Best Choice for Docking Station for an IPOD

Bose, expensive for what it is? Really?! Arrrgggghhhh!!!!!
Cello, I just recommended an Onkyo CS 210 shelf system to a friend for use with his iPOD. $170 shipping included and you are in.

Consider replacing the stock speakers and speaker cable with Paradigm Atoms or equivalent, some decent wire and you are well on your way. Then a Signal Cable mini-plug to RCA termination and look out.

BTW, I quizzed him as to the sound quality of the built-in CD player vs the iPOD and he admitted the CD player was superior. Go figure.

Onkyo CS 210 $170 shipped
Paradigms 180
Signal Cable connector 42 shipped
cheap speaker cable 20

roughly $412 and you are there.

Good luck.

You can get a pair of good multimedia speakers (amp built in) and a Signal Cable connector (I use their silver one) and call it a day. OK, this solution is not that portable, but it will sound a buttload better'n'Bose. The speakers I'd recommend are the Swan M200's which have been reduced by their distributor to $179.00 - which is a downright bargain for what you get. You can order them directly from NewEgg here

Marco

I'll go with Marco's recommendation, unless your daughters need to take it to the beach or something.

Even better, you can use the line level out into a state of the art DAC, tube amps and speakers gleaned from other threads in Audiogon.

Marco - wow - that is really cheap?! Any idea how they would compare to the old Monsoon planar computer set up that was raved about in the audiophile press. For the office, they are fun, but after not very long are very fatiguing.

CW London - I have a pair of the Swans and they sound damn good for such an inexpensive speaker. Also they are well built. Unfortunately I got screwed by a dishonest Agon seller with mine. That's a long story I won't go into here except to say the new Agon feedback system sucks, and is not condusive to safe trading IMO. Negative feedback is no longer an option (who the hell would agree that they should receive negative feedback?!).

A question for you: you mentioned using a DAC with an iPod. I have a current thread asking about that very subject. What type of connector do you use to get a digital stream from an iPod without the benefit of a laptop interface? The USB connector that links to the dock on the iPod is the wrong end of the USB connection to use with, say, a Waveterminal or USB DAC. Is there some specific connector you know of that gives you a digital-output from the iPod dock? The standard USB and Firewire do require a laptop interface. The analog line-output is not a digital stream and would not work if you sent that to a DAC since it's not a digital signal. What's the secret?

Marco