iPod interconnect

 

first, thanks for such a SUPERB product (Voyager headphone amp). It's been with me on my travels for around 9 months now, and, combined with a 160GB iPod classic running Apple lossless (thanks Ken Kessler, yet again!) and a pair of Grado SR60's has finally given me the musical "home from home" that I've been craving for over 30 years!

 

Suggestion: offer a short iPod dock to 3.5mm interconnect cable as an extra-cost option with the voyager - I'm on my third one now!

 

First one, a cheap "telescopic" item from eBay lasted just 3 weeks before the conductors got metal fatigue, and in retrospect didn't sound anywhere near as good as your standard 3.5/3.5 cable.

 

Second one, a silver-wired beauty died tragically due to "mechanical stress" on the iPod dock plug terminals when I fell asleep on it one night after a particularly fine Rioja.

 

Third (current one) is a cable from Kimber. They do silver ones as well, but this is their "basic" high quality copper one, has superb physical build quality, and is British so no problems with exchange rates or 19% VAT rates charged by US/European suppliers.

 

These cables are REALLY difficult to find on the net (apart from the horrible telescopic one that must be paying Google a fortune - damn thing is everywhere).

 

Taking the line level output from the iPod dock connector gives HUGE improvements and really transforms the Voyager, letting it perform to it's true potential (which is actually well above it's price point) - sound stage, dynamics, and background silence all approach my "bolted down" hi fi.

 

Offering such a cable should help you to leverage the profit margin on the superb Voyager amp, and given how hard it is to source these darned things, you would probably sell a fair few to iPod owners with other makes of headphone amps, not to mention all the red wine drinking i-diophiles coming back for replacements! Think that's what you'd call a win-win-win, and you already appear have experience in making high quality interconnects...

 

How's that? - a customer that WANTS you to MAKE MORE PROFIT! I'm just being selfish really - bringing even better products to market for me to buy is an expensive process and if I can help fund it by buying a quality interconnect that's difficult to get elsewhere anyway, that gives me a win-win at the very least!

 

Don't get me wrong, the standard 3.5/3.5 cable you supply as standard is actually pretty good soundwise (though it doesn't look anything special, and is much too long for ease of use with an iPod), it's just severely limited by the quality of the amplification feeding the iPod's headphone socket.

 

Thanks, and a genuinely happy and prosperous New Year to you and to everyone on your team that helps you to make so much music for so many with so little.

 

Oh, if you need anyone to test drive your new beta iPod interconnect cable...