Out of interest, if you were to pass a shop like this on the high street of your local town, would you even consider popping in?

http://www.32ohmaudio.com/store.php

Just following a bit of a discussion on an 'audiophile' forum and curious to get a non-audiophile view on the above place.

We do have something that's visually similar.
And no, I've never been in.

Why would I not go in if that's where my interests lie?

Mark

Sure i'd go in. It looks like a very nice shop.

Jon

I hate the 'Can we help you, sir?' business, and my first thought was they'd be very glad to see anyone in there - doubt I'd go in. Well, unless I thought it was cheap, you know me

If I was walking past and I had the time to kill, hell yes I'd pop in!

When I was unemployed, I spent a surprisingly long time in shops not entirely quite unlike that. I never did and probably wouldn't buy anything though

They state that an iPod is a "reliable music source". Not something I'd expect from a store claiming to be aimed at audiophiles and with symbols of valves all over the website.

So, I'd probably think they were idiots and not go in. Of course, as usual, everyone here will disagree with me.

Why is it not? It plays a huge amount of audio files. I understand that it may not play all types of file, but as a "reliable audio source" … I find that difficult to disagree with.

Mark

It looks like an Apple store in lay out and if I was looking for audio equipment for my macs and iPods then yes. I cannot see why not.

They do also sell gear which is not iRelated, some of which does contain valves, so it's not an entirely redundant image on the website.

Also, is this the only shop, or is it part of a chain? If it's the latter I would suspect that they didn't have any say over the website design.

Would I go in to the shop? Yeah, why not!

Edit after Amnesia's post: Yeah, I thought it looked like an iShop as well.

It's actually not that great in audiophile terms if you're using the built-in D-A converters, they're only 'consumer OK' level. So anything that takes a headphone out or line-out signal from the dock connector isn't really up to the job. If you're effectively using the iPod as a storage medium, you've got it plugged into a decent separate D-A converter and you've got your music saved on it in Apple Lossless, then it's a pretty good part of the audio 'chain' but on it's own it's consumer kit, not audiophile kit.

Jon

That does depend on which version you are using actually. Versions 4, 5 and 5.5 use a really quite good Wolfson DAC which is found in a fair few higher end CD players. In addition, if you've got an appropriate dock that actually extracts a digital signal (most use the analogue out) then it's as good as pretty much any CD transport out there.

Okay, I get that, but in a shop that claims to specialise " in gear compatible with iPods, iPhones, and computers as a reliable and quality music source" I would expect that the iPod to be connected as a link in a chain, as you described above.

Mark

Fair enough like, my knowledge of real audiophile kit is a bit rusty.

Yes but not everyone has the ears of a specialist, I don't, and probably neither does anyone over 30. I do not need super duper kit that picks up every single nuanced note. I use Harmon Kardon Soundsticks II and they are great around the house.