Engadget has photos of the new Apple iPod Hi-Fi speaker system and has posted some interesting pictures of the unit from all sides, shot in the faux bedroom setup that Apple mocked up for yesterday’s media event.
So how’s the thing feel? Well, let’s be straight up, the Hi-Fi is heavy. Like, way too heavy to want to carry with you to the cabana or the beach, as they described you might despite its alternate six D-cell power source.
According to Apple’s specs the iPod Hi-Fi weighs in at 14.5 pounds (6.6 kg) without batteries and 16.7 pounds (7.6 kg) with batteries.
More info and photos here.
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Related articles:
Apple on the living room attack; Sonos CEO: ‘the shot heard round the world for home-audio business’ – March 01, 2006
Apple iPod causes paradigm shift, home stereo makers like Sony to add iPod connectivity – March 01, 2006
Videos of Steve Jobs introducing Mac mini, iPod Hi-Fi – March 01, 2006
Apple debuts iPod Hi-Fi speaker system, leather cases for 5G iPod, iPod nano – February 28, 2006
I ordered mine today. I’m going to hook up and AirPort Express and stream music and KROQ from my G5 to my bedroom. Can’t wait!
Looks like a toaster from an early 1970s TV sitcom.
How’d they sneek all those people into Steve’s bedroom?
That’s not the point. The point is that IF you sometimes want to move it you can do so–and won’t need a power outlet. If you go to the beach every day, choose worse sound and something lighter duh. If you go every now and then, go with style: Hi-Fi.
I think a lot of people are missing the point of this. Its for people who don’t have a stereo but have an iPod. A lot of kids that I know have an iPod but not a stereo. This thing would be perfect for them. And it works with all models that have the connector on them (3rd Gen to present models).
Plus, if it sounds good, and you can use it to provide sound for movies you have on your iPod with video……….
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http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/389
Personally I’m not taking any of my ‘lectronics to the beach. Who the freak wants sand in their iPod let alone their Hi-fi. I know though that you can get those otter boxes for the ‘pod but c’mon–sand yuck!.
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And 16.7 pounds is a little heavy for a boombox but at least they put handles on it so that’s cool. It is a little weird that it weighs more than an Oreck vacuum (8 pounds), but then again the Hi-fi dosen’t look like it sucks
PS
I’ll probably get one someday though since the only good sound devices I have are my Bose computer speakers. They sound great but they’re in office.
This is a great party device…I can see it being a big hit… If you’re carrying crates of beer, this just another crate… Get the girls to take either side..
Use some imagination folks..
Well done Ives, I’m with you.
And where in the heck did they hid the TV screen?
Way too expensive for what it is.
Gotta give Apple the unrelenting “wag of the finger” for this choice.
$149 maybe (but still overpriced). $249? Beyond stupid.
I hope Apple manages to sell some to their employees at a discount. I’m pretty sure the rest of the world will ignore this new product with prejudice.
So how many Watts does this sucker crank out? A rather important spec that Apple has strangely left out as far as I can see from their spec sheet.
From: informed
Way too expensive for what it is.
“Gotta give Apple the unrelenting “wag of the finger” for this choice.
$149 maybe (but still overpriced). $249? Beyond stupid.
I hope Apple manages to sell some to their employees at a discount. I’m pretty sure the rest of the world will ignore this new product with prejudice.”
This is pretty much what people said about the iPod Mini when Steve announced it. “Overpriced, not enough features,” but, look what happened to the iPod. If this product is at least as good as the systems Steve compared them to, then it will sell. But hey this is all just pointless blather until the numbers come in.
iPod Mini (Above)
The iPod mini was a unique device. There was no standard nothing to rate its value.
I have studio monitors that cost upward of $799/per speaker. I also have speakers in my bedroom that are around $150/per speaker. I have a pretty good idea of what constitutes “value” in a powered or unpowered speaker enclosure.
No matter how good Apple claims the HiFi sounds, this thing is made from molded plastic (!!!!); it has a completely exposed/unprotected dock connector topside where all the dust settles. It is NOT bi- or tri-amped (the mid/tweeters share the amplifier with the woofer).
WAY TOO EXPENSIVE. Period.
First hear how it sounds before judging it’s price.
Get a Bose Wave Radio
if you need something like this, the price is just the same and you get a cd player and a clock, aux inputs from a iPod with a stereo mini to RCA breakout cable.
Oh and the Bose is much better looking.
Batteries $uck @$$
My Apple Wireless Keyboard and mouse ate batteries like crazy, so will the Apple boombox.
jjr:
I don’t need to hear how the HiFi sounds to make a monetary value judgement.
Compare the $349 price of the HiFi to some powered studio monitors. These are sonically accurate, typically bi-amped, wood/metal devices that are just as suitable for dorm rooms/ski lodges as the HiFi. They can be connected to a standard iPod dock. While not as “convenient” as an all-in-one design, they serve as a benchmark for “value.”
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/category/c405/
The HiFi is a rip-off. There is no other conclusion.
I wonder who this device is aimed at ?
I know I wouldn’t want it in my living room. Too bulky, and the position of the iPod on top, apart from being a fragile design, makes shelf room utilisation a challenge. Plus, sound separation can’t be good with left and right being so close together (or there’s some accoustic trickery i’m not familiar with in there).
So, if not the livingroom, then where ? Kid’s bedroom perhaps. But Hi-Fi at a premium does not belong there. And again the position of the iPod on top creates a space utilisation nightmare unless you want the thing to sit alone on a table like a trophee.
I’m still scratching my head on thi one, who are the target customers and in what settings ????
The thing that surprises me most though is the un-Apple look and feel to the device. It screams of short sighted design decisions and function hasn’t even been acrificed to style in this case : it looks butt ugly.
MDN magic word : off. like the design of this thing. it’s completely off.
You get what you pay for, the Hi-Fi sounds incredible!
Far better sound quality than the Bose sound dock we paid $250 for.
Don’t put it down till you’ve heard one.
THIS is finally the shot across the bow that I’ve been waiting for from Apple.
Microsoft and the other also-rans with their failed Media Center PC’s are probably too blind to even see it.
This unit will be a hit with anyone who has no stereo but wants to occasionally blast some walls down.
For once, no new DRM and I don’t have to mention the evils of Trusted Computing and HDCP in one of my posts!
Oops . . .
(Oh by the way, my clone is back — above.)
Altos: the Hi-Fi has a line in socket in the back so you can put your iPod in its dock and connect it to the back of the Hi-Fi.
I think this product will be a massive hit looking at the strength (rather than the direction) of the reaction. This is a product that people feel strongly about. That is good. All the rumor site junkies (and I include MDN) are disappointed because they had been living on cloud 9. That is all. The product is just fine. If Apple had introduced it at the expo alongside other stuff the reception would have been very different. You folks are disappointed because you didn’t get the fable iDevice that was all things to all men. The rumor mongers Valhalla. The holy grail.
This this is ugly. Rounded corners, white plastic – a blast from the 70s.
It’s not going in my living room.
sMac:
If you read my posts, you would understand that you DO NOT get what you pay for with the Hi-Fi.
It is a two-channel, single amplifier per channel, PLASTIC speaker with a built in dock. Whoopee. The amplifier output has been throttled back so as to not clip or over-drive the tiny speakers at any available input level or output volume setting (thus the “no distortion when cranked” claim).
The entire enclosure is 17 inches wide, so unless your head is less than 17 inches from the speaker, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES will you hear full channel separation.
The 130mm woofer is physically incapable of accurately reproducing frequencies below 53Hz. 53Hz!! Excuse me???!!! Any 6″ woofer bookshelf speaker goes lower than that.
Apple’s specs do not specify the (passive!!) crossover frequency of the woofer/tweeter. Given the woofer’s small size, it stands to reason that the crossover is somewhere around 250Hz. Quite possibly it is higher. Even the Hi-Fi’s lowest frequency (53Hz) is only slightly outside the range that many people (myself included) perceive as “directional.” Thus the Hi-Fi’s single point woofer is reducing much of the already severely-reduced stereo image.
Yet this Hi-Fi rip-off costs more than several available AUDIO REFERENCE STUDIO MONITORS (see posts above).
Apple apologists, please consider the facts. Like you, I wish the best for Apple. But $350 for this glorified boombox is utterly f’n insane. There has to be a 250%-to-300% mark-up on this plastic box.
Buy one if you want. But you could spend much less and get far more.
Informed – from an audiophile’s perspective I’ve got to agree with you.
I love my Polk Audio RT800 Towers – the imaging is superb!
BUT….I know I keep saying this – playing iTunes at 128Kbps is the root of the problem. It’s a noticeable reduction in quality.
Most people though are perfectly happy, and just love the music. They don’t notice – and so be it.
But the fact still remains that Jobs is touting this as an audiophile quality device, and the specs just don’t bear that out. Job’s saying he is going to get rid of his gajillion dollor setup and start using these? I guess I’ll never know because he can’t get his damn house built so I can break in and count how many he has.