparts and boy does it pay off.

Great sound, well worth the money – consider your own speakers though if you’re an audio connoisseur.

We found Play.com to have the best prices on the Fatman right now. They’re offering:

Fatman iTube Valve Dock with Speakers £204.99