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NuForce Icon iDo Brings Audiophile Quality to iOS Devices

rustydoglim said:
Disclaimer: I work for Nuforce.
Instead of sounding off whether it is worth it, people like "SoldOnApple" or "Yukster" can just order it from our online store on Amazon.com and give it a try. Shipping is free. 30 day money back guarantee.

I won't go into the issue with uDAC-2 measurement (there is a long discussion on head-fi.org). I think too many people are jumping into conclusion without bothering to try it for themselves ("blackburn" have you actually listen to uDAC-2?). We have at least two customers who wrote us feedback that they tried uDAC-2 after reading NWAVGuy's one-sided report and even tried his solution. They ended up keeping uDAC-2. There are about six 1 to 2 stars bad rating of uDAC-2 on Amazon.com, balanced with 46 5-stars and many 4 stars reviews. Audio is subjective and some people just can't tell the difference.
My point is this: try it and make your own judgment.

We started out as an audiophile high-end company, but we do have serious science behind (owned 4 US Patents, one of the Class-D amp).

For the 1st 5 people who give it a try but don't think iDo will make a big difference in your headphones listening, we will even pay for your return shipping. Just quote this posting.

There are many people who listening to music at work, but can only use their personal iPhone, iPod or iPad for music instead of office computer. This is where iDo will make the listening experience much more enjoyable.
iPad + iDo + active speakers make a very good quality system at home.

I read magazines and watch movies on bed with my iPad, so it is nice to have iDo charging iPad and listen to high quality audio through iDo.
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If I do have a chance to listen it I will, since most sources have troubles with my ie 8 sensibility (mostly hiss problems, got rid of my walkman due to excessive hiss).
I'm not afraid to experiment new gear like I'm most likely to dump mac os x after this lion crap (I'm not loyal to any brand). The main problem is that is near impossible to experiment gear without having to buy it here (people used and abused the stores return policy, so now many products can't be returned unless their are defective), and I still need to buy at least an amp for my hd555 since my ipod can't drive it properly (most likely due to the eu volume cap).

And yes audio is very subjective, some friends of mine like to use those crappy eq presets that distort audio on their ipods. And I'm not even risking to buying expensive stuff without trying it first, and since I'm a student I (unfortunately) don't really have money to spend in dacs since my macbook is starting to go bad and I'm out on warranty since I've dropped it.

If I do have the chance to try it like many products that I've tried before, I'll try. If I don't spend a dime on testing it I don't really care if the reviews are great or not its always great to test new stuff. Too bad there aren't many audio stores with more consumer stuff (only professional stage equipment).

But proper measurements never hurt anybody and I think that measurements should be available for every product.
 
marcusj0015 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Dude. The point is, it's ridiclous...

Get a great 5.1 speaker set up, rip your cds to FLAC. Your done...
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For Music Bah... 2.1 all the way baby, keep that surround away from my tunes
 
Sol said:
I keep the down-sampled iTunes library in my iPod and with 64GB being the maximum today, that is a compromise in audio quality I for one am willing to take. Your amp would not be ideally suited to me but that is not to say people with the lossless tracks on their iOS devices would not appreciate it more. Of course in the near future, when our iOS devices can hold entire lossless libraries and HD audio is offered on the iTunes Store your product will be far more relevant and popular than it could ever be today.
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Our competitor, Benchmark has publish a very good article about 24bit/96kHz streaming from computer to iPad using iTune home sharing (http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/discu.../06/1/ipad-streams-high-resolution-audio-dac1)
A good DAC makes a huge different (if implemented correctly, there are still lots of arts to make a DAC sound good). So it is the combination of DAC+headphone amp that will deliver the quality.
 
tasset said:
I don't know that analogy would hold up. If you take 100 people and have them point to which has a better display, the 3GS or iPhone4, I am willing to bet a much higher percentage can pick that out compared to those same 100 people comparing a 256 AAC file vs a higher fidelity audio source.

I'm not saying it doesn't exist, especially for those with trained ears, but if the product doesn't have a noticeable effect on the vast majority than the benefit is questionable. I suppose the masses are just unwashed cretins though....
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You're wrong, unless those people are utterly deaf.
 
Scarpad said:
For Music Bah... 2.1 all the way baby, keep that surround away from my tunes
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2.0 all the way baby. You don't need a sub with a good system. :D

Unless you are listening to an audio DVD with a surround mix, there is no reason at all to listening to music in surround.
 
Audiophile debate aside, what I really don't understand is why this product gets so much publicity on MacRumors? There's plenty of DAC/amps for iDevices... it's not like this is anything new, nor very related to Mac rumors... :confused:
 
emaja said:
2.0 all the way baby. You don't need a sub with a good system. :D

Unless you are listening to an audio DVD with a surround mix, there is no reason at all to listening to music in surround.
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Agreed .. I don't like a system (for music) which depends entirely on subwoofer for bass reproduction. That is just bad and muffled bass.

To me, a great speaker can reproduce music on most of frequency band by itself, no need for another subwoofer.

But when it comes to movie, it's a different story. Sub comes in handy for sure. The boom of a subwoofer is just irreplaceable with even a floorstanding speakers :D
 
iSayuSay said:
Agreed .. I don't like a system (for music) which depends entirely on subwoofer for bass reproduction. That is just bad and muffled bass.

To me, a great speaker can reproduce music on most of frequency band by itself, no need for another subwoofer.

But when it comes to movie, it's a different story. Sub comes in handy for sure. The boom of a subwoofer is just irreplaceable with even a floorstanding speakers :D
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That's why ideally you would use one system for music and another for movies and video games.
 
emaja said:
2.0 all the way baby. You don't need a sub with a good system. :D

Unless you are listening to an audio DVD with a surround mix, there is no reason at all to listening to music in surround.
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2.1 is a good fit for desktop computer systems as they are usually all-in-one, so no need for multiple power plugs, inherent noise such as hard drives and lower volume in typical operation, thus needing to compensate with extended low-end frequencies.

For a music system, plain stereo would be preferable because that is the format CDs and LPs are mastered for. Maybe some types of music like techno music benefit most from a sub and car systems are another discussion altogether.
 
This is nice, looks like a great design... however, for $250, I'm wondering just how good the upgrade in sound quality really is...

Don't get me wrong, contrary to some poster's opinions here, it's a FACT that a good DAC makes an appreciable difference to sound quality (assuming you've got good headphones... otherwise you won't hear the difference).

I mean, think about it. All objects in the world are not created equal. One has to physically convert digital data into an analogue electrical signal and then an analogue physical vibration. This is not an easy task if you want to do this accurately, with rich dynamics and detail.

However, you can get great "audiophile" equipment and fairly low prices, you just have to know what products are a good value!

I have a DAC that I use for music recording, it cost me less than the price of this ($184 vs $250), and it makes a HUGE difference in sound quality compared to the internal dac in my imac. It's a night and day difference, for both speakers and headphones (more so for the latter though).

There's no question that a good DAC can make a difference. "Can". The question here is, do these make enough of a difference that they are worth $250? :)
 
iSayuSay said:
Agreed .. I don't like a system (for music) which depends entirely on subwoofer for bass reproduction. That is just bad and muffled bass.

To me, a great speaker can reproduce music on most of frequency band by itself, no need for another subwoofer.

But when it comes to movie, it's a different story. Sub comes in handy for sure. The boom of a subwoofer is just irreplaceable with even a floorstanding speakers :D
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Hmm, I don't think you guys have heard a good subwoofer. Very few full-range speakers can even approach the quality of a good sub for <50Hz reproduction. (I don't like the industry's 80Hz cutoff) THAT is where muffled bass would come from, you have it completely backwards. And since bass behaves differently in your room from higher frequencies, localizing it properly is easier with a different speaker.

If you think a muffled, boomy subwoofer sounds ok for movies, it's very sad. Where shall I send the sympathy card?

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Sol said:
2.1 is a good fit for desktop computer systems as they are usually all-in-one, so no need for multiple power plugs, inherent noise such as hard drives and lower volume in typical operation, thus needing to compensate with extended low-end frequencies.
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Computer speakers don't have extended LFE ability, those are 2.0 systems, with the speakers split into 3 boxes.
 
davidsdiego said:
Has anyone purchased one and actually tried it for themselves?
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Of course most of them haven't. This is mostly a bunch of people "sounding off" (pun intended) on their own soapbox about how sound works according to them.

That is not so say that some of the posters don't have very excellent knowledge about sound, just that most of the statements do not relate to this unit and its true abilities

Go and find a store & try it out with your ipod/iphone, then decide if the price versus improvement is worth it for you. That is the only way.
 
macpeach55 said:
Of course most of them haven't. This is mostly a bunch of people "sounding off" (pun intended) on their own soapbox about how sound works according to them.

That is not so say that some of the posters don't have very excellent knowledge about sound, just that most of the statements do not relate to this unit and its true abilities

Go and find a store & try it out with your ipod/iphone, then decide if the price versus improvement is worth it for you. That is the only way.
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Unfortunately, I have not found a store that carries this type of DAC and I was hoping if anyone had actually bought one and used it. I might just buy a pair of B&W MM-1s and plug in my B&W P5s into them.
 
dasmb said:
Surround sound is lipstick on a pig. Why you kissing pigs, man?
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LOL... Couldn't have been said any better. If the source is not 5.1, faking it to be 5.1 is simply pig business. It's best to play he sound the way the Artist/Recording Engineer intended it to be played.

5.1 Surround is great for movies with native 5.1 Surround audio, not really for stereo music.
 
I'm assuming no one here, on MacRumors, has made the plunge and invested on the $250 NuForce Icon iDo to use on their iPhones. From my googling, the only review and promoting of this device is from Crutchfield.
 
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