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Arcam rDock
When Too Little Information Is Just Too Much

Franco Vitaliano

Like most everyone else in the galaxy, I own an iPod. I use it with sound isolating high-end earbuds, Shure E500 PTH units that list for a cool $500. They are incredible earphones. Their switchable noise canceling capabilities—their PTH (Push to Hear) function—makes them a must carry when traveling by plane.

On the other hand, if you have a spouse you want to get rid of, have them go for a walk in busy city traffic with PTH switched off. They will never hear that oncoming bus, trust me.

Sometimes though you want to kick back and listen to tunes without buds, or perhaps want to make an iPod the primary source component in your stereo system; hence, the booming business in iPod docks.  They come in all flavors, sizes, and configurations. Some have accompanying speakers, others don’t.

The setup I used for evaluating the rDock featured a pair of sadly no longer made, full range horn load speakers, the Impulse Ta’us. This is a take no prisoners high-end speaker that will strip-search any component it deems a danger to listening security. 

If a component poses a sonic threat, the Ta’us will immediately ship it off to audio Guantanamo, forever. To get past their ever-watchful ears, I knew I would need an iPod dock that could survive such high-end scrutiny.

However, despite the iPod’s popularity, there is a limited number of what could be considered high-end audio, no speaker attached docks. The answer to my quest came in the form of the Arcam rDock. 

 

For those not familiar with Arcam, this UK outfit consistently makes products with terrific sound quality but without gouge your wallet prices. In the U.S., American Audio and Video is Arcam’s distributor.

 

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