Get Dock or Wait...?
Rob
[382 byte] By [carlin] at [2007-11-9 12:19:14] 
I really want the dock for the lineout, I have some great hi-fi bose acoustamass speakers and I love using them since i blew out my Pro speakers on my iMac. It is kinda expensive, and i had heard a rumor that there might be a new dock with a remote and such, should i wait or get my cheap ### in the car and head down to the apple store and get the dock now? Thanks,
Rob
# 1 Re: Get Dock or Wait...?
The headphone jack acts just like a line out. So, unless you want to have it stand up, you really don't need it. However, I love my dock. It looks awesome, is quite handy, and makes the iPod easy to see on my night stand. It also lessens the chance that I'm going to accidentally yank the cord and scratch the back up more than I already have. Also, there are a couple of 3rd party docks (don't know if they have them for the new ones yet?).Just my 2 cents
b_nightingale99 at 2007-11-15 16:06:52 >
# 2 Re: Get Dock or Wait...?
Uhm, the headphone does not act like a line out. Headphone jacks ouptut sound at a much lower volume than the line out. The line out is a fixed volume output designed to be connected to an external amplifier to achieve maximum audio quality. If you think that a headphone jack will sound the exact same as a line out jack, you probably do not have much experience with audio electronics.iamaustin at 2007-11-15 16:07:53 >
# 3 Re: Get Dock or Wait...?
I'm in the exact same boat as you, Carlin. Even the Bose. Once I get more of my CDs ripped, I'm thinking of moving the Dock from my computer to my stereo, use the FW cable to power/charge at the stereo, and just buy a second FW cable for the Mac. That way I'm only out the cost of the FW cable if something cool comes down the line.
thenightfly42 at 2007-11-15 16:08:52 >
# 4 Re: Get Dock or Wait...?
First of all, the line-out jack is a higher quality output than the headphone output because you can use your own input to amplify your tunes in a high end system.Anyway to your dock question:
Apple may release new docks, but if they do, they won't be included with the iPods; in terms of buying a seperate dock I would wait a bit, but not too long. Only if Apple confirms these 'rumors' would I seriously stick it out. Keep in mind in June and July are the Mac expo's ;)
mongoos150 at 2007-11-15 16:09:46 >
# 5 Re: Get Dock or Wait...?
Your best bet for now is to go ahead and pick up a headphone->RCA adapter and use that through the headphone jack to hook up to your receiver, and turn the volume to about 90% on the iPod, which is close to line-level. Then, you can wait a few months to see if new docks show up, which seems a distinct possibility since the dock connector has features which are currently going unused (recording, etc.). It also seems likely that Apple may release a dock connector->line out adapter.
The other option is to buy a dock now and the 3rd party wireless remote that was recently released.
I just use the headphone jack with my car and home stereos, and I'm quite happy with the quality. Other factors such as speaker quality and encoding make a much bigger difference in audio quality. Plus, if I want high quality, I'll listen to the original CD, not a compressed audio file.
mattwardfh at 2007-11-15 16:10:46 >
# 6 Re: Get Dock or Wait...?
you guys are all missing the real value of line out, which is that it bypasses the volume circuitry, making the output slightly cleanerhotch at 2007-11-15 16:11:56 >
# 7 Re: Get Dock or Wait...?
Except that you have to buy a dock. I suggested just using the headphone jack for now because I think Apple will have a new dock better suited to home stereo use out soon, and the headphone jack is a pretty serviceable option. That, and I have pretty good ears, and I bet I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But maybe it's bigger than I expect.
mattwardfh at 2007-11-15 16:12:50 >
# 8 Re: Get Dock or Wait...?
Originally posted by hotch you guys are all missing the real value of line out, which is that it bypasses the volume circuitry, making the output slightly cleaner
Someone needs to build an adaptor for docking port -> line out, so we don't need to drag the dock around.
thenightfly42 at 2007-11-15 16:13:53 >
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