This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.
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28 Dec 2005
The Klipsch iGroove speakers I got for my wife for her iPod are fantastic. The sound reproduction is incredible. I’m amazed that such a tiny device can produce such rich bass. I looked over the Bose SoundDock and a couple of the less expensive systems, and listened to each at the store and nothing came close to the Klipsch. The speakers are portable enough to move from room to room and this summer they’ll spend a lot of time in our backyard as we hang out by the pool.
I also bought a Griffin iTrip so she could listen to music in the car. The iTrip is awful. Terrible. It sucks greatly. Using the digital readout it’s easy to select a station to play it on, but the transmitter wasn’t powerful enough to get a clear signal to her car stereo. We’d get a little signal but no matter where we put it as soon as we put the iPod down or moved our hand away from the device, static took over. I managed to find a spot in the car where it seemed to work, but as soon as the car started to move, we got static. I returned the $50 iTrip and bought a cassette tape adapter instead. A bonus advantage of the tape adapter is that we don’t have to keep changing radio frequencies as we drive from town to town.
Buy the Klipsch. Avoid the iTrip. You’ll be happy.
I suspect that much of my iTrip problems were centered around the location and quality of my car's FM antenna. I bet if I'd tried it out on my home stereo things would have been fine. The thing is that I assumed it would have more range and power. I didn't think I'd be able to set up a neighborhood radio station, but I did think I'd be able to get a clear signal to a radio that was a couple of feet away.
An iTrip is a great thing in some cases, but it's really a last-resort kind of thing. You'll get the best sound with a hardwired line-in arrangement into your stereo head (many have extra inputs for things like CD changers). If you can't do that, then the cassette option, while obviously kludgey, is the runner-up choice in terms of sound quality. FM just plain SUCKS for sound, but many cars no longer have tape decks, which leaves you with line in or FM.
need help. how can I plug a non-iPod device into a Bose SoundDock? (via 3.5mm jack to female? iPod receptacle? Thanks
This discussion has been closed.
Neil T.
December 29, 2005 12:26 AM
A friend of mine bought an iTrip a few months ago and he seems to be happy with it. That said, he's in the UK where we have fewer FM radio stations so there's less scope for interference from legitimate stations (here the FM frequencies are controlled by the government snd you need a license to broadcast on it, thus technically making the iTrip illegal). Personally I use a cassette adaptor, like you do.