Gone Digital

Last week I ordered some goodies from the Apple online store; A Belkin Tunesync and a Monitor Audio i-Deck.

The Tunesync is an iPod dock and usb hub all in one. I'd been thinking about getting a hub for a while, not that I really needed one just yet but connectivity is just easier with a hub. The same goes for an iPod dock. The fact that this unit offers both was the clincher. It has 5 usb ports on the back and connects to the iMac via usb. So with 3 ports on the iMac and 5 on the hub, that's 8 in all. Although really it's 6 cos the keyboard uses 1 slot and the hub uses another. It also has a stereo out jack so I could listen to the iPod with headphones or through the stereo if I wanted to. It charges and syncs the iPod while docked. It's fairly small, it looks good, and it does the job. No more messing around with cables.

The i-Deck is something else. There are several (probably hundreds) iPod speaker units on the market. The Bose Sounddock seems to be the popular favourite, but it's small, and the speakers are fixed. The i-Deck came out recently and I immediately liked the fact that it was more like a mini hifi in that the speakers were seperate from the main unit. I already knew the Monitor Audio brand was a top name in hifi. Their loudspeakers are highly rated. So as I expected, the two speakers are excellent.The i-Deck's main unit has an iPod dock, a built in amp and it's own digital to analog converter. The i-Deck's superior DAC takes over from the iPod's as soon as you dock it. Then you choose your playlist and away you go. Volume, tracks and power can be controlled from the remote control. It also comes in black, which looks great, far better that the white/grey version. Once I saw the black one in the Apple store in Regent Street, I wanted it, but I didn't want to lug it around London, so I ordered it when I got back home. It's pretty cool.