Gakken amplifier kit brings vacuum tubes to your iPod

Gakken's no stranger to build-it-yourself retro audio gear, and it now looks to be trying to bring some of its old school ways to your iPod with its new Vacuum Tube Amplifier kit. As you can see above, however, while the company is apparently pitching it as an iPod dock of sorts (like we've seen before), it'll also work just as well with any other audio device, as it relies on nothing more than a headphone jack to hook things up. Of course, you'll only be able to do that after you put the kit together, but judging from the number of parts that doesn't look to be too daunting a task, and at about $150, it's not all that unreasonably priced either (the shipping from Korea could be another matter though).

[Jeff @ Mar 5th 2008 4:03PM]

Using the headphone output basically negates the quality benefit of a tube-based amp.

[Sam @ Mar 5th 2008 4:14PM]

Completely!

They aren't even using the line out of the ipod, a shame really. Looks like a decent amp too.

[andyo @ Mar 5th 2008 4:08PM]

Yeah, 'cause the quality "advantage" is only there for those who wish to hear it. Sound coloring is not an advantage, it's just different sound, and solid-state amps are a cleaner-sounding technology at least. Nevertheless THIS amp's price is reasonable enough to buy it just for the curiosity/cool looking factor.

[Matt @ Mar 5th 2008 5:22PM]

Not like you'll hear any difference through those horns.

God horns suck so bad.

And then you toss on the tube amp...

Yuck.

[OneLove @ Mar 6th 2008 1:28PM]

...thats because it not made exclusively for the ipod.

[Jo Bloggs @ Mar 5th 2008 4:07PM]

I guess that could fit in to any portable device but why showcase it with one that has one of the worst sound qualities?

[jorvay @ Mar 5th 2008 4:09PM]

Tell me about it. At least this way I could use this with my non-ipod...not that I ever would bother with one of these.

[Reid @ Mar 5th 2008 8:11PM]

What does your opinion have to do with reality?

Try this, among many other reviews of iPod sound quality:

http://homepage.mac.com/marc.heijligers/audio/ipod/comparison/comparison.html

Some excerpts for the lazy:

I've compared the iPod using the line output to hifi equipment. As I have a convertor cable, it is easy to quickly hook up the iPod to any hifi around. The first experiment compares lossless compressed audio files, to distinguish decoding from the iPod electronics. Comparison to the Ayre CX-7 CD player (a $2995 or €3500 CD player!), reveals that the iPod sounds "closed". Instruments have less timbre (especially in the treble region), sound sources are less focussed, the bass is less under control, treble shows a bit sibilance, there is spatial information, and the whole has less drive. Despite these observations, the iPod certainly doesn't disappoint, especially considering it is 1/10th of the price. Where the Ayre would receive a 9 out of 10, the iPod still deserves a firm 7 out of 10. It is comparable with a good middle-of-the-road CD player, from brands like Marantz, Denon etc.

I've also performed some quick-and-dirty comparisons with other MP3 playback devices (e.g. iRiver H10, Creative Zen Vision M:3, Sony Ericsson W800, Palm Tungsten T3, Cowon iAudio X5L). In most cases the iPod sounded overall better (more coherent and transparent). In some cases it was a matter of taste, where the iPod has more transparency, and other devices sound more smooth.

I haven't performed the comparisons in great detail, and the conclusions that I draw from these comparisons is that the iPod is at least amongst the best sounding devices. Compared to my old walkman or portable CD player, it is a significant improvement anyway. Furthermore, the fact that the iPod is able to playback AAC or loss-less which in my ears is superior to MP3, makes it part of the best sounding devices anyway. For more detailed comparisons, with other MP3 players, have a look at some magazines or the web.

[zargon @ Mar 5th 2008 4:09PM]

Tube amps are extremely simple by design.

Solid state is a whole different animal. Anyone check out Bryston's schematics for their rock solid amps?

I have been meaning to find a good kit and spend a weekend (or few) assembling one.

[Ladderless @ Mar 5th 2008 4:19PM]

What am I missing here? Aside from an IPod in the photo, what about this thing has anything to do with an IPod at all?

Why not call it a headphone level input amplifier? It doesn't even have a headphone jack input -- It uses RCA connectors.

[nd @ Mar 5th 2008 4:27PM]

I don't think it has anything to do with it. The link engadget provides is to a sight that "reviews" the product. That site found it on a Korean site that they couldn't translate, so they took the one pic with an iPod in it and called an iPod accessory.

It's really just a DIY amp kit. cool.

[Reid @ Mar 5th 2008 8:08PM]

If you so much as click the link, it's pretty obvious that the review calls it an iPod amp, and Engadget's editorial staff is commenting on the obvious, which is to say, nothing about it really makes it an iPod amp at all.

[fischju @ Mar 5th 2008 4:20PM]

Are the clothes hangers included?

[phanbouy @ Mar 5th 2008 6:08PM]

Hangers make for good speaker wire. As good as Monster. =)

[JohnB @ Mar 5th 2008 4:22PM]

Sorry, the Fatman is so much cooler...

[a @ Mar 5th 2008 4:22PM]

High quality amplifier for your highly compressed 64kbps encoded MP3s!

Haha...

Someone will buy this.

[andyo @ Mar 5th 2008 4:28PM]

Tube amplification has more distortion, but is warmer sounding. Your mp3s will probably sound not worse than with any non-crappy solid-state amp, if you believe in tube amp goodness. Really, the tube amp cult has gone almost as far as the cable cult.

[pete @ Mar 5th 2008 4:29PM]

doesn't apple sell lossless mp3's?

[nickels @ Mar 5th 2008 4:54PM]

if anyone has 64kbps music they should be shot!

[a @ Mar 5th 2008 5:06PM]

all very valid points. I still find it funny that things like these, as well as $500 headphones exist!!

[bo sneb @ Mar 5th 2008 8:02PM]

lol i run my ipod into the ground with cd quality aif's. of course, i'm using it to double check my master sessions, so i kinda gotta if i'm gonna use it at all for these purposes.

[Nipponese @ Mar 5th 2008 5:04PM]

Well, it's originally a Japanese product (Gakken is a very popular publisher of fun educational books) and it would be much cheaper if you bought it from Japan. It is listed as 1,2390yen which is about $119 on today's exchange rate which makes it a better bargain. I remember as a kid growing up in Tokyo, I use to wait for the delivery lady of Gakken to arrive at my doorsteps every month, each one comes with a project like making a pinhole camera or making and observing an ant farm while you learn how these things work.

[George @ Mar 5th 2008 11:29PM]

It's not the first small tube amp you can use with an iPod.
I use the zvex imp amp: http://www.impamp.com/

for my iPods. Connected to some small JBLs. They work great.

[zargon @ Mar 5th 2008 9:22PM]

Awesome, a Minnesota based company.

Now if only could justify $700 plus for a tube amp.

[Nipponese @ Mar 5th 2008 5:18PM]

I forgot to mention. This amp runs on 2xD batteries and has a meager 100mW per channel output rating. Hopefully, those horn speakers are efficient enough to get somewhat useful output.

[ethertoad @ Mar 5th 2008 6:21PM]

Engadget, do you get paid to report on stuff like this? Seriously, this should be considered as advertising...

[james @ Mar 5th 2008 6:28PM]

I find most engadget readers know nothing about quality. It's all about disposable technology on the cheap here.

[Sirocco @ Mar 5th 2008 6:28PM]

As I'm fond of saying (and this rule should be named after me): No technology ever dies. Welcome back, vacuum tubes!

[IKRENEGADE @ Mar 5th 2008 11:25PM]

For those hating on tube amps, Solid state amps are not strictly better at all, here is why. Any time you attempt to reproduce an audio signal you will be dealing with distortion, our technology can reduce it, but can't eliminate it altogether. It is true that solid state amps produce less distortion than their tube driven counterparts, however, thats not the whole story. Tubes tend to distort on lower order frequencies, closer to musical thirds. This distortion translates into a warmer, smoother sound (though strictly speaking its not as accurate). Transistors however, tend to produce distortion on the higher harmonics creating dissonance which our ears tend to classify as non-musical. This is largely the result of tubes being slower to switch on and off (i can explain tube physics if someone wants but its not really the point) so when clipping is introduced into the signal it rounds off the edges, where a transistor switches much faster creating harsher cutoffs. (this is also why we perceive tubes as "louder")

While it is possible to approach the softly clipped tube sound with tone modeling in high quality solid state amps, it is generally more expensive and doesn't quite sound the same. This is not to say, of course, that solid state amps are bad, they have advantages with respect to their cleaner tone, however a poor quality solid state amp will generally sound bad, especially at higher volumes where clipping is more pronounced. Basically it all boils down to listener preference (doesn't everything?) some people prefer the cleaner sound of transistors (especially in less musically "full" pieces) while some prefer the warmer tones generated by tubes.

Basically, uneducated proponents of tube amps who claim higher fidelity and the shoddy sound of solid state give more reasonable tube enthusiasts (myself included) a bad name. Tubes sound great, but not because it reproduces my music more accurately ; )

[andyo @ Mar 5th 2008 9:48PM]

Thanks for explaining.

My beef with tube amps, though (and you might notice that I don't have a particular beef with this one), is the exorbitant prices that we usually see for them. Methinks most if not all of those companies are pulling a "Transparent Cable" on consumers. I am all for better build quality for cables, but charging thousands more for some esoteric mystical cable (or amp) properties is not honest or ethical.

[midiwall @ Mar 5th 2008 7:54PM]

If you go one deeper than the Engadget READ link, you'll find that a) it's battery powered (previously mentioned above) and b) there's no solder required - it's screw-together. You could have this running in just a couple of hours.

Online instructions at:
http://www.funshop.co.kr/vs/detail.aspx?no=0657134906

[midiwall @ Mar 5th 2008 7:59PM]

More info:

http://www.jarl.or.jp/Japanese/2_Joho/gakken-tube-amp/making-tube-amp.htm

And, they're on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310014259042


The tubes they're using are VERY low power amps. Someone mentioned 10watt output above, maybe. Battery life would be interesting. These are _surplus_ tubes from the Chinese military - 30+ years ago.

[bebop @ Mar 5th 2008 8:09PM]

I always thought Gakken was a Japanese company, but I could be wrong. Here's the product page for the amp in question from the Japanese web site, no iPod to be seen. :)

http://shop.gakken.co.jp/shop/order/k_ok/goodsdisp.asp?code=1575024700

[bebop @ Mar 5th 2008 8:31PM]

"This is largely the result of tubes being slower to switch on and off."

Um... No. Not unless you are talking about tube rectifiers. Excessive crossover distortion in a class B output stage is something that generates unpleasant sounding distortion regardless of whether tubes or transistors are used. For class A / AB amplifiers, its never / rarely an issue. (A high quality solid state amp is rarely going to be driven into class B operation, and most tube amps are either class A single ended, or push pull heavily biased into class A.)

The people making snarky remarks about tube amplifiers are just ignorant. The Gakken amp isn't likely to enlighten anyone, but it is harmless enough and might get people interested.

[happy_penguin @ Mar 6th 2008 12:15AM]

Hell, it's only $150. It looks like fun. If it sounds halfway decent that's just icing on the cake.

[Greg Baz @ Mar 6th 2008 4:54PM]

The thing runs off of 2 D cell batteries how odd.

[jimo @ Mar 17th 2008 5:53AM]

Deraest
We China Beijing RBE Company Produce Function World
First Vacuum Tube Amplifier
Out 2x50w ....100w...
20hz-20kc-0.3db--1.5db
Class A Efficinecy
Nosie 0.3mv
Wish Cooperation
Best Regards
jimo

[jimo @ Mar 19th 2008 2:46AM]

Deraest
China Beijing RBE Prudoce Vacuum Tube Amplifier
Function
1. out 2x50w...2x100w Class A Efficinecy 40-58%
50w 100w 20hz-20kc-0.3db -1.5db time
Nosie :0.3mv
Wish And Usa EU Cooperation
Best Regards
jimo

[MD2323 @ Jun 6th 2008 8:06AM]

Tube amps do sound great but the biggest problem is that iPods have cheap digital to analog converters. (But iPods do play uncompressed audio which is good.) If you play music from your computer, you can always buy a fire wire audio interface, most of which use much better converters, then amplify from this (minus the cones) and it might work well. Also check out the Zvex iMP. It's the size of a guitar stomp box and is 1 watt per channel but I have heard they are very good sounding tube amps if you don't mind spending $500-$600.

[metroid132003 @ Feb 4th 2009 2:39AM]

Its a small, cheap kit meant for fun and learning, just like everything else from Gakken. Don't expect it to replace anything! I think this is a clever idea, and I'd like to build one as portable replacement speakers for my laptop. It would also make a great functional work of art as a steampunk gadget. Think of the possibilities!

And if you really hate the horns, then replace them! Honsetly, quit wasting so much time and brain cells discussing its limits, and use your gooshie grey matter to explore its flexablilty. HINT: That's why its battery powered!

Sound quality is not the point of this. The point is its f**king cool!