18/12/2009 A digital Christmas.

Tagged under Bose, Digital Radio, Geneva, Pure, Sonos, Sounddock, Wadia
Posted by Len | 2 Comments

>It’s been a digital Christmas this year. The rush to get new high-quality digital based products to market was unprecedented, and if consumer demand is any indication – the new releases were well timed.

As one would expect most of these new products revolve around the ubiquitous iPod. Stand-alone iPod docking stations are hardly anything new, but to be honest in the past most have exuded anything but quality.

Bose led the charge early with their Bose SoundDock 10 ($999). This is a brute of a unit, weighing over 8kg, much of which is the substantial bass driver. This is a simple device (although it has an auxiliary input), with the primary goal being performance. There are two Bose Twiddler tweeter/midrange drivers plus the bass driver. A USB port makes future firmware updates easy, and a new interchangeable dock architecture is aimed at future compatibility with smart-phones and new iPod variants. Bluetooth can be added as an option (at extra cost) to allow you to stream to it wirelessly from your iPhone/iTouch. There is a small remote control supplied.

Bowers and Wilkins recently reduced the price of the gorgeous B&W Zeppelin iPod dock to $999 (from $1,299). They have also announced the release of the B&W Zeppelin Mini ($599). This is a very versatile device. It is one of the new generation iPod docks incorporating a quality Digital-Analogue Converter, taking the music from the iPod in the digital domain and converting in the dock itself. The docking arm rotates to display the iPod/iPhone horizontally if you are watching video. It doubles as a computer speaker, and you can connect additional sources via the auxiliary input.

Also at the forefront of iPod docking, Geneva have just released the first of their docks which does not include a CD player – but does include FM – the Geneva ‘S’. Available in black, red or white, and with a market appeal completely underestimated by the importers – all shipments are now sold out until sometime in January.

Sonos is the undisputed market leader of domestic digital music distribution. Their new release, Sonos S5 ($699) is not an iPod dock, but is an all-in-one system (amplification and speakers) which wirelessly plays from local (computer, NAS drive) or Internet sources. It can be added to existing Sonos installations as an additional zone, or can be used as a single standalone device. Like all Sonos systems it can be controlled via the iPhone or iTouch.

One of the most exciting releases though came from Pure, who is the market leader in DAB+ Digital Radio. The Pure Sensia ($749) is also not an iPod dock, although they do manufacture one which will connect to this device. It is a networkable DAB+ radio, slightly smaller than a football, with a touch screen. As well as DAB+ radio it gives you FM, and once connected to your network you can access Internet Radio, Podcasts, internet music streaming with album art, streaming from your computer and access to various apps such as weather, news, Facebook and Twitter updates, etc. This is a stunning product that could change the face of radio in Australia.

The most recent arrival for us, although it is not a new product, is the $699 170i iPod dock from Wadia (see image at top of post). The 170i was the first component specifically designed to transform the iPod into a high-resolution media server. While iPod has been much maligned over the years for its inferior performance, the reality is the iPod is in fact capable of achieving great things. The failing of the iPod is firstly the compressed nature of the recordings that it usually contains, and the quality of the on-board DAC. Recording your music in a lossless format is a simple upgrade. The Wadia 170i bypasses the DAC and analogue output stage of the iPod extracting the music while still in its digital domain. You then have the choice of opting for an analogue output via the Wadia DAC (a considerable improvement on the DAC in your iPod) or to output the digital stream for conversion in your receiver etc. or (preferably) via a high quality dedicated Digital-Analogue converter.

One of the unexpected side effects of having the Wadia on the shelves is that it has also regenerated an interest in the Krell ‘Kid’ iPod dock. At $2,600 the Kid costs considerably more than the Wadia, but the difference in performance has been enough to persuade a number of people.

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