BILL MACHRONE Steal-Me White IF YOU HAVE EVEN A SHRED OF INTEREST IN audio devices, you have probably checked out the iPod Hi-Fi, that shiny white boom box with the iPod dock on top. It garnered an Editors’ Choice here in PC Magazine and has been well reviewed elsewhere. Everyone agrees that it sounds good and that it’s loud. No one disputes that it has visual appeal. Apple didn’t cut corners on construction quality, magnet weight in the speakers, or amplifier power, although the company is coy about citing wattage. I think it’s silly. Real Hassles First of all, if you look around the average home or apartment, you will find an abundance of Things That Play Music: these may include home theaters, highend and midrange stereo systems, bookshelf systems, Bose and Bose-like table or shelf radios, even upscale clock radios with CD players. Which of them will you displace to make room for an iPod Hi-Fi, which has no radio and only an inconveniently located input jack at the rear? In an ideal location—say, on a credenza located against an uncluttered wall and placed equidistant from the side walls—the iPod Hi-Fi sounds very good for its size, but it is somewhat midrangey for my tastes and unable to create a true stereo sound stage. Other locations further compromise stereo imaging. Granted, imaging isn’t important if you’re just filling the room with sound, but Apple advertises this thing as a replacement for an audiophile system. Audiophiles care about imaging. Second, there’s the blindingly white case. I jokingly coined the phrase “mug-me white” to describe the iPod earbuds, but the phrase has been all too accurate in some locales. So where will you take the iPod Hi-Fi so it won’t attract the wrong kind of attention? A picnic in a state park? The beach? Sure, if you’re going to hire security for the day. Perhaps a more appropriate venue would be the fenced patio in your gated community. Seriously, when you look at the iPod Hi-Fi, you have to wonder why Apple bothered to put in a battery capability at all—it definitely looks like a stayat-home. Finally, consider the iPod itself, waving idiot ically from the top of the unit, in the most blatant bit of hey-look-at-me style self-consciousness since Snoop 56 PC MAGAZINE MAY 9, 2006 Dogg’s neckwear. Most other speakers equipped with docks nestle or partially envelop the iPod in a protective nook. Not so the iPod Hi-Fi, which leaves it dangerously exposed. Real Home Stereo If you really want to use your iPod with your home stereo, you should get a good dock such as the Xitel HiFi-Link iPod dock. We have one and will probably get a second one. The unit is sometimes hooked up to the stereo in the kitchen, the home theater in the family room, or the boom box in the basement shop. And when it’s not playing music, it’s charging my son’s iPod or mine. The Xitel unit has its own remote control, which comes in handy for tasks such as adjusting the volume from across the room or skipping that song that you didn’t want to hear. Of course, you can always use a generic 1 /8-inch stereo cable with suitable adapters to Where will you take the iPod Hi-Fi so it won’t attract the wrong kind of attention? A picnic in a state park? The beach? Sure, if you’re going to hire security for the day. hook the iPod up to anything that has an auxiliary port. But the charger, the remote control, and the stand-up dock all make the Xitel dock worthwhile. It also has video-out, but we haven’t taken the iPod video plunge yet. My son likes the Xitel dock’s SRS TruBass bass boost, but I don’t—I suspect that it’s one of those generational things. Real Portability If you really want to share your tunes with a small crowd, we have an ideal do-it-yourself project for you, which we are featuring in the next issue. I converted an old stereo cassette player–radio (it’s not quite big enough to break into the boom box category) so that it stealthily conceals an iPod inside the cassette compartment. You can control the iPod by using the cassette buttons. It won’t rattle the windows like the iPod Hi-Fi, but it’s loud enough to make itself heard. And it’s ratty enough that no one will think about stealing it, even if you leave it on your beach towel while you take a dip. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for <strong>Support</strong> MORE ON THE WEB You can contact Bill Machrone at Bill_Machrone@ziffdavis .com. For more of his columns, go to go.pcmag .com/machrone.
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for <strong>Support</strong> 58 PC MAGAZINE MAY 9, 2006 Illustration by Zohar Lazar
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