MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

... then pug your iPod into your headphones in a vain attempt to charge it up whilst explaining to your friends why you have a shitty looking pair of speakers taking pride of place in your living room.

Wait a sec, I thought MDN only publishes good articles about the Hi-Fi. What gives?!!?

sorry, BUT Apple IS MY WORLD AND I WON´T LEAVE IT

I meant "plug your iPod' dammit, not pug (which is a small ugly dog also of no use in recharging an iPod)

Here's a tip for the writer: don't buy an iPod! Buy a $45 cheap Korean player (crappy sounding headphones included) and you'll have money left over.

Then borrow your friend's iPod, compare the difference and jump in the nearest lake!

MDN:"Longer" as in NO LONGER crappy sound in my ears or in my house!

Whoever wrote this is a serious idiot and should stop wasting his time to write the 10 th review on the Hi-fi...most said it's...great. I have one and I say: it's great. This guy is just dumb as an ass

Spend some of the money on headphones? My Sennheiser HD650 cost £350 ($605). Not much change left for iPod HiFi.

Dweeb.

I tend to agree, this speaker smacks of 'conspicuous consumption', 'keep up with the Jones' mentality, I'm lovin my 99.00 dollar Klipschs', or if they didn't exist the M-Audio 99.00 studio monitors would propably work just fine. The RDF didn't, in this case, penetrate my awareness.

Two points

You can tell you are listening to a compressed sound file ONLY on a good quality sound system. You can't find the flaws easily on a cheap system.

Also, one advantage is that this speaker system will work on Batteries and you can take it to the park or beach with you. He fails to point out that one important detail.

Don't get me wrong, I personally care for the system, but I don't like this kind of reporting from someon who claims to be an expert.

Yeah, the LA Times ran a shootout between the various iPod speaker systems, and the iPod Hi-Fi didn't win more than one of the handful of categories.

I believe the JBL was the one that had the best scoring from the judging panel of the various music sources.

Ah yes, here it is:

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-fi-technopolis5mar05,1,1055877.column?coll=la-news-columns

Anecdotal "gee, that sounds X" reports of sound equipment are always useless. Sound is very subjective and vulnerable to the placebo effect.

No matter who the listener is, it's necessary for comparative sound tests to be blind. The non-blinded opinion of some random columnist's wife is doubly irrelevant.

Also, in this case, if he was so worried about compression artifacts, why didn't he encode the CD in Apple Lossless? This test turned out to be more a review of whatever encoding he used, and has little to do with the quality of the Hifi.

The guy's right. $349 is way too much money. Plus the market is already flooded with this crap. Too bad, nobodies perfect. Apple blew it on this one. It's pretty funny watching everyone eat it up though.

I bet this author has never actually played with the HiFi or has really poor hearing or both.

If you're after a big pile of entertainment sound system, check out how much home theater you can buy at Walmart from big brands like Sony and Panasonic. Giant sub, lots of speakers, cool looking receiver/DVD player, lots of bass whomp.... all for well under $349.

But if you want a compact system that sounds great, supports the iPod, is easy to use and runs on batteries or AC, the HiFi is very nice. I've listened to it several times at our local Apple store and I want one but I don't need one.

I have a compact pair of eight inch two way monitors that sound fantastic. You can get similar LOOKING speakers that sound very good for a much lower price but I wanted these, they cost $5000 a pair and are made by a small company called Meyer Sound. I could have bought over 12 pairs of M-Audio monitors for the price of my HD-1's.

Some people hear things differently. Value is in the ears of the beholder.

The author of this article probably needs to get a hearing test asap.

G Spank:

MDN posts only the poorly-researched or poorly-written negative Apple coverage. Stuff that the sheep can tear apart even their dull wits.

iHiFi is an OVERPRICED PAIR OF NOT-QUITE-STEREO SPEAKERS. That's it. If they sound great, they're overpriced. If they sound okay, they're EXTREMELY overpriced.

Despite Steve's inexplicable references to the handles and "just pop 6 D-Cells in there and take it to the cabana," this thing is not portable. It's 15-17 fricking pounds. You need a cabana boy to carry it to the cabana, and you have to drop $30+ (the price of a cheap pair of actually portable speakers) on batteries.

I said it before, but it bears repeating: BOO APPLE. WEAK PRODUCT. DOESN'T DESERVE YOUR LOGO. THIS IS THE REALM OF THIRD PARTY MANUFACTURERS. UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMETHING REALLY UNIQUE TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE STAY OUT. YOU'RE JUST EMBARRASSING YOURSELF. PEOPLE ARE JUST GONNA FEEL SORRY FOR YOU. I MEAN, I DO.

AWidgetIHaveNot,

I hope you aren't listening to MP3 or AAC files, but losslesssly compressed music at a minimum.

Otherwise, what a waste of good headphones!

If Apple were to market this as "Portable stereo. Reinvented." I would agree. But calling it "Home stereo. Reinvented." is making this more into the iPod Hype-Fi. I wouldn't mind owning an iPod Hi Fi, but there's no way I would pay $349 for one. The Klipsch iFi is now going for $199, has better stereo seperation, a powered sub, and sounds much better in my opinion.

The Hi Fi's portability is nice, but very limited. I could see myself hauling this out in the backyard or into the garage, but definitely not to the beach or even out on a picnic. The way the iPod docks to it is much to precarious for my tastes. I would prefer my iPod be fully enclosed ala Altec Lansing's iM7. The Hi Fi does sound much better than the iM7, but I prefer the docking solution of the iM7 for portable applications.

To each their own.

zupchuck

"I hope you aren't listening to MP3 or AAC files, but losslesssly compressed music at a minimum."

Thankfully I am listening to CD/SACD through the HD650's, through a Valve headphone amp. The way to go IMHO.

By the way, they have HD650's connected to the iPod's at the Apple Store, Regent Street, London. Talk about the best way to improve iPod sound!

I would like to apologise for PC Apologist. He's an idiot and should just be ignored. He has been told to not post here again until he learns how to use his caps lock key judiciously.

Sorry for any inconvenience. We now return to our regularly scheduled forum.

AWidgetIHaveNot,

Interesting about the Regent Street store. I wonder how the music is encoded on that iPod with the HD650's?...

zupchuck

Would the folks at Apple Regent Street know to encode it lossless? If they did encode lossless wouldn't they have to make that known? Sounded compressed to me, without a doubt it was compressed.

The thing is that Apple is a business. They want to make money. If they can sell a product and make a chunk of change off it, why wouldn't they do it?

We are all consumers, we look at products with a set of criteria we want out of them. If we find one we like we buy it. If you like the iPod HiFi then buy it. If you think it sounds or looks like crap, then don't.

Why do people get so empassioned about things like this?

And for the people complaining about price its a stupid irrelevant argument. Not all of us are poor. I could easily spend that amount on a jacket. A suit costs way more. So if I want it and I can afford it, I will buy it. When they actually get some in the UK so I can go have a look I probably will get one. I think it looks slick and most review say the sound is pretty good. Not audiophile, but good.

Stop whinging.

Tim Coughlin

Right.. sorry about the caps, then. I typed that through the iHiFi with the volume turned up all the way and you didn't lose any sound quality at all!

TOTALLY (caps!) worth $350.

Why does that idiot Benderoff compare headphones with the iPod HiFi ? They are used for entirely different purposes and a pair of headphones will sound better than any speaker system of twice the price.

Presumably when the Chicago Tribune reviews high performance sports cars, they also advise readers to spend the money on a motor cycle instead as it will have a higher top speed, use less fuel and accelerate quicker.

Or do they only reserve illogical comparisons of that type for their comments about Apple products ?

Tim - "And for the people complaining about price its a stupid irrelevant argument"

What argument are you talking about?

Tim - "if I want it and I can afford it, I will buy it. "

I can afford a $20 candybar too. And if I wanted it, I might even buy it. Am I paying too much for that candy bar?

"The guy's right. $349 is way too much money. Plus the market is already flooded with this crap. Too bad, nobodies perfect. Apple blew it on this one. It's pretty funny watching everyone eat it up though."

Apple is a company. They exist to make a profit. If people are "eating it up" then they didn't "blow it." If they "blew it" then I guess people aren't "eating it up."

Pick one or the other.

b:

I am talking about the argument Apple has priced the unit too high.

My point is we pay far more for most things than their intrinsic value. In and of itself this does not constitute a reason not to buy them. If you can't afford to pay more then don't. But there are many reasons to pay above the odds even if it is not worth it; clothes being a prime example. And again, if something is priced out of its market (ie the target audience themselves don't want ot pay it) then it will not sell. I think the HIfi will sell, so therefore the price is fine.

Tim Coughlin

In a market economy, there is no such thing as "intrinsic" value.

Price is a function of demand and supply. At any price point, if something is too expensive, judged against your personal values, you won't buy it. If overall demand is low, the supplier will eventually need to reduce price to move anoversupply of stock. If demand is high, sticks will be low and that's a signal to the supplier to consider raising price.

Too many people in this forum are getting worked up about their own personal wants (in economics, their called "Indifference curves").

Remember when the iPod minis came out and many journalists said noone would buy them because they were too expensive for what they offered? Personally I agree. I still do think the nano is too expensive and I own an iPod photo. But the point is that is based on my personal values. There was a massive market for the mini and an even bigger one for the nano. And unlike those self-centred journalists, some of us knew that right from the start.

It may be too early to tell with the Hifi - but early indications are it may be a success.

350? Big deal. It looks better. It sounds great. I just paid 250- for the Bose companion3 set. Sounds no better than the Klipsch 2.1 set that sells for $130. But it is 1/3 the size. Design is worth something. 15 #'s too heavy to be portable? Give me a break. Punks were paying $350- for ugly monster boom boxes in the 70's. What it IS missing is a WIFI connection built in for streaming. THAT IMHO is the only significant part they left out of the thing. That's when they will get my order. . . .

I have way too much free time.

Right on the money - the sound is not all that great for the price and would be nice if Apple also supplied / produced an external dock which would connect to the unit.

If you really believe the sound is better than the products of other companies (for a higher price as well) or do need a portable device, then buy it.

iWon't.

I pug my iPod every damn day!

Wow. The sounds quality of a CD is better than a compressed file!?!? Staggering news.

I own the JBL creatures and they are pretty decent. That wasn't an awful comparison to make. Would have been nice to comare uncompressed tracks through both, though.

I wouldn't pay the $349 for the Hi-Fi, but if they are selling, they seem to be priced appropriately for some people.

it would be great if the next update to itunes had the option to send left or right audio as well as stereo signals to multiple speakers... then the HIFI would be more of a living room speaker... buy two attach one to the digital out of a new mac mini... and have the other one at the other end of the room connected digitally to an airport express... having one speaker in the room seems just so mono...

iPod Hi-Fi is absolutely the very best sounding and looking speakers purpose built for iPod.

(That was a mouth full)

And I love them!

Brad T:

There are so few things that are bigger wastes of money than an iPod HiFi.

An education in economics comes to mind.

If you want wireless, get an AirPort Express and connect it with an optical cable to the Hi-Fi.

If you think it's too expensive, then don't buy it.

If you think Apple screwed up, you're wrong. Apple is selling lots of Hi-Fi's, so they obviously didn't screw up. Just because they didn't make a product that satisfies all tastes, or yours in particular, does not mean it is a bad product. Very few products are all things to all people. Get over it already.

Apple built the Hi-Fi for a specific target market. It's no big surprise that a lot of people on this board don't belong to that target market, but that doesn't mean the target market doesn't exist, or that it isn't large.

Now STFU already people.

Many people gave similar reviews to AAC when it first hit the streets. We all know the rest of that story...

"Show me an audience of one and I will show you a critic"

Buy what you want, and if you want one of these it's your money, go ahead. There have been conflicting reviews on this for the past week or so and it all becomes a bit confusing. Go and listen and if you like, DO IT.

Most of us have a some degree of deafness by the time we hit our early teens anyway, and it doesn't get better as you get older. Please yourself.

Leo

iPod Hi-Fi is overpriced.

iPod Hi-Fi is overpriced.

---

By overpriced you mean, there are 46 million iPods out there, and... you think this simple solution is not going to sell?

There is no such thing as overpriced. Whatever the market will bear, right? Look at the iPod mini... thank god Apple didn't listen to you guys on that one.

The iPod HiFi is a overpriced, underfeatured, overmarketed plastic throwback piece of garbage strictly designed to take the novice budding audiophiles money

I'm a Mac user and I'm disgusted with Apple lately with their downright greedy behavior and thinking we all are suckers or something.