iPOD speakers / dock. Recommendations please

[The_Doc]

Budget £50-90, might go higher if really special product needs

Have: iPOD Classic 120Gb, mostly full of modern music,

Priorities: Sound, then style, then twin power supply battery/mains

I don't expect to tick all three boxes above. I've looked at the Klipsch iGroove models and would love to know what you lot think about alternatives.

Suggestions......

ta,
The_Doc
(apologies for cross post in gadgets forum..)

[adycav]

Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere. I have one of these and it's great.

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Logitech-Pure-Fi-An...


£75 from Amazon, available in black or white.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Pure-Fi-Anywhere-...


Edit to add has a built-in rechargeable battery which officially lasts 'a bloody long time' and can be plugged in to the mains too.

Edited by adycav on Sunday 19th April 08:10

[The_Doc]

cheers, looks good and the WhatHiFi praise is usually good enough for me to buy straight away.

Might give it a few more days for any other offerings...

[maddog993]

Tannoy i30 sounds and looks excellent and Amazon currently knocking them out at £73 (or thereabouts). Can't take batteries like the Logitech but better looking and arguably better sound for the price.
However, the caveat to what would be an otherwise unequivocal recommendation is that my i30, while left on standby, recently went into literal melt-down with an overheating PSU taking out most of the surrounding componentry so it's now fked. However, I haven't heard any other similar horror stories or of any recalls so maybe just mine.
If money no object and it's a conventional self-contained dock, B&W Zeppelin is considered the current Daddy soundwise.

If money no object and you want the best sound possible from an ipod and integration into your hifi - Krell Kid (which also functions as line-source preamp) or Wadia i70i + decent DAC

[geordieexpat]

I have a pair of Bang Olufsen headphone style and they are great when on the plane or out and about, I have the BOSE dockstation, and its logged in to my ICE sysyem in my Sagaris through MD Quart speakers and pioneer head, all good

[The_Doc]

maddog993 said:

Tannoy i30 sounds and looks excellent and Amazon currently knocking them out at £73 (or thereabouts). Can't take batteries like the Logitech but better looking and arguably better sound for the price.
However, the caveat to what would be an otherwise unequivocal recommendation is that my i30, while left on standby, recently went into literal melt-down with an overheating PSU taking out most of the surrounding componentry so it's now fked. However, I haven't heard any other similar horror stories or of any recalls so maybe just mine.
If money no object and it's a conventional self-contained dock, B&W Zeppelin is considered the current Daddy soundwise.

If money no object and you want the best sound possible from an ipod and integration into your hifi - Krell Kid (which also functions as line-source preamp) or Wadia i70i + decent DAC

Thanks for the advice. I've got a Denon mini-system in the lounge, the one with Mission speakers, and to be fair the iPOD is only for casual listening: train/plane/garden/LeMans etc
I can't get my head around compressing your music files and then putting it through a hugely expensive system. Why not get the audio signal from the uncompressed original?

Anyhoo, looks like I'm going to stick to the budget at the top of the thread and get the Logitech thingy..

[cuneus]

The_Doc said:

cheers, looks good and the WhatHiFi praise is usually good enough for me to buy straight away.

Might give it a few more days for any other offerings...

Which said:

"In terms of audio quality we felt it was only satisfactory. Bass is a little restricted, but not terrible and the middle and higher frequencies are a little coloured. Mild distortion was noted, although generally the sound was grainy and harsh."

[adycav]

cuneus said:

The_Doc said:

cheers, looks good and the WhatHiFi praise is usually good enough for me to buy straight away.

Might give it a few more days for any other offerings...

Which said:

"In terms of audio quality we felt it was only satisfactory. Bass is a little restricted, but not terrible and the middle and higher frequencies are a little coloured. Mild distortion was noted, although generally the sound was grainy and harsh."

Link?

The link that I posted above leads to a review that is very positive and bestows 'best buy' status.

[cuneus]

adycav said:

cuneus said:

The_Doc said:

cheers, looks good and the WhatHiFi praise is usually good enough for me to buy straight away.

Might give it a few more days for any other offerings...

Which said:

"In terms of audio quality we felt it was only satisfactory. Bass is a little restricted, but not terrible and the middle and higher frequencies are a little coloured. Mild distortion was noted, although generally the sound was grainy and harsh."

Link?

The link that I posted above leads to a review that is very positive and bestows 'best buy' status.

Really ?
Server Error in '/' Application.

What Hi-fi - Known for review quality

[maddog993]

The_Doc said:

maddog993 said:

If money no object and you want the best sound possible from an ipod and integration into your hifi - Krell Kid (which also functions as line-source preamp) or Wadia i70i + decent DAC

I can't get my head around compressing your music files and then putting it through a hugely expensive system. Why not get the audio signal from the uncompressed original?

The Wadia is the first machine to utilise the ipod's digital output bypassing the ipod's own (pretty decent but understandably compromised) internal DAC. The Wadia isolates and outputs a digital signal which you can then feed to a DAC of your choice thus, (assuming your music is encoded onto the ipod via Apple Lossless), theoretically the sky is the limit soundwise.
The Krell Kid by comparison merely manipulates the ipod DAC output but with allegedly very impressive results - (though there is unavoidably a distinct hint of snake oil when you're paying £1600 for something that is ultimately nothing more than a glorified conventional 'dock')
Both appeal simply in the decadent context that enables generally acceptable sound quality to be accesssed from that little white box that contains all of ones albums without having to get off ones arse to turn the vinyl over or swap the cd. I realised I hadn't even turned my cd player on for over two years as I burned all my cd's straight to iTunes and then via ipod. Not audio nirvana but, for me, near enough for the convenience!

[adycav]

cuneus said:

adycav said:

cuneus said:

The_Doc said:

cheers, looks good and the WhatHiFi praise is usually good enough for me to buy straight away.

Might give it a few more days for any other offerings...

Which said:

"In terms of audio quality we felt it was only satisfactory. Bass is a little restricted, but not terrible and the middle and higher frequencies are a little coloured. Mild distortion was noted, although generally the sound was grainy and harsh."

Link?

The link that I posted above leads to a review that is very positive and bestows 'best buy' status.

Really ?
Server Error in '/' Application.

What Hi-fi - Known for review quality

Yeah, I had the error thing when I was looking for the review that you quoted! It's fixed now:

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Logitech-Pure-Fi-An...

[JD]

picked up an Anywhere2 today myself after reading the above

goes plenty loud enough and sounds ok, volume isn't affected when it's running solely on the battery,


Thumbs up from me!

[The_Doc]

JD said:

picked up an Anywhere2 today myself after reading the above

goes plenty loud enough and sounds ok, volume isn't affected when it's running solely on the battery,


Thumbs up from me!

yeah, me too.

mine's coming tomorrow.

thanks all.

[SJobson]

I bought a Logitech Pure-Fi Express Plus over the Anywhere, on the basis that it's AA battery powered when not plugged into the mains. And about £38 in Argos. Bargain - and this review is very complimentary about the sound quality in comparison: Clicky.

[Parabola]

Can anyone recommend one of these portable units with an FM radio built in?

Ta.

[The_Doc]

I'd just like to say thanks for all the recommendations on this thread.

I've had my Logitech thingy for about a month now and I am very pleased with it. Great compromise of budget/sound/portability/powersource

Thanks for the advice, and if you're looking for one, then thumbs up from me.