Hi-Fi
Mar.01.06 Filed in: tech(ish)
So here we have it, Apple has taken a bit of a jump
again and landed in the iPod accessory market and
this time in a bigger way. The apple Hi-Fi is a
speaker system that takes simplicity and pushes it to
a new level. There has been many speaker systems come
out to house the ipod music player, the first of
which was by Altec-Lansing if I'm remembering
correctly and who would have thought that the market
for powered speaker systems based around the ipod
would take off the way it did and end up with apple
making their own.
At first look I thought to myself, eesh, what an ugly white box that thing is! It seemed so strange to see apple release something like this. As I had the chance to dig around a little and get some more info on the system I have found that it has grown on me. After I thought about it for a minute or two I came to remember this reaction to most of apples products in the past few years. The first time you see one you kind of stare at it trying to figure out what it is you are looking at but once you see them around in use or in person they suddenly make a lot more sense. If you think about it, this simplistic approach fits in perfectly with the recent popularity in minimalist interior design. Its a slick, un-intrusive box that does not distract from your living space. This first hit me when I saw some photos of the various little rooms that apple had set up to show the system off to the press. That was a brilliant move on there end. Take a look at these photos from iLounge. (they should really look into learning how to set the white balance on their camera!)
Although, placing the speaker like this goes against what they recommend as ideal placement, it does look nice there on a shelf, no?
Again, here you can see it set up along side a mac mini hooked up to a TV. It was this set up that gave me that envy in the back of my head and is starting to make me want one.
Im thinking that it's really not as big as it looks in the studio shots...
The deciding factor of course will be how this thing sounds. Many have said that they cant imagine why they are charging so much for it. The way I see it, the Hi-Fi has bigger drivers on the speakers than anything I have seen on these other speaker systems and the design of it does look pretty tight. I am anxious to see how well the high end of the frequency spectrum carries out without a dedicated horn of some sort to handle the job. Honestly I think that it is going to sound pretty damn good and I'm excited to see one for myself and see how far it can be pushed. I typically want a system that can be pushed really loud and hard without breaking up or loosing detail and we will just have to wait and see how the HI-Fi stacks up against other things that I am used to.
At first look I thought to myself, eesh, what an ugly white box that thing is! It seemed so strange to see apple release something like this. As I had the chance to dig around a little and get some more info on the system I have found that it has grown on me. After I thought about it for a minute or two I came to remember this reaction to most of apples products in the past few years. The first time you see one you kind of stare at it trying to figure out what it is you are looking at but once you see them around in use or in person they suddenly make a lot more sense. If you think about it, this simplistic approach fits in perfectly with the recent popularity in minimalist interior design. Its a slick, un-intrusive box that does not distract from your living space. This first hit me when I saw some photos of the various little rooms that apple had set up to show the system off to the press. That was a brilliant move on there end. Take a look at these photos from iLounge. (they should really look into learning how to set the white balance on their camera!)
Although, placing the speaker like this goes against what they recommend as ideal placement, it does look nice there on a shelf, no?
Again, here you can see it set up along side a mac mini hooked up to a TV. It was this set up that gave me that envy in the back of my head and is starting to make me want one.
Im thinking that it's really not as big as it looks in the studio shots...
The deciding factor of course will be how this thing sounds. Many have said that they cant imagine why they are charging so much for it. The way I see it, the Hi-Fi has bigger drivers on the speakers than anything I have seen on these other speaker systems and the design of it does look pretty tight. I am anxious to see how well the high end of the frequency spectrum carries out without a dedicated horn of some sort to handle the job. Honestly I think that it is going to sound pretty damn good and I'm excited to see one for myself and see how far it can be pushed. I typically want a system that can be pushed really loud and hard without breaking up or loosing detail and we will just have to wait and see how the HI-Fi stacks up against other things that I am used to.
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