Audiophiles Become IPodiophiles

Old-time audiophiles must be spinning in their soundproof graves. Thanks to hardware modifications and headphone amplifiers, the humble iPod is earning a place at the heart of the most expensive and exacting sound systems.
Veteran audiophiles would scoff. The iPod is relatively inexpensive, costing only a fraction of the $10,000 to $100,000 some will spend on big-rig audio gear. And it is designed to play -- gasp -- compressed audio.

Audiophiles demand only the highest fidelity and detail. For some, digital music in any form, especially highly compressed MP3, is contemptuously unacceptable. To purists, only old-fashioned vinyl platters cut it.

But remarkably, the iPod is exceptionally well engineered, boasting circuitry to rival much more expensive stereo components. And thanks to CD-quality or lossless codecs, not even those blessed with golden ears can detect a recording's source.

"The iPod's measured behavior is better than many CD players," concluded an exhaustive review and performance test in Stereophile magazine, "Excellent, cost-effective audio engineering from an unexpected source."

George Tyshchenko, who runs the testing-oriented HiFiiPod website, said: "The quality of the components used in the iPod are on the same level as low- to medium-priced audiophile gear. From the audio standpoint, iPod makes a very good source. And from a practical standpoint, iPod is revolutionary because the vinyl and CD mediums are now gone."

For the truly discerning, Red Wine Audio will modify the iPod's hardware to turn it into a miniature, high-quality music server.

Red Wine's iMod, which costs $200, eliminates some of the iPod's cheaper components and adds a new high-quality output jack.

"My customers are audiophiles," said Vinni Rossi, who owns Red Wine. "They are looking for the very best sound quality and it all starts from the source -- CD player, turntable or modded iPod."

The mod dispenses with the iPod's headphone jack and the dock connector on the bottom in favor of a dedicated one-eighth-inch line-out jack, which is plugged into a external headphone amplifier or a high-end sound system (via a $130 cable made from nearly pure, braided silver). It routes around the iPod's headphone amplifier, a cheapo ribbon cable and some other inferior components.

"It's just you and the music," said American Wired in an enthusiastic review of the iMod. "Noisy transports going through their death waltz are a thing of the past with the iMod. It is almost unnerving to hold the iMod in your hand and have control over so much good music."

Red Wine will only modify older fourth-generation iPods and the original iPod photo. These iPods are based on the Wolfson WM8975 Digital Audio Converter, or DAC, which Red Wine said is "by far the best DAC used so far by Apple on any of the iPod units including the iPod with video." (The company recommends the 60-GB iPod Photo, which can hold 120 CDs encoded in Apple's Lossless codec, which claims to deliver CD quality in about half the storage space.)

In addition, Red Wine insists the iMod be used only when running on its internal battery -- AC power can add audible interference to the sound.

As well as high-end stereos, the iMod is intended to be used with headphone amplifiers, like the $1,200 Ray Samuels Raptor Headphone Amp, popular with audiophiles who like to be cocooned when concentrating on the music.

"Ninety percent of my customers are iPod owners," said Michael Gaspa, who makes CMoy headphone amplifiers by hand and sells them on eBay for about $35. "IPods need better stereo amplification with richer bass and highs. For users that prefer to use ear-canal type headphones, this amp will provide much better clarity … and (it) will drive the high-quality headphones like Sennheiser with no problem at all."

Not all audiophiles are embracing the iPod, of course. In fact, the device has polarized the high-end community, said writer Wes Phillips, who penned the Stereophile review.

"Some of us embrace it, especially since we can use uncompressed or lossless files," he wrote in e-mail. "Other folks feel that … anything less than vinyl doesn't seem like hi-fi to them. A certain amount of our readership distrusts the combination of computers and hi-fi."

Phillips said he's firmly in the camp that welcomes the iPod, and feels audiophiles should embrace any technology that has sparked such a huge interest in music.

"I'm frankly stunned at how long it has taken the audio industry to accept the iPod as something that has reinvented/reinvigorated people's love of music," he said. "You'd think that they'd welcome the iPod as a gateway drug to full-blown audiophilia, but sadly that has not been the case."

Personally, Phillips said he uses the iPod as a way to get more music into his life. His listening is not confined to the limited periods he can spend in front of his rig.

"You're trading fidelity for capacity, so you better know how to develop playlists and exchange task-specific music programs as part of your out-of-the-door rituals," he said. "I do the old 'spectacles, testicles, iPod, wallet' sign of the cross on my way to the gym each morning."

Thanks to Leander Kahney Cult of Mac