Nothing like a valve amp for that iPod

We don't know what it is with the retro-styled iPod accessories as of late, but we do know one of the hidden highlights of last weeks' Computex was surely A-Zone International's old school retro-modern iPod stereo system. Expect a 50 watt valve amp complete with wood paneling, chrome stand, and a price tag oh so appropriate for your little white plastic one: €699 (about $880 US).

[Dario @ Jun 11th 2006 8:35PM]

when are the accessories going to cost less than the ipod!!?

[Joey @ Jun 11th 2006 8:38PM]

Why would anyone want to attach a valve amp, or any amp, up to an ipod.
If you have that amount of money to blow on a 'stylish' amp; you should be able to afford a proper audio source.
It's like washing your clothes in the best washing machine in the world and deliberately plumbing your sewage pipe up to the water feed.......... that's a weird example.
There are loads of ipod amps about. Why don't these rich people buy proper music servers? Or PC's? Morons.

[Jake D @ Nov 27th 2007 1:08AM]

We do have dedicated music sources and usually several to choose from.

I have 3 dedicated CD players, 4 DVD players, 2 DVD-Hard Drive recorders, 2 SACD players & 2 iPods.

Rich people get rich because they’re morons ?? Great logic sunshine.

[OyoyoY123 @ Jun 11th 2006 8:38PM]

dang~! This thing looks sweet, apple should really include something like this as their first party accesories, (so it would be easier to find one !)

[Paul @ Jun 11th 2006 8:45PM]

This is stupid. An iPod can only handle 320KB mp3 tracks.

If you wanted real quality, as any audiophile will tell you, you wouldn't use and iPod.

You would either be using CD's (not 'home burned'), SACD or DVD-A.

And it wouldn't be connected via a cheap piece of metal at the bottom of an iPod.

No distrespect to an iPod (I own one myself - like the other 90% of the world) but this is the most pointless thing I have seen.

[MrE @ Jun 11th 2006 8:59PM]

Paul, what are you talking about? iPods handle ALAC, WAV, and AIFF as well as AAC and MP3. You can dump has high as you like, and you can set VBR for your MP3.

Now, spending this kinda dough on a tube amp is a bit extreme, but no more than some of the other accessories for the iPod.

[Matt @ Jun 11th 2006 9:00PM]

don't forget that the iPod supports Apple Lossless format!

as a guitar player, I know the difference a nice set of valves can make over some cheap transistors when kept properly. I would definitely pick up one of these if I could afford it. until then, I'll just continue hooking up my iPod to my Vox AC30 :)

[Paul @ Jun 11th 2006 9:20PM]

MrE,

From Apples Site:

AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF.

Firsly, VBR doesn't mean it will go further then 320kbs. It will just cut down on areas which don't need such a high bitrate.

My argument is that if you want high quality music, an Onkyo mini system would most likely do it better using the CD player.

The iPod's 30 pin port is highly the best source to get high quality music?

[Ypocaramel @ Jun 11th 2006 9:20PM]

If I am not mistaken that the tube amplifer involved is a Dared MP5 and that has a built-in digital to audio adapter. It costs $300 and is a good headphone (though I personally think not *great*) and speaker amp. The amp itself goes for around $350 if you hunt around. No idea about the speakers.

As for the whole lossless thing you'd have to be a pretty stuck up audiophile to think that AIFF is worse than a CD. Definately not something a $800 speaker system can differiate - in fact I'm not sure if at that price the difference between high quality mp3 and CD is that noticable. I don't know about the quality SACD but listening only to SACD or DVDA limits your collection quite a bit - especially outside of jazz or classics.

[billybob_jcv @ Jun 11th 2006 9:22PM]

What? The dock connector isn't solid platinum? Phhht - never mind... ;-)

[Paul @ Jun 11th 2006 9:39PM]

The lack of knowledge on audio is showing.

It's not even worth 'discussing' with you 'billyboob_jcv' about connections.

But ask yourself this, that product is aimed for high quality music playback - but the connection connecting the output into the input is of standard affordable quality.

Maybe my standards are too high, but so what? Just making a point.

[jonny @ Jun 11th 2006 10:01PM]

$900 ain't bad for a decent system, and an ipod can be used with higher end stuff no problem. see here: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/hipod/hipod.html

[Jeff @ Jun 11th 2006 10:16PM]

"My argument is that if you want high quality music, an Onkyo mini system would most likely do it better using the CD player."

Do you understand what the word "lossless" means?

If not, look it up.

[threEchelon @ Jun 12th 2006 12:12AM]

To gomo:

Immature, ignorant posts like yours are the reason why engadget routinely turns off the comments function. Do everyone a favor and stop trolling.

[Poita @ Jun 12th 2006 12:45AM]

echelon: take out the troll aspects of gomo's comment and its actually one of the most pertinent comments in this thread. Some people will buy this because they thing that anything with valves will sound fantastic, others will buy it because it is something a little different and use it as a talking piece.

[MrE @ Jun 12th 2006 12:56AM]

Paul,

VBR or Variable Bit Rate is just a form of sampling. I never said that it would increase the 320kbps MP3, just that it would sound better than the canned CBR or Constant Bit Rate that most folks encode their MP3's.

As far as AIFF, ALAC, and WAV, tell me, why either PCM format or Apple's Lossless codec wouldn't sound good on the 30 pin out? Its not coming from the analog headphone jack but from the digital 30 pin. And yes, it will sound better coming across that as source.

[Bryan Jackson @ Jun 12th 2006 1:01AM]

My thoughts: 1, in the apple dock connector there is NO digital audio out. The DAC (digital to analog converter) is inside the ipod. This doesn't bother me as Apple uses high enough quality DACs that it probably doesn't make an audible difference. (Yes, I am still saving up for a Benchmark DAC1, so sue me).

2, Why would you use a valve amp? Because you want it to cost more and have higher levels of distortion than a well designed solid state amp? Not that tubes are bad, it's just that they cost more and don't perform as well. (BTW the tubes on a guitar are there to produce distortion which is heard as 'warmth' but most of which is second order harmonics). I also wonder if this is a hybrid tube preamp and solid state amp, or how the power is measured because I haven't seen many tube amps this cheap with that amount of power.

[gomo @ Jun 12th 2006 3:05AM]

And Poita -

Thanks for seeing through my glibness for the point I was trying to make. Sometimes it's not entirely about the scientifically perfect nature of the sound a thing produces. Like the ipod, or -insert any other beloved object of your choosing- it's more than the sum of its parts, for whatever reason moves you.

[crescentdave @ Jun 12th 2006 3:27AM]

$895 sez: look at me, I'm an iDiot.

[Camperton @ Jun 12th 2006 3:47AM]

gomo's post was hilarious. lighten up.

[treetrunk @ Jun 12th 2006 6:14AM]

MrE: Does the ipod have digital audio out? Last I heard the dock connector was just analogue line out - same as the headphone socket, but bypasssing the volume control. I wouldn't have thought they'd be allowed to put a digital audio out, since it'd facilitate easy copying. Most portable minidisc players didn't have one either for the same reason.

[asdf @ Jun 12th 2006 6:34AM]

such tiny speakers to go with a tube? and they're supposed to be 50w? that all just seems sooo very wrong.

[nicholas @ Jun 12th 2006 7:52AM]

As somebody whose owned Marantz Gold Pre-amps and Macintosh valves as well as pretty much the best of the moderately priced solid-state products including Marantz tuned CD platters, you really have to go pretty far to dis Apple Lossless. I've onwed stereos since I could walk as my grandfather designed them. I switched from vinyl because it was frustrating to get a tick, and for something of convenience. Dynamic range is debate-able, although half of that is due to producers pushing the volume up. I swithced from CDs because finding something amongst the din of thousands of discs can be hard with a teenager, and the damn things do deteriorate. But, I have to say the for me the best possible scenario is to push a pure digital signal through the most minimal of circuit. The shuffle is actually the best of the bunch, but won't handle Lossless. The valve softens the signal, again debate-able. But, hasn't it always been so?

[Justin @ Jun 12th 2006 8:19AM]

I think any product such as this that may expose somebody new to the world of Hi-fi is a great thing.

I've never heard a kid with an ipod say that while listening to their favorite song on an ipod made the hairs on the back of their neck stand up.

This is the right direction.

[Reg @ Jun 12th 2006 9:03PM]

You can in fact set up an iPod to output sound that is equivalent to a CD player: 1411 kbps, 44.1 kHz, 16-bit.

A valve amp requires an analog input.

iPod = CD player.

[Olio Bandito @ Jun 13th 2006 7:19AM]

I can't believe none of you picked the funniest aspect of this up.

I was just saying to a friend of mine the other day that a valve amp for an MP3 player would be a great scam and would generate good laughs.

A valve amp introduces noise! That "warm" sound everyone talks about is the ion cloud inside the the little tube distorting the tranmission of electrons. HiFi salesmen rank up there with Used Car Salesmen and Republicans for telling fibs. Remember the early days of CD player sales where a 16bit encoded CD would sound better playing out of a 32bit DtoA player!! Valves and Extra Thick Cables fall into the Marketing spin category as well.

I would hazard a guess that the IPOD plugged into an everyday cheapo mini HiFi would sound better than anything plugged into a Valve Amp.

How to test it? Just resample the sound back from the speaker outputs and view the comparison with the signal you gave it in the first place. You will find a substantial noise component added on the Valve set.

[anthony @ Jul 12th 2006 12:55PM]

I have a fairly descent system. The front end is Modulus 3 and VTL MB225 amps for the main speakers. Conrad Johnson MV75A for the center, Sonic Frontiers SFS 80 for the rears.
I use a Thata data DA converter and a T1000 EAD transport. Output runs through Thiel CS3.6 speakers’ front and rears and a KEF s800 center.
With all that said, I think the CD sounds better than using my iPod on this system. If I record the music to CD I get a better quality sound than through the iPod. I also have a PDA and the quality is similar to that of the iPod. Depending on the source of the recording to the computer you can have a varying degree of quality. I hook up the same iPod to my car stereo and it sounds great.
The high end systems seem to bring out any flaws in the recording. Many retail recording will give you varying degrees of quality. I can connect directly to the Modulus 3 and get a very good playback of what was recorded but the system will only enhance whatever you recorded.
All that said, looks like a cool toy, people like me will just buy it to try it. I think were already crazy with all the other tube gear.

[Zatouroff @ Nov 3rd 2006 5:26AM]

Poita: Some people will buy this because they thing that anything with valves will sound fantastic.

This is true. You see lightning bulps makes music and that sounds good. If u are going to play electic guitar on this iPod amp, buy it. As a guitar player, It's price is same as 50 watt marshall amp and marshall is 5, 6 times bigger than that. But I can't believe this 10 cm3 boxes gives 50 watt. On the other hand, there will be no changes as listening music by ipod on a single transistor amp or tube amp. Putting tubes in this amp only makes it's price higher.

[Jon Lake @ Nov 22nd 2006 7:20PM]

I've heard this, in the form of the Fatman iTube. It's selling well in the UK.

It's available in the US from Bluebird Music

http://bluebirdmusic.com/fatman_dealers.htm

The point is that all that matters is how it sounds, and this sounds so much better than the other iPod dock/speaker systems out there - from the Jamo i300 and the Bose Sound Dock down to the iPod Stereo.

[caiomonster @ Jan 28th 2007 11:24PM]

Does anyone understand the point that no matter what your feeding into the stereo, that a tube amp will always sound better than any solid state amp? I plug my iTunes or iPod into the auxilary connection into my $30 Harmon/Kardon Ballad Stereo with 6BQ5/EL84 tubes found at the thrift store and listen through Klipsch KG-4's bought used off of craigslist for $200 and it sounds absolutely amazing. I'm not saying it sounds better than pristine vinyl playing on a Thorens turntable or a tube radio tuner, but it definitely improves the sound of any digitized music and sweetens the sound. These iPod specific tube amps do look really cool though and if it has a D/A converter then that might be worth it, but to us poor folk, let's keep scoring on the vintage tube amp thrift store, craigslist, ebay treasures.