The Acoustic Research blackVault AR4131 is one of the more “reasonably priced” docks at only $199.
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Despite what some of you audio geeks will admit, digital music does have its advantages. It allows you to carry even the stinkiest of your song library into a mammoth, yet mini hard drive—on the off chance that you feel like getting jiggy with any of it.
Sadly, it just doesn’t provide the oomph of your old, monster stereo system. Ask any self-proclaimed audiophile. Jaime Sommers isn’t the only one with a bionic ear; these guys (and gals) can hear the difference, and will gladly preach about the iPod’s inferiority from the highest couch cushions. It’s an annoying argument that you just can’t win; after all, compressed audio does not equal “CD-quality” sound.
However, a new category of iPod add-on does not force you to choose between quality and quantity. Newer high-end iPod docks allow you to have your cake and couch cushions too. They aren’t cheap, but do allow users to get serious about sound without sacrificing the convenience of the iPod.
While some iPod users are still trying to master lossless compression, others are depending on this new, and more expensive, class of iPod dock to take care of business for them. If you’ve ever tried different headphones with your iPod, you probably already know that swapping speakers alone can actually make a difference.
These newer docks don’t just pump sound to speakers and charge your iPod for the next fun run. They aren’t even designed to blare out the contents of your iPod for everyone on the beach. As cool as they are, they keep your dirty little digital secret at home—adding in signal processing, old-school vacuum tubes, high-quality outputs and cables and whatever else it takes to actually improve the iPod’s audio and/or video quality.
Check out our slideshow for pictures, prices and specs of nine iPod docks.
The bottom line is: You want to use a lossless format. However, if a dock has good pre-amplification, it’s going to sound better than one that just plays your iPod.
People argue that they do nothing… however, it is a new category that we wanted to cover. If you (or anyone else) has any experience with any—or all!—of these, I’d love to hear about it.
I have heard a few of these, and there is a noticeable difference. To some, that might not be saying much!
Yes I found it confusing as well, The iPod and associated music file is still the source… It’s pretty much a given that music out of speakers will sound different to headphones. Following on, it’s most likely that a more expensive dock will sound better than a cheap dock.
I’m not sure how DSP’s or valve amps make music sound less digital, one adds (digitally) sound effects and the other simply amplifies the sound its given.
Hi Steve: You are absolutely right… and I did not mean to imply that ANY of these devices would uncompress files. They’re not magic! However, this is just a selection of better playback devices than your typical iPod speaker… the processing does make a difference!
Once the signal has been compressed, no amount of expensive electronics like this will uncompress it, as seems implied by the article. If you really want to avoid the effects of compression, just use the (relatively) uncompressed CD AIFF files or use Apple Lossless (in iTunes). With iPod capacities increasing, using large files is becoming less of a problem. Then the main limiting factor is the quality of the D to A converter of the iPod. The signal can be fed to whatever audio system suits your needs.
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Hi Rachel. Your clarification is appreciated. As for my use of other devices, now and then I plug my iPod directly into a Quad Electroacoustics setup with electrostatic loudspeakers (ESL63’s front & back) and a Meridian surround processor; it’s pretty revealing and the Meridian is a very good DSP. I find the experience better than some might expect from compressed data (AAC 128kb) but I don’t do this often and always use the original CD or LP. I have not used any midi sized boxes, like the AR unit here. Ben’s mention about valve amps is a whole other discussion. If you like the warm sound of 2nd harmonic distortion as the valves age… but there I go.