Although retail stores are poor places to evaluate audio systems, I listened to the iPod Hi-Fi at an Apple store the other day. To me, it sounded like a decent pair of bookshelf speakers… …taped together and layed perfectly flat on the bottom of an empty bathtub. Yeah, it probably sounds better in a home bedroom (even audiophile geek Jim Machrone thinks it doesn't sound too bad), so I figured I'd reserve judgement until I read the review in the magazine Sound & Vision.
S&V is the direct descendant of Stereo Review, which objectively reviewed audio equipment with precise scientific measurement, and without all of the foofoo "golden eared" writers you see in other HiFi publications. S&V expanded that tradition to reviews of HDTVs, DVD players, and other consumer electronics. They still have two of the best audio columnists around with David Ranada and Ken Pohlman.
So I was extremely disappointed in their review of the iPod Hi-Fi. Not with their opinion of the unit, but with the review itself. Missing were all of the objective audio measurements I expected from S&V, like frequency response, dynamic range, imaging, THD, etc. Nothing but pure objective opinion like you'd find in lesser publications. How ironic that in the same issue, David Ranada writes a wonderful column explaining that we should not believe the hype of BluRay versus HD-DVD until there are objective, scientifically measured performance tests of identical material on both platforms.
I can't understand why S&V would blow it on a review of such a well-known sound system. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. But maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt. In the review, Al Griffin calls the iPod Hi-Fi, "one helluva boombox." That might just say everything I need to know…
