Arcam rDock Arcam’s rDock is a hefty slab of cast alloy, designed to accommodate an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad in it’s Dock connector. Arcam rDock A rubber base means it won’t slide around your desk or hi-fi unit when you're docking and undocking your iDevice, and a strip of rubber along the front of the stand protects the back of your …
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Wouldn't be my kind of thing, but I can see it appealing to some people.
What is surprising is the remote. I would have thought that at that price range and market the remote wouldn't look quiet so "cheap".
Having said that, perhaps the expectation in the audio market that customers normally use some kind of 'all in one' instead.
I bought two Arcam amps <cough> years ago for a total of around £900 - and the remote control was not only an extra £35 but was also just as cheap and nasty looking as this one. It seems to be an Arcam "Thing".
Nothing wrong with the amps though. Still going strong - although the power LED no longer lights up on the power amp.
Reg - this article appears under the heading 'hardfacts'. Any chance you could change that heading to 'unsubstantiated opinions that could be gleaned from the press release'?
'Audio quality, particularly using the built-in DAC, is as high as you would expect from a company with Arcam’s pedigree.'
Prove it.
There are some that listen with our ears and some that listen with a bunch of electronic sensors hooked up to analysis software producing pretty graphs. If you prefer the latter there are plenty of specialist sites that cater for you...
I don't need a graph to tell me if (A) sounds better than (B). If "better" is too subjective then see the earlier statement. In any case, nobody in their right mind would spend £200 on a speaker dock without auditioning it first. The review is there to say "Hey, this piece of kit is really rather good and, if you're into that sort of thing, you should give it a go".
The graph isn't to tell you what sounds better. Only you can tell us that. Mind you, I don't see how the article could possibly help you with that.
The graph is to tell those who care whether the device actually reproduces the signal faithfully or not.
There is a paucity of sites with objective reviews. Some of us would like El Reg to become one.
Analogue signals are present on the dock connector but so is a full USB connection and all iOS hardware supports USB audio hardware (or, at least, did when the iPad 1 came out; I haven't necessarily kept up). I think there's also a way to get audio out without presenting yourself as USB audio hardware but it may rely on licensing IP from Apple, to supply the correct unlock code. Failing all of those options, you could just strip digital audio from the HDMI output.
As a rule, cheap docks just use the analogue audio out, expensive ones substitute their own DAC. As you can imagine, the tiny thing built into the iPhone isn't of audiophile quality.
Has anyone auditioned both, particularly using the internal DACs in both units?
You'd expect the Arcam to sound better, but the Pure is amazing for the money (£80-ish).
For anyone who's unfamiliar with it, the i-20 is a similar device, ie takes the digital stream out of the iPod and either outputs analogue through its own DAC or outputs SP/DIFto your DAC of choice.
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