Rated: 60% (2 votes)
Loading ...iPod Docking Stations
Mark
I have an iPod. So does my wife. She also has one of these docking stations (in black), but these are not the kind of docking stations I had in mind. I have something a little more stylish to talk about today.
No, today I want to talk valves.
There’s a growing trend recently wanting to re-incorporate valves into modern technology, most of the time it seems to be a purely cosmetic feature, rather than an integral function.
This post will concentrate on the latter.
First up we have the Roth MC4 (and soon to be released MC8) Music Cocoon. The Music Cocoon has been designed for use with the iPod, any portable audio device (that’s why there is a 3.5mm socket on the back of the amplifier), any device which outputs audio to a 3.5mm jack (e.g. a laptop), or a CD player (that’ll be why there is a pair of RCA sockets on the back as well).
This means that regardless of the source unit, the MC4 can handle it, which immediately makes it more useful than a simple docking device but it’s not the most stylish looking of units.
Next we have the Fatman iTube ValveDock.
The Fatman iTube is a dock compatible with all iPods except the Shuffle. The iPod docking portion is the bit that looks like a treadmill, which is kind of ironic as the company is called Fatman. The other dock section is a valve amplifier that can export your video files onto a television or speaker system easily with the included remote.
Fatman also makes iTube 182 with ValveDock and iTube ValveDock Carbon Edition with Speakers.
Finally there’s the Shanling MC-30 iPod Music Center
This is my favourite of the lot. Alongside the iPod support, it’s a CD player, AM/FM tuner and a tube power amplifier. Inside the brushed aluminium chassis, the MC-30 sports a number of decent audio technologies such as Philips VAM-12 pick-up mechanism coupled with CD-7II servo system for low jitter tracking and D/A conversion accomplished by Burr-Brown PCM1738 DAC chip.
Still, at £500 it’s not cheap.
So there we have it, a quick round-up of my favourite iPod docks of the moment.
The images below are all clickable.
I have been writing a podcast for a contemporary art show we are doing, and have interviewed about 7 artists by phone. Most of the podcast tour segments I’ve put together are about 1 - 2 minutes. Of course, with each artist I’ve got a 15 - 30 minute interview, and down the road I might make that content available ala the Hirshhorn .
Hi,
Your favorite iPod docks are very impressive and your choice was good. For my ipod, couple of months back I bought ipod docking speakers from minispeakers, which are very unique in its way. Sound quality is excellent.