Apple iPod Hi-Fi - Review

"It may not be exactly what people were clamoring for at Steve Jobs' most recent media hypevent, but the Apple iPod Hi-Fi ($349 direct) is now part of Apple's steadily growing repertoire of iPod accessories. I got my hands on one and took it for a spin in the PC Magazine audio lab, and I'm very happy with it. The one-piece three-way combination speaker and iPod dock looks a lot like a center-channel speaker from a home theater system, with horizontally set drivers. Though it costs about $50 more, it can thump, sing, and squeal with a lot more power than the Bose SoundDock, plus it's portable. I'm glad Apple included a combination analog and S/PDIF optical digital input, but a video pass-through for outputting photos and video to a TV would be convenient.

The tech specs alone are pretty meaty: two 80-mm midrange drivers and a 130-mm woofer with dual voice coils, sealed double-walled enclosure, separate chambers and front-panel isolation for the two midrange drivers, a rated maximum sound pressure level of 108dB (at 1 meter) when it's running on AC power, and a frequency response of 53Hz to 16kHz plus or minus 3dB. It can run on AC power without a huge brick (thanks to the internal power supply) or on six D batteries, though both of these mean the speaker is pretty heavy, at 14.5 pounds without batteries and 16.7 pounds with alkalines. It measures 6.6 by 17 by 6.9 inches (HWD)—perfect for a bookshelf or even a desk. It has dual integrated handles on either side, so it's easy to move around, but it's definitely not the kind of thing you'd throw in a backpack and take to the beach. The enclosure is a sturdy white resin, and the black speaker grille is easily removable if you want a brighter sound.


The only controls on the speaker itself are two touch-sensitive buttons for adjusting the volume. Aside from the power jack, the only port is an auxiliary audio input, which accommodates both 3.5-mm analog cables or S/PDIF optical digital cables (also known as Toslink). The digital input is excellent for getting sound from your computer to the speaker if your desktop PC or external USB soundcard has an optical output. You can also connect an Apple AirPort Express to the speaker using an optical cable, which will let you transmit your music wirelessly and maintain a digital signal until it hits the speaker's on-board digital-to-analog converter. You can also hook up your iPod shuffle, dock connectorless iPod, or non-Apple audio player via a standard 3.5-mm audio cable (use a gold-plated one for best conductance). Unfortunately, Apple doesn't include any audio cables with the iPod Hi-Fi, so you'll have to buy your own either from Apple or a third party.

I was surprised to find that the iPod Hi-Fi lacks any sort of video output, considering the photo and video capabilities of the fifth-generation iPod. But you're not totally out of luck: You can get an iPod-compatible 3.5-mm to RCA audio/video cable, attach the 3.5-mm end to the iPod's headphone jack, and hook up the yellow video RCA end to your TV's video input (making sure to set the iPod to "TV On"). This lets the video come out of the top of the iPod, and the audio will still be fed into the Hi-Fi via the dock. Also, when you want to sync the iPod with your PC, you'll need to take it out of the dock, as there's no sync connector on the speaker.

The iPod Hi-Fi ships with the standard Apple wireless infrared remote. Its controls look very similar to those of the iPod shuffle, but with a Menu button in addition to the track skip, play/pause, and volume buttons. The Menu button, however, doesn't really work with the iPod, though you can press and hold it to switch from the dock connector input to the auxiliary input if you should have two devices connected simultaneously. It also comes with 10 iPod dock adapters for each model with a dock connector, all clearly labeled and set in a nice little box.

Setting up the speaker is as simple as plugging it in or inserting batteries, setting your dock connector-equipped iPod in the cradle on top of the speaker, and pressing play. I placed the speaker in the audio lab about 10 inches from the rear wall and equidistant from side walls. I also made sure to put it as close to ear-level as I could (with the help of a small speaker stand I happened to have lying around). This type of placement keeps the sound as smooth as possible and preserves the stereo imaging. Of course, it will still sound very good on a bookshelf.

When I plugged in my fifth-generation 30GB iPod updated with the latest firmware) into the Hi-Fi, I noticed that there's a new Speaker menu on the main screen. This gives you access to a display mode that automatically puts on a full-screen version of the album art that goes with the song you're listening to (if available) after about several seconds. You also get "tone controls", which consist of nothing more than a Bass Booster and Treble Booster—I admit, I had been hoping for a graphic equalizer. You can also switch between several different backlight modes.
Listening to the iPod Hi-Fi, I could clearly hear that Apple paid a lot of attention to sound quality. I put on some music I had encoded in Apple Lossless format, including tracks by Stevie Wonder, A Tribe Called Quest, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Maurice Andre, Yo-Yo Ma, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Zakir Hussain. The first thing I noticed is that Apple had the presence of mind to shield the dock well, so there is no audible digital noise during play back. On all tracks, the bass was tight and punchy with virtually no muddiness. Mids are prominent but not overwhelming, and highs are very crisp. Detail and articulation are very good, and the stereo imaging is impressive if you have the speaker properly placed (with side walls equidistant). If you've got the speaker in a bookshelf, though, you'll still get very good sound thanks to the double-walled airtight enclosure, which keeps sound from leaking out in all directions. The Hi-Fi definitely deserves its name.


I cranked up the volume a few notches below maximum and I could feel the wind coming out of the two bass ports from several feet away—not to mention the remarkably low-distortion aural assault on my ears. In fact, since it had no problem filling up our 20-by-20-foot audio lab with clear, crisp sound, I took it into one of our carpeted "Town Center" meeting rooms, which can seat a couple hundred people and has acoustical tile on the walls and ceiling. I put Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke on, cranked the volume all the way, and realized that this thing is capable of powering a serious party in just about any size room without appreciable distortion. (The remote, however, stopped working once I got about 40 feet away from the speaker.) On AC power, the Hi-Fi puts out 108dB at 1meter; on alkaline batteries, the output is a bit less at 102dB, but that's still impressive. The output power also doesn't appear to be affected whether you're using the auxiliary input or the dock connector.

I wholeheartedly recommend this speaker if you're looking for an extremely powerful single-cabinet speaker that's portable (runs on batteries as well as AC), because this is about as good as it gets. It's not cheap, you can't throw it in your backpack, it's not a 5.1 system, and it won't take the place of thousand-dollar high-end floor-standing speakers. But it's not intended to be any of those things. It is a compact powerhouse that charges your iPod while it pumps out pristine audio. I'd like to see a video pass-through on it just for convenience's sake, and perhaps a TV-screen interface and the ability to browse your iPod music collection via remote. An RF remote would also eliminate the line-of-sight issues that infrared has. Other than these relatively minor quibbles, this one's a winner. " PC Magazine -Mike Kobrin