Tube Amps for iPod
6:07 am, April 15th, 2007, Leander Kahney

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.
Posted by Leander Kahney in iPod, iPod Accessories | Comment on this article












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.
Bill Coleman, on April 16th, 2007 at 6:01 am
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.
Jeremy Lacomis, on April 17th, 2007 at 10:32 am