Is an IPOD hi-fi?

In a couple of previous issues of UHF magazine, they've been investigating using iPods, Squeezeboxes, and similar devices as a music sources. (You can find partial reviews on their website in their "Reading Room"). It's turned into a continuing project for them. Indeed, they've purchased an iPod to add to their reference system for further investigation. Their results to date are that they've been pleasantly surprised at how these things can be a very good source. When you are able to bypass the internal DAC and feed the signal into an outboard DAC of higher quality, they are very impressed. I'm not sure if you can do this with iPods as of yet, since I don't have one and don't know their capabilites, but with other devices you can. So using an iPod as a music source is certainly something worth investigating, even more so if and when they make them with a digital out. Perhaps I'll have to buy one for the kids as "present" and play with it myself.

At the recent CES in Las Vegas, I believe that it was MSB who were demonstrating a new product. It was a docking station sort of thing that came with a heavily modded iPod. The iPod was modded so that they were able to get a digital out. By all accounts, it was a very good performer. This reinforces the idea that iPods or similar devices can be high end sources if you can get the digital out and into a good DAC.