Unauthorized - Parent Directory - Support
Unauthorized - Parent Directory - Support
Unauthorized - Parent Directory - Support
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BILL MACHRONE<br />
Steal-Me White<br />
IF YOU HAVE EVEN A SHRED OF INTEREST IN<br />
audio devices, you have probably checked<br />
out the iPod Hi-Fi, that shiny white boom<br />
box with the iPod dock on top. It garnered<br />
an Editors’ Choice here in PC Magazine<br />
and has been well reviewed elsewhere.<br />
Everyone agrees that it sounds good and<br />
that it’s loud. No one disputes that it has<br />
visual appeal. Apple didn’t cut corners on construction<br />
quality, magnet weight in the speakers, or amplifier<br />
power, although the company is coy about citing<br />
wattage.<br />
I think it’s silly.<br />
Real Hassles<br />
First of all, if you look around the average home or<br />
apartment, you will find an abundance of Things That<br />
Play Music: these may include home theaters, highend<br />
and midrange stereo systems, bookshelf systems,<br />
Bose and Bose-like table or shelf radios, even upscale<br />
clock radios with CD players. Which of them will you<br />
displace to make room for an iPod Hi-Fi, which has no<br />
radio and only an inconveniently located input jack at<br />
the rear?<br />
In an ideal location—say, on a credenza located<br />
against an uncluttered wall and placed equidistant<br />
from the side walls—the iPod Hi-Fi sounds very<br />
good for its size, but it is somewhat midrangey for my<br />
tastes and unable to create a true stereo sound stage.<br />
Other locations further compromise stereo imaging.<br />
Granted, imaging isn’t important if you’re just filling<br />
the room with sound, but Apple advertises this thing as<br />
a replacement for an audiophile system. Audiophiles<br />
care about imaging.<br />
Second, there’s the blindingly white case. I jokingly<br />
coined the phrase “mug-me white” to describe<br />
the iPod earbuds, but the phrase has been all too accurate<br />
in some locales. So where will you take the iPod<br />
Hi-Fi so it won’t attract the wrong kind of attention? A<br />
picnic in a state park? The beach? Sure, if you’re going<br />
to hire security for the day. Perhaps a more appropriate<br />
venue would be the fenced patio in your gated community.<br />
Seriously, when you look at the iPod Hi-Fi,<br />
you have to wonder why Apple bothered to put in a<br />
battery capability at all—it definitely looks like a stayat-home.<br />
Finally, consider the iPod itself, waving idiot ically<br />
from the top of the unit, in the most blatant bit of<br />
hey-look-at-me style self-consciousness since Snoop<br />
56 PC MAGAZINE MAY 9, 2006<br />
Dogg’s neckwear. Most other speakers equipped with<br />
docks nestle or partially envelop the iPod in a protective<br />
nook. Not so the iPod Hi-Fi, which leaves it dangerously<br />
exposed.<br />
Real Home Stereo<br />
If you really want to use your iPod with your home<br />
stereo, you should get a good dock such as the Xitel<br />
HiFi-Link iPod dock. We have one and will probably<br />
get a second one. The unit is sometimes hooked up<br />
to the stereo in the kitchen, the home theater in the<br />
family room, or the boom box in the basement shop.<br />
And when it’s not playing music, it’s charging my son’s<br />
iPod or mine.<br />
The Xitel unit has its own remote control, which<br />
comes in handy for tasks such as adjusting the volume<br />
from across the room or skipping that song that you<br />
didn’t want to hear. Of course, you can always use a<br />
generic 1 /8-inch stereo cable with suitable adapters to<br />
Where will you take the iPod Hi-Fi so it<br />
won’t attract the wrong kind of attention?<br />
A picnic in a state park? The beach? Sure,<br />
if you’re going to hire security for the day.<br />
hook the iPod up to anything that has an auxiliary port.<br />
But the charger, the remote control, and the stand-up<br />
dock all make the Xitel dock worthwhile. It also has<br />
video-out, but we haven’t taken the iPod video plunge<br />
yet. My son likes the Xitel dock’s SRS TruBass bass<br />
boost, but I don’t—I suspect that it’s one of those generational<br />
things.<br />
Real Portability<br />
If you really want to share your tunes with a small<br />
crowd, we have an ideal do-it-yourself project for you,<br />
which we are featuring in the next issue. I converted<br />
an old stereo cassette player–radio (it’s not quite big<br />
enough to break into the boom box category) so that<br />
it stealthily conceals an iPod inside the cassette compartment.<br />
You can control the iPod by using the cassette<br />
buttons. It won’t rattle the windows like the iPod<br />
Hi-Fi, but it’s loud enough to make itself heard. And<br />
it’s ratty enough that no one will think about stealing<br />
it, even if you leave it on your beach towel while you<br />
take a dip. <br />
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for <strong>Support</strong><br />
MORE ON THE WEB<br />
You can contact Bill Machrone<br />
at Bill_Machrone@ziffdavis<br />
.com. For more of his<br />
columns, go to go.pcmag<br />
.com/machrone.
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