Tube Amps for iPod

The New York Times has a roundup of three vacuum tube amplifiers for the iPod:

BOTH the Cocoon and the Fatman come with a pair of white cotton gloves, to be worn to protect the high-gloss metal surfaces from fingerprints during handling. To assemble and try out both machines, I donned a set of the gloves, as did a friend who helped me.

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Gallery: Glowing Tube Amp Porn

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About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in iPhone & iPod Accessories, iPod |

Bill Coleman
It continues to amaze me that these amplifiers as so electrically bad, yet they sell for premium prices. Total Harmonic Distortion of 0.5%, when the cheapest of solid-state amplifiers is rated less than 0.08% THD, and premium products are substantially better.
Save your money for better speakers.
The only “drug-addled nutjobs” are the people buying these Amplifiers.
Jeremy Lacomis
Of course tube amplifiers are electrically imprecise, that’s the whole point of buying them instead of solid-state amps. Using tubes in the preamp changes the sound in a distinct way, which is desirable, even if “wrong”.
And the reason why tube amps are so expensive is both manufacturing costs and supply and demand.