UHF No 70 (Net).indd - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

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scarcely needs a n introduction. There used to be a million portable music players out there. Now there’s the iPod, with some 35% of the market (Apple is only getting used to this), and…oh, a few others you probably can’t name. Because we’re audiophiles we don’t usually go around with headphones welded to our ears. Apple wasn’t thinking of us — or you possibly — in coming up with either the iPod or its now famous music store. Like all other online stores, Apple sells music in compressed form. True, it uses Dolby’s AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) instead of MP3, but a quick comparison confi rms what we expected. Neither is meant for music lovers. Fortunately there’s more to the iPod. Unlike most such players, the iPod is format agnostic. For all it cares you c a n lo ad it up with your photos, your address book or your doctoral thesis. You can also load it with uncompressed music, in either WAV or AIFF formats, which are the audio formats of Windows and Macintosh respectively. What’s more, it has gotten big! The top model now has a whop- ping 40 gigabytes of space, with 60 Gb rumored to be on the way. The average CD contains about 600 Mb of data, which means about 67 of them can be loaded onto a 40 Gb iPod. Better yet, in late April Apple announced a new lossless codec, possibly based on the open source FLAC format. That doubles the capacity again. Not bad for a battery-operated unit that weighs under 200 grams. The software is as important as the hardware, though. The iPod was originally made to operate with iTunes, a program that comes free with the Mac’s OS X operating system. A Windows version also exists, and can be downloaded from the Apple Web site. Both work the Listening Room Apple’s ubiquitous iPod 54 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine iPod: a Poor Man’s Server? same way. You import music from CD to iTunes, organizing it among folders as you see fi t. A preference window lets you pick a compression method…or no compression at all. You can then arrange your music into playlists, and ask iTunes to play the pieces you’ve chosen either in sequence or randomly. Note that this is enough to turn your computer into a digital jukebox. You don’t need to own an iPod to use iTunes, though if you do things get interesting. Each time you plug the iPod into your computer (with FireWire on a Mac, FireWire or USB on a PC), iTunes synchronizes the iPod with your computer. Imagine having 67 CDs in your pocket. Imagine hearing them through headphones, or (with the little Griffi n FM transmitter) through your car radio. And now imagine this. Some people are spending thousands of dollars, or even tens of thousands, on music servers that can stock music from hundreds of discs and produce them on demand. Can the iPod serve some 70 discs on demand…for well under a thousand? The answer is yes. What we set out to discover is whether it can do that with what an audiophile would consider adequate quality. The picture, by the way, was supplied by Apple. Our iPod had been t h rough the hands (and perhaps the claws) of several reviewers, of which the National Post was the latest, and was too scratched to photograph. For this test we loaded three selections into iTunes running on a Macintosh iBook: 1) Bist du bein mir, from The Little Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach (Analekta FL 2 3064). Properly reproduced, this is a fi ve-goosebumps recording. 2) Now the Green Blade Riseth (Proprius PRCD9093), a delightful or hideous choral recording, depending on what you play it on. 3) The Master’s Plan from Doug McLeod's blues recording Come to Find (Audioquest AQCD1017). We synchronized the iPod, and then listened to the three selections through our Linn Unidisk reference player, before plugging in the iPod. The player has a standard minijack, to which we connected an adapter, and a pair of Atlas Navigator All-Cu interconnects.
We won’t keep you in suspense. From the fi rst sounds of soprano Karina Gauvin’s voice, we knew we were on to something. Gauvin’s voice is naturally smooth and controlled, though it’s more than a lot of digital players can handle without getting downright unpleasant. The iPod mostly made her sound right, with only an occasional high note seeming out of place. The articulation of the German text, which gives Gauvin little Yes we know… trouble, didn’t give this player much trouble either. Oh, there were things missing, to be sure. Some of the subtle cues that reveal depth and make the stereo image explicit had become less distinct. The bottom end had diminished impact — we could just make that out on the harpsichord passages. Rhythm was not quite as quick. “But we’ve heard a lot worse than this,” said Reine. The choral recording, which we heard sound hideous in some rooms at the Montreal show, was more than satisfactory coming through the iPod. The fl ute solo was attractive, though we lost track of it once the singers came in. The plucked bass had considerable weight, though less than Reine would have liked. The high notes of the sopranos were a little shriller and more grainy than with our player, but there was nothing radi- Fact: the Apple iPod is the hot electronic product. It’s of no interest to audiophiles, though, unless… Well, unless it is. We know you’ll want to read this audiophile-oriented review of the Apple iPod, the very fi rst as far as we know. The UHF Reference Systems UHF maintains three reference systems. Power cords: Gutwire, Stratus The Kappa system All equipment reviews are done on at least AC fi lters: Foundation Research LC-2 This is our home theatre system. As one of these systems, which are selected to be (power amp), Inouye SPLC. with the Alpha system, we had limited working tools. Their elements are changed space for the Kappa system, and that pretty only after long consideration, because a The Omega system much ruled out huge projectors and two- system that changes is not a reference. It serves for reviews of gear that cannot meter screens. We did, however, fi nally The Alpha system easily fi t into the Alpha system, with its small room. Summing We didn’t it set out up… to make an come up with a system whose performance gladdens both eye and ear, and which has Our original reference is installed “A” (best system) and a “B” (economy) in a room with extraordinary acoustics Brand/model: system, and we didn’t Apple want iPod to imply that (originally designed as a recording studio). Price: one of C$699/US$499 the two systems is somehow (40 Gb better version; Canadian price includes a $25 The acoustics allow us to hear what we than the other. Hence the names, which “piracy” levy) couldn’t hear elsewhere, but there’s a down don’t invite comparisons. Unless you’re Dimensions: 6.1 x 10 x 1.7 cm side. Not only is the room too small for Greek of course. Mass: 176 g large speakers, but it is also at the top of a Most liked: Compact, versatile, particularly unaccommodating stairwell. astonishing CD player: sound shared with the Alpha Least systemliked: No digital out CD Transport: Parasound C/BD2000 Verdict: Turntable: Sure Alphason it’s cool, but Sonata that’s not the needed resolution to serve for reviews. HDTV monitor: Hitachi 43UWX10B CRT-based rear projector DVD player: Simaudio Moon Stellar with Faroudja Stingray video processor Preamplifi er/processor: Simaudio Moon Attraction, 5.1 channel version Power amplifi ers: Simaudio Moon W-3 (main speakers), Celeste 4070se (belt-driven transport designed by the Tone half arm: of it. Alphason HR-100S MCS (centre speaker), Robertson 4010 (rear) CEC). Phono preamp: Audiomat Phono-1.5 Main speakers: Energy Reference Digital-to-analog converter: Coun- Pickup: Goldring Excel Connoisseur terpoint DA-10A, with HDCD card. Turntable: Audiomeca J-1 Preamplifi er: Copland CTA-305 tube preamp CROSSTALK Centre speaker: Thiel MCS1, on UHF’s own TV-top platform Tone This arm: little Audiomeca box is good. It SL-5 is, in fact dis- Power We’ll amplifi need to er: adapt, Simaudio yes. It Moon will take Rear And speakers: then I started Elipson listening, 1400 and I was concertingly Phono preamp: good. Why Audiomat can it Phono-1.5 reproduce some W-5 getting used to, some humility too, so Subwoofer: charmed by 3a the Design results, Acoustics even alongside music Pickup: this Goldring well when Excel so many “real” CD but Loudspeakers: don’t underestimate Reference this trend. 3a We’re our Cables: reference, Equinox that I figured and Atlantis, I ought Star- to give players Preamplifi sound er: thin Copland and screechy CTA-305 and down- tube on Suprema our way to II new and amazing sources — some light thought video cables to the usefulness of this gimright preamp boring? It isn’t quite audiophile quality, though even so it could be. Power amplifi er: YBA One HC The iPod of course wasn’t designed to Loudspeakers: Living Voice Avatar be a high end component. But good design doesn’t OBX-R happen by accident. Interconnects: Pierre —Gerard Gabriel Rejskind ML-1, Equinox/WBT full Interconnects: of promises. Pierre Gabriel ML-1. I kept looking at the little iPod, dwarfed Wireworld Equinox by its connecting cables, producing such Loudspeaker cables: Pierre Gabriel surprisingly good music, and I realized the truth: ML-1 we’re (formerly on our way… L3), for most of the range, Wireworld Polaris —Albert for the Simon twin subwoofers. mick. Power Once cables I had done and that, line I fi could lters: think Gut- of a thousand occasions on which I’d be happy wire cables, Inouye SPLC fi lter to have one. All three of the systems now have their It’s an attractive object, easy to pack away own because dedicated it’s power so small, lines, that with can Hubbell warehouse hospital a lot grade of your outlets. favorite All music, extensions to be and listened power to bars in public used places are also without equipped disturbing with Loudspeaker “You remember cables: the time Eclipse when II we with lis- Power I’m not cords: in the Wireworld habit of hiding Aurora my feel- your hospital-grade neighbors, but connectors. also capable of throwtened WBT to bananas music through CD players?” ings AC when fi lters: I write Foundation for you. So Research I have to LC-1 tell ing up a terrific musical backdrop when I can just hear an audiophile saying just you that I wasn’t even lukewarm about re- re- you’ve got work to do. that, someday, after pocketing an iPod and viewing this tiny portable gadget that can As for its audiophile qualities, let me preparing to leave his or her friend’s place. fit in your palm. What, yet another gadget just say that they deserve to be underlined. Some day. Soon. that will become “essential”? —Reine Lessard ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 55 Listening Listening Room Room
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