Apple announces iPod Hi-Fi boombox
Apple today announced iPod Hi-Fi, an all-new high-fidelity boombox speaker system that works seamlessly with the iPod to redefine the home stereo system.
iPod Hi-Fi delivers impressive acoustic performance and room-filling sound unlike any other speaker system designed for the iPod in an innovative, all-in-one design that can be powered from a wall socket or by six D-cell batteries, Apple said. The device is easily controlled by the Apple Remote.
"Apple is reinventing the home stereo with the new iPod Hi-Fi, the first iPod accessory that adds true high-fidelity sound quality to the iPod," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. "iPod Hi-Fi?s unrivaled acoustic performance and stunning design is at home in any room in the house.?
iPod Hi-Fi has been designed and engineered by Apple to deliver unrivaled sound quality, realistic sound imaging and optimal audio performance. Its clean, all-in-one design features a unique isolated enclosure system that includes two custom designed wide-range speakers and a tuned, ported bass system, minimizing vibration while maximizing sound quality and allowing users to listen to their favorite music as it was intended with amazing sound clarity and rich, deep bass.
iPod Hi-Fi also features handles to easily transport your stereo anywhere, a removable front grille with precision-mounting clips, touch-sensitive volume control buttons, the Apple Remote for easy song and volume control from anywhere in the room, a universal power supply incorporated into the all-in-one design so there?s no bulky power brick to weigh it down, and the ability to power iPod Hi-Fi from six D-cell batteries for true portability.
Featuring seamless integration with all iPods with a dock connector, iPod Hi-Fi automatically recharges your iPod while docked and displays features of iPod that maximize the iPod Hi-Fi experience such as Tone Control, Large Album Art mode and volume mirroring. The boombox includes a dual-purpose 3.5-mm auxiliary input that accepts either analog or digital signals for easy connection to a wide range of audio sources.
iPod Hi-Fi is compact and can be powered by AC or six D-cell batteries, providing more flexibility than any traditional home stereo and is perfect for use not only at home, but just about anywhere you go without compromising sound quality.
Apple today also announced new luxurious leather cases designed specifically for the fifth generation iPod and iPod nano models. The "Leather Case for iPod" is made with fine, hand-crafted Italian leather and features a soft and durable interior lining for a secure fit, making it the perfect carrying case for iPod or iPod nano.
Pricing & Availability
?iPod Hi-Fi includes the Apple Remote, a removable grille, an AC power cord and 10 Universal Dock adapters, and is available for $349 (US). The Leather Case for iPod is available in 30GB and 60GB models as well as an iPod nano model, each for $99 (US). iPod Hi-Fi and all models of the Leather Case for iPod are available through the Apple Store, Apple?s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.
iPod Hi-Fi delivers impressive acoustic performance and room-filling sound unlike any other speaker system designed for the iPod in an innovative, all-in-one design that can be powered from a wall socket or by six D-cell batteries, Apple said. The device is easily controlled by the Apple Remote.
"Apple is reinventing the home stereo with the new iPod Hi-Fi, the first iPod accessory that adds true high-fidelity sound quality to the iPod," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. "iPod Hi-Fi?s unrivaled acoustic performance and stunning design is at home in any room in the house.?
iPod Hi-Fi has been designed and engineered by Apple to deliver unrivaled sound quality, realistic sound imaging and optimal audio performance. Its clean, all-in-one design features a unique isolated enclosure system that includes two custom designed wide-range speakers and a tuned, ported bass system, minimizing vibration while maximizing sound quality and allowing users to listen to their favorite music as it was intended with amazing sound clarity and rich, deep bass.
iPod Hi-Fi also features handles to easily transport your stereo anywhere, a removable front grille with precision-mounting clips, touch-sensitive volume control buttons, the Apple Remote for easy song and volume control from anywhere in the room, a universal power supply incorporated into the all-in-one design so there?s no bulky power brick to weigh it down, and the ability to power iPod Hi-Fi from six D-cell batteries for true portability.
Featuring seamless integration with all iPods with a dock connector, iPod Hi-Fi automatically recharges your iPod while docked and displays features of iPod that maximize the iPod Hi-Fi experience such as Tone Control, Large Album Art mode and volume mirroring. The boombox includes a dual-purpose 3.5-mm auxiliary input that accepts either analog or digital signals for easy connection to a wide range of audio sources.
iPod Hi-Fi is compact and can be powered by AC or six D-cell batteries, providing more flexibility than any traditional home stereo and is perfect for use not only at home, but just about anywhere you go without compromising sound quality.
Apple today also announced new luxurious leather cases designed specifically for the fifth generation iPod and iPod nano models. The "Leather Case for iPod" is made with fine, hand-crafted Italian leather and features a soft and durable interior lining for a secure fit, making it the perfect carrying case for iPod or iPod nano.
Pricing & Availability
?iPod Hi-Fi includes the Apple Remote, a removable grille, an AC power cord and 10 Universal Dock adapters, and is available for $349 (US). The Leather Case for iPod is available in 30GB and 60GB models as well as an iPod nano model, each for $99 (US). iPod Hi-Fi and all models of the Leather Case for iPod are available through the Apple Store, Apple?s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.
Comments
It looks nice, I'll give it that. And I might have been interested if they'd built AirTunes into it.
Ugly, no wifi integration, can't see the (iPod) screen across the room...
I mean, who the hell uses their iPod at home to play music through speakers anyway if they've got a computer already?
No radio?
No handle on top?
No way to keep iPod from falling when you are hefting by those wonderful handles?
NO WAY Steve!
Along with these overpriced leather monstrosities for iPod condoms - you have to be nuts if you think that you are offering something better than exising iPod vendors.
Get back to the drawing board and get us a truly small Mac laptop before your stock falls below 1996 levels. (>_<)
For all the reasons mentioned, with no radio, lack of usefulness in general, no Airport, etc.
Most importantly...this thing is probably not worth more than 50 to 80 bucks for the average consumer, and probably not much past even 149 for more upscale consumers/MacAddicts.
I suppose time will tell.
Airport express made sense. iPods in cars did. This doesn't. Oh well, you have to experiment a little. Maybe they'll add stuff and figure out how to make it cheaper...or just axe it.
I guess I'm going to have to let my ears decide on this one.
This looks much higher-end than any other iPod speaker system--in many ways--so if you're looking for that, it's worth the price. I wouldn't replace my stereo with it, I'd use it in a room that didn't HAVE my stereo.
And it DOES integrate with AirPort Express.
Doomsayers may wish to note:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...=&threadid=500
? Flower Power iMac
? iPod socks
? iTunes ROKr phone (admittedly a Motorola product)
? Integrated Mac mini graphics
? iPod Hi-Fi
To sell it that $350 price point for a "dock with speakers" they'll need to add Mickey Mouse ears to it. With Steve on the board, I'm sure Disney would be down for that.
OK, maybe not, but I don't see them flying off the shelves. Now the $99 leather cases, that's quite a product. But I think I'll wait for the 2G leather cases to avoid all the bugs.
Still no iPhone, "true" video iPod, Apple PDA, Apple iHome/DVR, downloadable feature-length movies, video Airport Express, or any of the products we really want. I'm a little disappointed.
Course, that could be the last product announcement for 3 years, and I'm still not buying a windows machine.
There are better products available.. with a little rigging and time, you could roll your own boombox like this for less.
1) find an 8 D-cell boom box ($50 new, $10 at yardsale or goodwill)
2) buy a $10 12 volt -> ipod charger
3) *something involving duct tape, a soldering iron and hot glue*
4) same thing without the remote, but likely has CD player, radio, and possibly tape player built in.
as an added bonus, you could solder in a 12 volt charger in parallel with the ipod charger and the box's AC input (use diodes, people!), making it fully functional even without batteries.
with the money you save, you could buy half an airport extreme
Originally posted by umijin
This is thing is utterly bad.
Ugly, no wifi integration, can't see the (iPod) screen across the room...
I mean, who the hell uses their iPod at home to play music through speakers anyway if they've got a computer already?
No radio?
No handle on top?
No way to keep iPod from falling when you are hefting by those wonderful handles?
NO WAY Steve!
Along with these overpriced leather monstrosities for iPod condoms - you have to be nuts if you think that you are offering something better than exising iPod vendors.
Get back to the drawing board and get us a truly small Mac laptop before your stock falls below 1996 levels. (>_<)
A few things...
I agree on the iCondoms ... I saw those and was like, "WTF?" They'd better tell us it's damn good leather to be worth almost as much as the iPod its supposed to protect. Don't like the fact I have to take it out to change songs. I'll stick with my Agent 18 hard case.
Why do you want a handle on the top? It's designed for the home ... not romping down the street. Also, have you ever used an iPod dock? If I pick the Hi-Fi up to move it, I'm probably going to have to do some serious slinging to make the iPod fly out. In any case, you're probably okay when its sitting still on your shelf. My guess is there's no handle on top because it serves no real purpose ... plus it'd kill looks, and looks are what Apple is all about.
Wi-Fi? What the heck for? It's a docking station with speakers. No one bitched about Bose's $300 "boombox" for not having Wi-Fi or viewability across a room. It's not made to stream content from the internet ... it's made to play stuff from your iPod. There's also audio in ... so I guess you could stream it from the computer to the Hi-Fi.
Radio? Eh ... maybe ... again, the iHome is one of the few "boombox" type speaker stations out there. Bose, JBL, Kensington are doing pretty good not having that feature.
Who uses speakers to play music at home? Oh man, lemme tell you, I love listening to my music through computer speakers. Lots of people. A dizzying amount of people actually. We moved a lot of those suckers in retail over the holidays, and most of them were the $200+ Kensingtons, Bose or JBL set-ups.
All-in-all, Apple didn't set out to reinvent the wheel on this. All they did was take a concept 3rd party companies have been using (Home iPod Speaker Docking stations) and do it themselves. Utterly bad may be too harsh for a product that has just been released. You might want to wait and see how it sells, or even better, go take a listen for yourself. The Bose doesn't have any of the features you listed and yet it sells EXTREMELY well.
Hint-- it's a bad thing.
So, I wonder how much it would cost to buy the remote enabled dock and pair it with a good quality AIO speaker thing?
Let's see, $40 buck for the docks, and for $200 I can get this: Cambridge Sound Works table top radio with built in sub.
I suppose it all comes down to how it sounds (and if I had to guess I would guess that Apple engineered their new box to get pretty loud with no obvious distortion), but for $110 buck less I get a radio with alarm functions, front inputs, big display, more inputs and outputs around back..... So for $40 more I can through in a Nano for the complete system.
Admittedly, this isn't a grab and go boombox setup, so Apple wins on that.
Maybe you could just velcro the dock to this thing and call it a day.
Originally posted by nagromme
And it DOES integrate with AirPort Express.
If by 'integrate with' you mean 'has a line in' then, yes, it does.
We're talking about built in AirTunes. That would've been something, you've gotta admit.
I like it! And I heard that in person, it's really nice looking.
Neat, clean lines and most importantly the sound is meant to be pure class!
Originally posted by AgNuke1707
Wi-Fi? What the heck for? It's a docking station with speakers. No one bitched about Bose's $300 "boombox" for not having Wi-Fi or viewability across a room. It's not made to stream content from the internet ... it's made to play stuff from your iPod. There's also audio in ... so I guess you could stream it from the computer to the Hi-Fi.
No, but the boombox was released a couple of years ago and by a 3p. From Apple, we expected more - something we could use not only with our iPods but also with iTunes' AirTunes feature. I use a PowerBook and don't want to sit right by my hifi, wired to it, just to change track. I also may not be sitting in line of sight to change track by remote (and if I wanted to SEE which track I was changing to, that wouldn't do me much good anyway). The only way to get this thing to work with AirTunes is to BUY AirTunes separately and plug it in through the line in. Since I can get a much better HiFi at the same price as this boombox, I'd rather do that and maybe plug the dock into it. It'd be about as portable...
Originally posted by umijin
This is thing is utterly bad.
Ugly, no wifi integration, can't see the (iPod) screen across the room...
I mean, who the hell uses their iPod at home to play music through speakers anyway if they've got a computer already?
No radio?
No handle on top?
No way to keep iPod from falling when you are hefting by those wonderful handles?
NO WAY Steve!
Along with these overpriced leather monstrosities for iPod condoms - you have to be nuts if you think that you are offering something better than exising iPod vendors.
Get back to the drawing board and get us a truly small Mac laptop before your stock falls below 1996 levels. (>_<)
Very good points.
This doesn't look like something you'd take to the beach or on a picnic. If it's mainly going to be used in the home, why not just have a wifi "boombox" that streams from your computer w/ iTunes?
I suppose you want Apple to give you everything for free?
This is a reasonably priced device for what it does. It's NOT a cheap piece of garbage. You can tell from the weight. The drivers look good also. This was my business for a fair number of years. I can say that Apple is being honest. That's FAR more than I can say about most companies making products of this type.
Complaining about a 16Khz limit? Try getting your ears checked. You'd be surprised how likely it is that you can't hear above that frequency. If you want something that truely goes much above that frequency without distorting, be prepaired to pay another $200 for the system.
$349 for a product that contains a stereo amp, as well as well as the speaker system with these specs is nothing to sneeze at. You can't come up with something like this yourself
Sure, many companies will lie about output power, and frequency response, but that's all it is.
If this cost $149, as someone here said it should, it WOULD be a piece of crap.
A good speaker system requires a solid case, properly designed, not some thin, cheap, typical plastic injection mold.
Put Airport Extreme into this, and people would be complaining about the $425 price, and how they didn't need the Airport built-in. And why couldn't they buy it separately?
You can't win.
Originally posted by jdbartlett
No, but the boombox was released a couple of years ago and by a 3p. From Apple, we expected more - something we could use not only with our iPods but also with iTunes' AirTunes feature. I use a PowerBook and don't want to sit right by my hifi, wired to it, just to change track. I also may not be sitting in line of sight to change track by remote (and if I wanted to SEE which track I was changing to, that wouldn't do me much good anyway). The only way to get this thing to work with AirTunes is to BUY AirTunes separately and plug it in through the line in. Since I can get a much better HiFi at the same price as this boombox, I'd rather do that and maybe plug the dock into it. It'd be about as portable...
AMEN! .. I shouldn't post anymore, just wait for someone to post what I think and give them kudos
oh, PS..
No remote but only $90 and better high-range.
My wife gave me the Music System last year. The sound is very good--actually hard to believe that one box can make such rich sound. However, when I took the thing to my office, I couldn't get good FM reception. So I play CDs, but my selection is limited to what I can carry back and forth from home. It's a pain.
It would be much easier to carry my iPod back and forth and have my entire music collection available.
If the music quality is comparable, I'd seriously consider the new Apple product...
I agree with other posters that it needs integrated WiFi. However, we'll probably see this when the iPod gets WiFi too. Besides, when on the move, the WiFi feature will only drain your battery.
Yikes