Pros: A multi-component speaker system cosmetically designed to match the iPod, featuring a vacuum tube at the top of its subwoofer unit and an Infrared remote control. Paired with an optional iPod dock and a second remote control, enables user to listen to room-filling, pleasantly warm music from a distance.
Cons: Outperformed on highs, lows, and detail/distortion by top speaker systems sold for $100 less. Docking system has volume default and peak volume distortion issues relative to Apple’s docks; double remote controls and double power supplies are needed to use the system with dock. Aesthetic design is not especially impressive.
We’ve seen GINI’s iTube ($349) before at stores in Asia; now the system – sharing much of its cabinet design in common with the weirdly-named iPod-lookalike i-Steroid – has come to the United States. With a Click Wheel-like control system at its center beneath a single vacuum tube, and two satellite speakers, iTube is basically just another 2.1-channel audio system unless you add the separately sold iConec, an iPod dock. iConec ($69) includes its own separate Infrared remote control – the second if you buy iTube – as well as a Universal Dock well with several iPod adapters. A complete pack with iConec and iTube sells for $379.
Vacuum tubes have been fetishized by certain audiophiles for years, but they’ve only recently started to appear in iPod accessories. Back in January, a company called i.Dream America showed off a $140 i-Classic speaker system with four faux vacuum tubes on an iPod dock; now a company called GINI Systems has released iTube ($349), a multi-component 2.1-channel audio system with a single but real vacuum tube mounted in its subwoofer chassis. It’s worth a brief note that iTube is based on but not identical to a system called i-Steroid, sold in Asia by Sonic Gear and shown in iLounge’s report on Singapore last year.
Two Boxes, One System – Sort Of
We typically don’t review multi-component speakers these days unless they include an iPod dock: there are thousands of dockless multimedia-style speakers out there, very few of which are truly of interest to iPod owners. To that end, GINI actually sells two versions of iTube: the $349 package is dockless, but a $379 version comes with an iPod dock called iConec, sold separately by the company for $69.
The standard version of iTube ships with four primary pieces: two substantial but bland-looking wooden satellite speakers, each with four rubber feet that came off too easily in our testing, a subwoofer with a single port at its bottom and a vacuum tube chamber near its top, and a five-button Infrared remote control that doesn’t work quite the way you’d imagine. Like the front of the iTube subwoofer – a cheap-looking design borrowed from Asia’s earlier i-Steroid speaker systems, which themselves borrowed from the front of Apple’s pre-5G full-sized iPods – the remote features “bass +,” “bass -,” “vol -,” “vol +”, and “mute” buttons in a Click Wheel-like arrangement, offering no iPod controls or other features. The remote is guaranteed only to a 10-foot effective range, not great by any standard, let alone that of a $350 speaker.
If you want iPod control, you add the circular iConec dock, which comes in its own box, and roughly duplicates the ports (S-Video and RCA audio out/Dock Connector synchronization) of Apple’s full-sized iPod docks, adding volume buttons and a red indicator light to the unit’s front. iConec includes its own 13-button Infrared remote control, power supply, and several adapters for its Apple-standard Universal Dock well. When you actually go to use iConec and iTube together, it’s clear from moment one that the pairing isn’t exactly harmonious. First, there’s the fact that they come with separate remote controls and power supplies, requiring you to use two wall outlets and both remotes to properly adjust volume and use the iPod. iConec’s remote controls only the dock’s volume, not iTube’s speaker or bass volume, though both have mute buttons that do the same thing.
As a second and more important issue, iConec hasn’t been calibrated to maximize its sound output to the iTube system. Apple’s Universal Dock essentially defined the correct way to make an iPod dock with variable-level volume out: the dock should default at peak level and be attenuated downwards if you prefer. Instead, iConec defaults at a much lower level, so every time an iPod is plugged in to the dock, you need to turn the volume level up. Unlike Apple’s Docks, iConec also introduces noticeable distortion into the audio signal at its top volume, a factor which significantly limits the appeal of this solution for its target serious listener audience. In our view, pairing this dock with iTube, or any $350 speaker system, is just not a good idea. Price aside, most prospective iTube users would do better to skip iConec in favor of an Apple iPod Dock instead.
iTube: Pricey, Decent Multi-Component Audio
Debates over the actual value of vacuum tubes for audio applications have been going on for roughly half a century, with certain musicians and audiophiles insisting that the lightbulb-like audio components produce warmer, more natural sound than smaller and less expensive transistor-based amplification hardware. Years ago, audio engineers famously measured the two solutions and found no discernible differences, but subsequent test results suggested that vacuum tube-based amplifiers delivered better apparent sound quality at higher power levels than transistor-based amplifiers; both created apparent distortion, but the vacuum tube solutions’ distortion sounded better.
We’re not going to enter that debate with this review, but we will say the following: at $250, iTube would be a nice-sounding audio system for the price, as it does deliver warm, ear-pleasing sound that won’t disappoint anyone expecting as much from a vacuum tube-based subwoofer. The system accentuates mid-bass and bass, giving any sort of music a richer flavor, while its satellite speakers provide enough mid-treble and treble detail to satisfy most listeners. As with most multi-component speakers, iTube benefits from its separate left- and right-channel satellites, which can be positioned up to six feet away from the subwoofer, and provide decent but not great staging – music is a bit flatter and more compressed-sounding than we prefer, lacking some of the dynamic punch of better speakers we’ve tested.
Put another way, iTube falls a couple of steps short of the standards set by speakers such as Altec Lansing’s excellent $250 FX6021 (iLounge rating: A), which means that for GINI’s $350 asking price, iTube is an only OK offering overall.
