B&W certainly started something with the Zeppelin family of iPod docks: now everyone's jumping on the bandwagon with ever more distinctive dock designs.
Latest out of the gates is Monitor Audio which has not one, but two, new i-Deck iPod docks: the £299 i-Deck 100 and £399 i-Deck 200.
Both feature C-CAM (ceramic-coated aluminium/magnesium) alloy drivers, take a direct digital signal from iPods/iPhones and feed it through 28/56-bit dual-precision DACs (digital-to-analogue converters).
Four drivers in two tweeter/bass pairs within the docks are individually powered by their own class D amplifiers.
And to overcome different room acoustics, each i-Deck is equipped with room equalisation DSP called Automatic Position Correction (APC), which uses an internal microphone to correct for the room response when the dock is turned on at the mains.
The distinctive cabinet shape is made from mineral-filled polymer for maximum damping, the curved panels "suppressing internal audio reflections", claims Monitor Audio.
Standard features include a remote control, 3.5mm aux input and charging dock connector which will fit any iPod/iPhone without the need for adapters.
The i-Deck 100 uses two 7.5cm C-CAM bass drivers, powered by a pair of 30W Class D amps, and two 19mm C-CAM Gold dome tweeters driven by two 15W amps.
The i-Deck 200 uses 10cm C-CAM bass drivers combined with two 50W amps, and 25mm C-CAM Gold tweeters powered by 25W amps.
We'll have an exclusive First Test of the Monitor Audio i-Deck 100 in our October issue, on sale August 24th.
