PURE i-20, iPhone/iPod Dock - How did I miss this?

ajzepp · « **Reply #40 on:** 13 Dec 2011, 01:08 am »

Okay, I'm REALLY happy with this little gadget. I had an extra run of Speltz anticable (I don't know how I feel about cables/wires, but I swear this Speltz wire sounds better than the other stuff I've used), so I hooked up my AudioEngine A2s with it, connected them to the Pure dock via my BlueJeans ICs, docked my iPod, and right now I'm listening to Amos Lee "Arms of a Woman". This is easily the best my A2s have sounded and I have no other components in the chain right now. The internal DACs on this thing are more than acceptable.

I think my frustration over what to do about a bedroom system is over...this is already better sound than I expected to achieve, and while I understand what you guys said about the remote, I have no issue with it. I'm sitting about 12' from the speakers/Pure, and it works fine. My iPod is full (160 gb), so obviously I can't really sit here and navigate it without a display. But I can just make a PURE play list, or play an album at a time. To be able to have remote control over the volume, pause, skip, and stop is all I need. I plan to keep this thing on when I'm working from home and when I get a call I'll just push a button on the remote....works great for me!

I'm not giving up my Maggie 3.6s any time soon, but I tell you what, you cheap and cheerful folks are great!

chrisby · « **Reply #41 on:** 16 Dec 2011, 11:17 pm »

While it'd be pretty hard for anyone to beat the ease of operation of the dial or touch screen controls on iPod or iPhone, for me the biggest issue with the i-20's remote is you have to be close enough to read the iPod's display.

Of course that'll be true of any Dock, and I haven't bothered to try it in either of the two TV systems or the iMac. I figure what's the point, I can just as easily stream to the former via ATV, and download any new video content to the iMac in the first place, so that'd be redundant.

mikeeastman · « **Reply #42 on:** 20 Dec 2011, 01:57 pm »

Ok! you guys talked me into it. Just ordered one for wife's kitchen system.

ajzepp · « **Reply #43 on:** 20 Dec 2011, 05:51 pm »

Quote from: chrisby on 16 Dec 2011, 11:17 pm

While it'd be pretty hard for anyone to beat the ease of operation of the dial or touch screen controls on iPod or iPhone, for me the biggest issue with the i-20's remote is you have to be close enough to read the iPod's display.

Of course that'll be true of any Dock, and I haven't bothered to try it in either of the two TV systems or the iMac. I figure what's the point, I can just as easily stream to the former via ATV, and download any new video content to the iMac in the first place, so that'd be redundant.

It has great range, though. I'm sitting over 15' away and it works like a champ. I suggest just creating a playlist for the thing, cause you're right, it's impossible to browse your library from a distance. But for $99 this thing is a steal. This is a more enjoyable little system than I would have ever thought possible.

chgolatin2 · « **Reply #44 on:** 23 Dec 2011, 04:40 am »

You absolutely can't beat the price, performance you get out of this dock! Simply amazing! Who says that you can't buy love for cheap!?

musicnutt · « **Reply #45 on:** 28 Dec 2011, 12:38 am »

I purchased this as well and think it's an amazing product for the money.

One problem though. I has stopped working! It will not run the music from my iPhone 4s to my music system. The music only comes out through the little speaker in the phone itself. I emailed the company on Dec. 20/11 to report this and have not heard back from them. I followed up today with another email. I'm very disappointed, as I've only had the unit for a little over 2 weeks. I guess this will get resolved eventually.

Mike

ajzepp · « **Reply #46 on:** 28 Dec 2011, 06:10 pm »

Quote from: musicnutt on 28 Dec 2011, 12:38 am

I purchased this as well and think it's an amazing product for the money.

One problem though. I has stopped working! It will not run the music from my iPhone 4s to my music system. The music only comes out through the little speaker in the phone itself. I emailed the company on Dec. 20/11 to report this and have not heard back from them. I followed up today with another email. I'm very disappointed, as I've only had the unit for a little over 2 weeks. I guess this will get resolved eventually.

Mike

Whenever I have an issue that needs to be resolved, I always mention to the company that I'm very active on several consumer forums and that my account of the manner in which they handle my issue will be shared with literally thousands of others. I'm not saying that works every time, and I've used it for positive purposes far more often than I have negative, but it's something you may want to consider.

chgolatin2 · « **Reply #47 on:** 3 Jan 2012, 09:58 am »

To musicnutt, I do believe that it comes with a 1 yr warranty, contact the manufacturer or selling company and file a complaint that should resolved the issue if not than you have other options as the one stated before. Mention that you belong to several online consumre forums, that works WONDERS about 90%+ of the time

corndog71 · « **Reply #48 on:** 7 Jan 2012, 07:10 am »

I just got the dock from amazon and I'm really impressed by it. Initial impressions are very positive. From the analog outputs it delivered a very spacious and uncolored sound. When paired with the Musical Fidelity V-DAC II it sounded even better. More air and space between instruments and performers. Tight, deep bass.

Even my girlfriend who was sitting nearby was pulled away from her phone for a moment and commented that she was hearing things in an old familiar recording that she hadn't noticed before.

It worked perfectly with my 1st gen. iPod Touch and my iPhone 4S. I had one small issue with my 1st gen. iPad.

There are buttons on the remote that allow you to navigate the playlist menu. For instance on the former devices one can have a song playing and without interruption navigate back to the list of songs and go through and choose something else if one wishes. This allowed me to navigate to the songs I wanted to play without breaking the flow of the playback.

This feature was unavailable on the iPad for some odd reason. I could skip forward or backward through the list kinda like what we used to do on old cd players but that's it. It's a shame because the bigger iPad screen makes seeing the list of songs easier from a distance. It's nearly impossible with the smaller devices unless your vision is that of an eagle.

Most of my music is in Apple Lossless with some purchased AAC files mixed in. All worked well.

To sum up, if you have an iPod and want a simple dock that offers the benefit of 24/192 playback via it's analog ouputs as well as the ability to connect to better outboard DACs via standard coax or optical digital outputs and is remote controllable, then I highly recommend the Pure i-20 dock. That it cost around $100 (I got it for $95) makes it a true audio steal!

acresm22 · « **Reply #49 on:** 18 Jan 2012, 08:27 pm »

Guys, some questions from an ipod neophyte.
I've been looking for a simple and inexpensive way to move from CD to music server. Want it to be capable of hi rez playback. Don't want to mess with outboard DAC. So far I've only ripped a few CDs to FLAC and have downloaded only a few hi rez cuts to FLAC. Then I saw this thread and was intriqued.
Using an 8gb ipod touch 4G into the Pure i-20 as a source, is there a way I can access apple lossless files on an external HD? Or am I limited to only files that are stored on the ipod?

corndog71 · « **Reply #50 on:** 19 Jan 2012, 01:39 am »

The dock is geared for the ipod/iphone devices. You might be better off just using your computer as the music server. There are several ways to get the music to your stereo. I would still recommend a good outboard dac to get the most out of those high res music files. Or if you have a PC, get a decent soundcard.

Tone Depth · « **Reply #51 on:** 19 Jan 2012, 03:15 am »

I'm using an i-20 presently to access digital from either an iTouch or an iPod, then coax to an outboard DAC, and on to my stereo. To date, most of the files have been mp3, but even they sound much better through a higher-end outboard DAC than through the iPod internal DAC.

acresm22 · « **Reply #52 on:** 19 Jan 2012, 04:45 am »

Yes, I know there are devices to get FLAC files from my pc to my stereo. I'm considering this instead....playing apple lossless (instead of FLAC) via the itouch/Pure i-20 combo.
So...back to original question: I'm still limited to the files on the ipod, correct? I can't access (wirelessly) apple lossless files that are stored on a separate hard drive using the ipod touch, right?

srb · « **Reply #53 on:** 19 Jan 2012, 04:59 am »

Right. There is no way to add an external hard drive to the iPod and have the internal iPod music player play the files.

One possiblity might be a device like the Segate GoFlex Satellite portable hard drive/WiFi streamer. Files copied to the drive could be wirelessly streamed to the iPod Touch and played either with a web browser or a free app.

But the application would not have the flexibility of iTunes, does not support album artwork, and the WiFi connection has been unreliable for some users. I am also unclear as to what file types and resolution are supported.

Steve

kbuzz3 · « **Reply #54 on:** 19 Jan 2012, 03:57 pm »

I have couple of questions if anyone cares:

1- has anyone done any critical listening of thr pure outputting hi rez With its internal dac to analog versus standard res to outboard dac. Obviously this is source and dac dependent but just curious. This may also have to involve some type of hi rez player as itunes downsamples.

2- any try some type of upgraded power supply. I think russ andrews in the uk offers one but habe seen nothing in the states. Even battery might be fun to try?

Thanks for any opinions

Delta Wave · « **Reply #55 on:** 19 Jan 2012, 05:19 pm »

Quote from: acresm22 on 19 Jan 2012, 04:45 am

Yes, I know there are devices to get FLAC files from my pc to my stereo. I'm considering this instead....playing apple lossless (instead of FLAC) via the itouch/Pure i-20 combo.
So...back to original question: I'm still limited to the files on the ipod, correct? I can't access (wirelessly) apple lossless files that are stored on a separate hard drive using the ipod touch, right?

I have my PC connected to my stereo directly from the sound card. I have a HT Omega Claro Plus+ sound card in my PC and it's outstanding. I have all of the DSP & bass processing turned off. I have all of my music in ALAC (for tagging, otherwise I would just use WAV) and just use Itunes for playback. There is an app for the Iphone called "Remote" which gives you control of your Itunes over your home network. It works and sounds extremely good. So that is my "remote controlled" music server.

You can do the same thing with a Sony PS3 as well.

ryno · « **Reply #56 on:** 20 Jan 2012, 03:39 am »

This was talked about in squeezebox threads as a decent power supply. Should work for the pure dock.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=120-536
any opinions?

mnilan · « **Reply #57 on:** 20 Jan 2012, 06:23 pm »

Quote from: kbuzz3 on 19 Jan 2012, 03:57 pm

I have couple of questions if anyone cares:

1- has anyone done any critical listening of thr pure outputting hi rez With its internal dac to analog versus standard res to outboard dac. Obviously this is source and dac dependent but just curious. This may also have to involve some type of hi rez player as itunes downsamples.

2- any try some type of upgraded power supply. I think russ andrews in the uk offers one but habe seen nothing in the states. Even battery might be fun to try?

Thanks for any opinions

kbuzz:
Viz your #1, I believe that the iPhone is limited to 16/44.1 so I dion;t know how I'd get a hi rez file to play. I assume (but don't know) that the iPad has the same limitation. Viz Q#2, because of #1, I haven't even investigated a separate power supply. My guess is that this isn't a hi rez device...

gwing · « **Reply #58 on:** 21 Jan 2012, 12:31 pm »

If you setup home sharing with iTunes you can access your full library wirelessly with a newer iPod touch or iPhone. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4557 I've been using a recycled iPhone with the dock and it sounds great.

Obriendigital · « **Reply #59 on:** 3 Feb 2012, 04:20 am »

The I-20 works pretty well with my Virtue One.2. However, there are some known issues with the iPhone 4. There seems to be a hiss/pop rather frequently on some of the units. If you power down the unit and restart your iPhone it goes away, super weird. Link - http://www.whathifi.com/forum/mp3mp4/pure-i-20-dock-cracking-and-popping

It does work well with my iPad and using the internal DAC and analog outs it sounds pretty good. For under $100 not bad. It would work as good pass through for a high end DAC.