BRISTOL SHOW: Chord Electronics Indigo – the ultimate iPod dock?
Chord Electronics is known for making some idiosyncratic products, and its latest creation is no exception.
To call the Chord Indigo an iPod dock would be doing it a massive disservice.This highly sophisticated piece of engineering is designed to be the "universal control centre" for all you digital and analogue sources.
Digital inputs include SPDIF, AES, optical, USB, iPod and Bluetooth. And beneath the hood you'll find a fifth-generation Pulse Array DAC.
But what makes the Indigo really clever is that it offers wireless connectivity of your iPod and the ability to stream audio from any A2DP Bluetooth-equipped device such as a mobile phone.
And this being Chord, it's no ordinary wireless iPod connectivity we're talking about here. Oh no. Chord will supply you with a modified iPod Classic equipped with its own special dongle so "a true digital output can be obtained to feed directly into the DAC circuitry".
Wireless streaming from your iPod
Provided uncompressed music files are used, Chord claims this can "at last turn the iPod into a true high-end music source". Cue much gnashing of teeth and heated debate on our Forums.
Using the supplied adapter, digital music can be streamed wirelessly via a digital radio link from a modified iPod anywhere in the room.
If you don't want to pay for the modified iPod Classic, Chord will supply a standard A2DP dongle for your iPod that links directly to the Indigo's A2DP receiver.
In addition, the conventional built-in dock will charge your iPod, and you can transfer and sync music from your PC or laptop to the iPod using the USB connection.
An analogue input is provided for non-digital sources via balanced XLR or RCA phone sockets, and there's also a headphone jack on the front panel.
So what's the catch? Well, not surprisingly, the Chord Indigo isn't exactly cheap – £8000 to be precise. We can't wait to test it.
Comments
nice plug : )
The Indigo is the third in our line of A2DP enabled D to A converters from Chord Electronics, the first of these is the Chordette GEM priced at £390. The second is the QBD76 at £2,926.38 and the latest, the Indigo at £8,670.00.
This range of Digital to analogue converters has been specifically designed with one purpose in mind, to bring the down-loading generation back to the Hi-Fi industry, to enable us to show them just how good their music can be when played on a proper high fidelity system. It’s a very simple aim and should be viewed as inclusive rather than idiosyncratic, to connect people back to Hi-Fi and give them the best possible listening experience with their music.
John Franks
Chord Electronics MD
Hi. The Indigo is £8670 with modified iPod and wireless digital adapter.
I think this would make an excellent competition prize.
HI, Is the £8000 price tag with or without the mod'd iPod? Might be a deal clincher ya know! Cheers.