- Compatible with all iPod products with a 30-pin connector (except iPod shuffle)
- Compatible with the newest iPod nano and touch models; also compatible with iPhone, iPhone 3G and 3GS, and iPhone 4
First, let's rewind to my pre-research iPhone dock ruminations, when I set some "purchase criteria". "An iPhone dock must sound superb", I said to myself one day reflectively. "And it must be compatible with *both* an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 for music playback" and... "the iOS device must be clearly visible for navigation purposes when docked: that's also important."
This dismissed all average-to-good sounding speakerdocks, including some good budget choices such as the Logitech S715i and the pricier SoundFreaq SomethingOrOther. Despite the price value of these options, having listened to them at various stores including Best Buy, PC World and John Lewis (yes I really am that...thorough) I decided that they were just a disappointment in terms of sound quality: good but just not great. And by "sound quality" I'm referring to the *clarity* of the sound, not the ability to reproduce low frequency bass notes at ear crushing levels, as some other dubiously praised budget options are designed to do extremely well (see the frankly ludicrous marketing of the KitSound Boom Dock here on Amazon, for example).
These criteria led to various in-store product "auditions". (Sales people seem to love that phrase: "Would you like to 'audition' this one, Sir?" "Sure, don't mind if I do. Shall I put on a rubber Simon Cowell mask and award points in a superior, narcissistic manner as well?"). Anyway, these "auditions" led to a shortlist which included the Bowers and Wilkins Zeppelin Air, the Arcam rCube, the Philips Fidelio Primo DS9000, and the Harman Kardon Go Play 2. Of these, I dismissed the Harman because of the design. The iPhone is not visible from the front, and that is just plain disappointing. It sounds lovely, but the design is an issue. It also can't dock an iPad. It does have a baby brother called the Harman Go Play Micro, which solves the visibility problem in exchange for a sin: quite significantly less punchy sound quality. I also dismissed the rCube because it can't dock an iPad, and because it really doesn't "feel" as beautiful a product as either the Fidelio Primo or the Zeppelin Air.
So then, what of the big two?
Let's be clear: they both sound utterly superb and there is very little to split them in terms of sound quality. If testing them blind, I would not be able to distinguish between them. Beware reviewers who say things like "X wiped the floor with Y". No it didn't. The audio characteristics of these excellently engineered products are too comparable for this long-time audiophile to detect any substantive differences, so consider the matter simply one of personal preference and budget. Unless of course you have superhuman hearing! :-)
The good news is that the Fidelio is significantly cheaper than the Zeppelin and looks absolutely fantastic. It's made of sheets of wood to form a beautifully carved-looking device which elicits major geekgasms each time I look at it. After hearing it, I was sold. I saw no reason to pay twice the price for a Zeppelin when the same sound quality was achievable in this phenomenal product. And if there are any brand snobs out there, I'll have you know that Philips is a Dutch company which invented the compact cassette and have a long tradition of important contributions to the history of technology. Indeed their attention to detail is quite evident in the DS9000. The dock connector, for example, has been engineered to accept any iDevice. Even my 2003 iPod works with it perfectly without the need for an annoying, fiddly adaptor.
To be sure, the Zeppelin Air has Airplay technology built in, which the Fidelio lacks. This is nice. It allows you to stream music over WiFi stright to the dock. The Fidelio lacks this feature, but it wasn't important to me because there is plenty of flexibility in streaming music wirelessly without Airplay. I use Apple's Home Sharing mode to stream my entire iTunes library from my MacBook over WiFi to both my iPad 2 and iPhone 4. It works a treat. The iDevice must be docked for this to work, but it works well and negates the need to obsess over AirPlay for music streaming. The other alternative is to buy an AirPort Express and run an Auxiliary cable from it to the 3.5mm port (it has one) at the back of the Fidelio for wireless music streaming. Still another idea would be to buy a bluetooth 3.5mm receiver for little over a tenner here on Amazon and plug it into the aux port on the Fidelio and simply stream via bluetooth from an iOS device. In short though, AirPlay was no big deal for me. Nice, but not crucial.
Having now purchased and used the Fidelio Primo for a month, I am truly smitten. This ranks as one of the best technology purchases I have ever made, alongside the iPad 2, MacBook Air, Cowon D2 and Sennheiser HD 595. Audiophiles will truly appreciate the Fidelio's sound quality, and this is no mean feat for a speakerdock. The fact is, the Fidelio Primo doesn't just sound good "for a speakerdock". It sounds spectacular, period. It normally retails at £400, so Amazon's current price is scarcely believable. If you have the inclination, do go ahead and have your own in-store "auditions" of my shortlisted speakerdocks. I challenge you to find one that sounds better. Philips engineers, if you're reading this: I tip my hat. I don't own one, but you know what I mean. :-)
Buy Philips Fidelio DS9000 Primo Speaker Dock for iPod/iPhone/iPad (Brown/Black) Now
I don't know much about the sound to comment on it, not to mention it's highly subjective. Take my review for few basic comments.1. This dock is extremely simple, without much function. For instance, there is not even power on/off button. You plug in the power, and it's on all the time through standby mode.
2. It's inconvenient to control your ipod once it's attached to the dock; pandora is fine, but if you want to go through your music files, or want to search on youtube for music, it's like using ipod on 90 degree angle.
3. Since its power is always on, you can hear the annoying (Hssss...) sound when your ipod is attached. You can eliminate this sound by pressing AUX button on a remote, but it's a pain if you are sensitive.
4. Dock doesn't support a headphone! Arrrrhhh... It has AUX slot for external devices, but it would have been nice if this dock could eliminate the use of amp for ipod/headphone.
5. No support for ipad, both as a charger and speaker.
6. Its application, fidello, is extremely simple as well. You see a lot of complains on its review, and I was surprised because I chose this dock instead of more expensive zeppelin with an idea that a new model in 2010 must have better support.
While some people have complained about this dock's shape, I am quite fond of it. My main complain is lack of support for headphone, hissing sound(barely audible, but still a pain to turn it off through AUX button), and the steep angle of ipod on it. Also, the 3.5 AUX cable provided is extremely poor in quality(probably cost a dollar or two), and I think Philips could have done better considering this dock's price.The DS9000 has an understated presence compared to the rival B&W Zeppelin's distinctive aesthetic. The DS9000 sounds very good no matter what genre of music I threw at it. I loaded up Tina Turner for that sexy throaty vocal, Sarah Brightman for the delicate notes, Celine's sweet highs, Iglesias & INXS for those clear timbres, and my favourite Bruce Springsteen's Streets Of Philadelphia, the DS9000 just belched out the full punchy lows and high notes without crackling and any hint of fatigue. However, I noticed the DS9000 stepped up & revealed its real potential at certain level of loudness threshold ( 30-45%) as I detected the mid & high notes became crispier, clearer and upfront; just too bad that I cannot tell you the exact level because there's no built-in indicator nor one on the Apple device. Below this threshold, the low notes slightly overshadowed the output. The audio quality you get from the DS9000 is great with a medium audio spatial; you simply cannot compare nor look to bathe in the enveloping acoustic energy pumped out from $3K & above speaker system.
I feel that anyone who's concerned enough with sound quality and love to listen to their music on the daily basis from their Ipod/Iphone or other devices, the docking station device like the DS9000 holds tremendous value & convenience for what you're getting for your money. I can honestly say that listening to any great tunes only brightens the mood anytime of the day. So, while many of you will feel that ~$500 is an absurd amount of money to spend on an amazing sounding iPod/Iphone dock, just put that price into the context of replacing the cost of mood altering drugs. ..hehehe
The DS9000 sounds better than the majority of docking stations and hi-fi systems currently in the sub $500 market. You have the option of spending a lot more to get a hi-fi set-up that that sounds better than this, but surely it will be over $1K mark.
Want Philips Fidelio DS9000 Primo Speaker Dock for iPod/iPhone/iPad (Brown/Black) Discount?
unpacked, attached cord and it works. Even with my Ipad. Great sound is all I need. and a beautiful design for my living room. worth every penny. PPS, download the fidelio app, makes the operation of ipod function on phone or ipad easier.
But it pays you back for these glitches in the aesthetic of its very accurate and refined sound. It has presence. Smooth, detailed midrange is the hallmark of this speaker, and it is quite obvious from its level of refinement that Philips paid attention to the SPEAKER, rather than go the Bose route of putting in whatever cheap drivers fit the cabinet and then devising an electronic EQ curve to straighten out the flaws in the hardware.
Doing it right is a lot harder, but it is worth it in the end. You can still apply your ipod eq settings if you wish, but if the music you're listening to was properly mastered you're actually screwing up what the producers hoped you would hear. The hallmark of good sound is faithful reproduction of what the engineers in the studio recorded, and that is the obvious goal of the DS9000.
It doesn't have perfect sound. No single-cabinet speaker can hope to achieve full stereo separation, and the size of the cabinet dictates the limit of bass response. The bass reflex design of this particular cabinet ensures quite robust bass response down to its limit, then a quick rolloff after that. It's a trade-off small speakers have been making for decades. My KEF reference RDM 2s have a similar rolloff point to this speaker. They are small and similarly well-made. They also sound better, because I can place them strategically in the room to achieve the best possible stereo image and drive them with higher quality electronics. They work very well in my living room with a hidden subwoofer getting the very bottom octave, something I don't have with the Fidelio in my office. But the living room setup, with its remotely-located electronics and hidden wiring, is much more expensive than a simple iPhone dock, and it had better beat it in sound. The Philips does its job of playing music while charging my phone in the office very well.
For the price, this speaker has obvious competitors at B&W and Bose, plus a variety of boutique small-volume manufacturers that charge a bit more and may or may not offer better sound. I prefer the Fidelio over the Zeppelin mostly on looks--they both sound great but the Zeppelin just doesn't look as good. I LOVE the natural wood in its curved-form cabinet on this thing. The speaker cloth on the front could have been worked a bit--think removable grilles and beautiful wood front baffles like a Totem or Sonus Faber speaker--but that would have increased the price. I'd pay more for such a tribute to hi-fi, though, and I know a lot of guys who agree with me. The full black cloth front cover hides the budget cut.
There probably isn't enough of a market for truly good sound in such a small, portable one-piece system, or more manufacturers would be applying Philips' and Bowers & Wilkins' $500 formula for a good-sounding iPhone speaker. Once you get above that, your sound system is probably going to have separate speakers and a good amplifier, and then have a little charging dock that plugs into that. I have a dock with my living room setup, and the preamp includes full iPod/iPhone controls on the remote through the USB connection. It doesn't throw the iPod display up on the screen, but it does tell you which playlist you're choosing and lists your songs. It's limited kind of like the app for the Philips. There's plenty of room for software tweaking. At some point everybody will realize that any home with a Wi-Fi network can be set up to stream content to and from any and all devices on the network.
When that day comes, there'll be an app on my iPhone that gives me full remote control of my stereo/tv setup, along with wireless streaming of all the music and video on my iPhone directly to the stereo/tv without having to plug it into anything. Wouldn't that be great? Your phone is not only your remote, but your player as well?
Right now I find that with Netflix and Hulu Plus etc. on Roku, along with the DVR for football season, I don't play as much music on the stereo as I should, because there is so much video content to view. Perhaps cutting down on Top Gear reruns and increasing the amount of opera choruses and symphonies coming through those KEFs would benefit my kids and me. That's why I enjoy this Philips. It reminds me of why I got into Good Sound in the first place.
It's about the music.
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