I've had my 3rd generation since december of '03. I haven't had any mechanical issues yet, even though I have dropped it onto hard surfaces many times. It is starting to show it's age from all of the daily abuse it has received. As soon as the 6th generation units come out, It's upgrade time.

I have, however, had battery problems. After about 1.5 years, it wouldn't hold a charge for more than 2 hours, so I spent $39 for a replacement battery that is still getting me about 6-8 hours per charge, but it looks like it is starting to deplete more quickly. I am willing to eat $40 at the midpoint of the product lifecycle for such a great convenience.

Man George, let me know if you can learn the codes alright and send them out through RF. Literally an hour agoI threw my pen down in disgust when it hit me that there is no video output on a Cenipod so you can't use it in Crestron zones without a touchpanel. This could be a lifesaver.

Thanks.

George P.

That is pretty cool! A beer budget set-up, that sounds like it does the job!
thanks

As mentioned in a previous post, I've setup the DLO HomeDock Deluxe in a multi-zone environment and I've learnt the DLO IR codes into a Harmony 880 because it was the easiest to get going very quickly. The NevoSL will be next, followed by Xantech gear.

Most of the IR codes were already in the Harmony database, but learnt the missing ones and I am having a few issues when going via the IR bus but using the 880 directly in front of the DLO works OK. Could be related to a very bright LED power indicator about 12mm (1/2 inch) to the right of the IR receiver.

I only received the DLO 18 hours ago so I've got a bit of fine tuning to do and can keep you posted, but so far looks very promising for a more than basic multi-zone iPod interface.

By the way, I'm a custom installer based in Brisbane, Australia and have been lurking around here for some time.

I'm curious as how you were able to order the DLO dock. We've been waiting a long time for it here in Canada from a distributor and it's been said it will be available in June. Customers are waiting anxiously. I thought about ordering directly from the site but it looks like there might be a delay there too...

Are you able to turn the iPod on from it discretely?

They are available at many Circuit City stores.

We have an account at https://www.dandh.com They are a PC/AV distributor and have them in stock.

The DLO remote does not have a discrete on. However, with and RTI RP-6 and video sensor we may be able to get a discrete on capability.

I'll know more tomorrow on that.

George P.

I have 3 of them, and the only one that has failed was the one I left out in the rain. The others have been heavily abused and still keep going.

I ordered it directly from the DLO site, and even though it said to expect a 2 week delay it arrived a little ealier than that. I had it sent to a friend in California and then on to me in Australia. Total US$25 shipping versus US$85 if I sent it direct to Aus from DLO because they use UPS.

No discrete power but video sensing should help.

It pleases me greatly to see some of you coming out of the woodwork to admit that you actually like the iPod. It has been very difficult to overcome the curmudgeonly behavior of many "audiophiles" with regard to this topic over the last couple of years.

As many of you old-timers from the retail world know, "audiophiles" are typically your worst clients. They tend to waste your time talking at length about the superiority of one specific capacitor compared to another, want to demo equipment free of charge, and then rarely actually purchase anything. To make matters worse, they are usually a wealth of knowledge about useless facts and figures they regurgitate from ad-slicks and Stereopile reviews. These same folks will correct you and actively seek debate with you regarding the merits of a product they have never heard nor actually used.

I know an unfortunately large number of "audiophiles" who work in our industry. It is fun to watch them pitch a job.

I just think you are all out of your mind and out of touch with reality. Stop your bitching about how an iPod sounds and get yourself some real gear. For the rest of the world that are more concerned about their jams than whether or not they have enough headroom, hook up thier iPods for them - easy revenue! For the majority of those not belonging to the race of zombies you all appear to belong too, they don't care if it's and iPod, CD, HDRadio, Satellite radio, or FM - they just want good music when they want it. It's about the MUSIC and the ENTERTAINMENT. GET A CLUE.
If the mojority of your customers are spending tens of thousands of doallars for a two channel set up, not only am I jealous of you but, you obviously shouldn't even be on this board.
I am 110% for high quality resolute audio reproduction. I LOVE a hi-end stereo system - it just makes me quiver. And when you sit in a demo room or your own library or den to enjoy the experience, there is nothing like it and may even rival the pleasure of sex. If you sit your customer down in that room and compare your CD vs. their iPod and they do not feel it's worth the investment, then there you go. You have done your job. That's all you can do. Show them what the difference is and what their money will buy them. Most people don't have the time or vaguest interest in taking an hour to sit down with their eyes closed and listen to music. That may be sad to you, but it's reality.
Most people are FAMILY oriented. They want to sit down with the family and watch a movie or they want to have a party with music playing in every room and by the pool. They are not seeking to spend thousands of dollars to disassociate themselves from their families. Most people in the FAMILY now have iPods because they're convenient above all else.

P.S. How many SACD or DVD Audio systems have you hooked up? How many customers are actually using them on a daily basis? THESE are the customers that already know NOT to use an iPod for stereo listening and the only ones you need not worry about. Their poor little ear holes could never bare to listen to the excruciating audio output (some call it NOISE) of that cute little white mp3 player.

Tell those people not to use them in the shower.

Ok-
So everyone is debating the sound quality of an iPod. What is the point of the debate? Does this have any point? So the iPod doesn’t sound as good as the original CD. There is no debate that when played on a decent system that you can hear the difference. Is it HUGE? Is it SO BAD that you can’t listen to it? NO, but there is a difference-the same as it is with an Escient, Request, XM or any other brand of music server-WHEN USING COMPRESSED FILES. Ever try listening to XM on a decent audio system…eeek, but I know a lot of you (and your clients) listen to XM/SIRIUS because it is convenient!

If everyone on this board will recall-we had this same argument when the CD-R first came out. A recorded CD doesn’t sound as good. It is horrible...blah, blah, blah. I sat and demo'd various CD's that I ripped, bit for bit, on both low end (Sony) and Higher End gear using both low end and high end speakers....and you know what I couldn’t hear the difference (well, I could between the levels of speakers and gear-which is the point.)

Compressing the signal takes out information-no debate there-without that information, there is a loss. Now, the iPod is great for convenience, it is designed as a portable music player. I don’t think I have to tell anyone how if they embrace the iPod, they can leverage its popularity into MORE SALES. I don’t know how many clients we have talked about house music and they answered "I don’t care about that, or I don’t care about music-in fact it happened yesterday and I closed a 25K job" but when I asked if they had an iPod and they couldn’t stop gushing about it and how much they loved it. Once I explained we can let them play it throughout their home, they saw the benefit and put music throughout their home. This little "doesn’t sound good" iPod has helped us sell lots of rooms of speakers, controls (Crestron and standard systems), wiring, installation, amps and YES, even music servers. When I explain that when they take their iPod, they take all their music with them-BAM the light goes on and they buy and install a HOME MUSIC SERVER.

I instruct all of my people to demo "the convenience" of the iPod integration, XM satellite and music servers, but when we let clients listen to music, we demo with real CD's. Why not put our best foot forward?

So in the end, I am not sure what this debate is about. Are people pissing and moaning because they can’t sell music servers? Well, then I think you are missing the point? Are you moaning because people are playing their iPod on 20K dollar audio systems-Be happy that you sold them such a nice system! Their system will make their music sound great-far better to sell them 20K dollar audio system and an iPod then to sell them a 10K dollar audio system and an . Or are you moaning because APPLE is making TONS of money? Well, if you are doing your job they are helping you sell other items and make money as well.

APPLE has helped us FAR BETTER than Creative, Samsung, Microsoft, Toshiba or any of the other manufacturers in helping people come back to listening to music and making music such a HUGE part of their lives. And in the End, isn’t this why a large part of us are in this industry??????

Nice to see that things aren't so different over here in Australia.

I'm relatively new to the industry, but know it's next to impossible to fight the power that the iPod has. So anything that assists me in integrating this into the system I want to sell the client (multi-zone audio, etc) then I'll seriously consider it, even if I don't get any margin on iPods and the more basic integration products. I will charge for the integration work and it adds value to the whole solution.

If there's a chance of me selling an audio server instead, then I will. If and when the iPod is installed in the multi-zone system and it's not as easy to use and sound as good as they thought it would, then hopefully that would then make them realise the benefits of a dedicated home audio server. If not, I'll try not to stress out about it.

Ok. The results are in.

The DLO HomeDock Deluxe iPod dock is a winner!

It's working great when controlled by an RTI T1 and T2+ with RP-6.

The video is much cleaner through the S-Video connection to the local display. That leaves you the composite video to route the on-screen interface to your video distribution system.

We also successfully put an RTI video sync module on the composite video output and have reliable power on/off commands.

We contacted DLO and they said that cover art will not be displayed because it is an Apple limitation. Even the Crestron CEN-IPOD does not have cover art.

All in all, a very nice solution that is a real enabler to bigger things.

Later,

George P.

So many here seem to not get the point. When you rip music, you control a lot about what you'll hear. You can even use uncompressed format's if you wish with many of the players.

I can hear the difference between a SACD and a CD. Does this mean that CD's are SH*! and have no place? Of course not. I can't imagine going jogging with a SACD player strapped to my back.

Sitting on the plane listening to music, or in my car, could I even hear the difference between a CD and SACD? I've done some tests, in my car, and on a plane, it's difficult to tell 96Kbps WMA from 128 Kbps WMA. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure I do hear the difference, as it wasn't a fully blind test, and they sounded really close. I can definitely hear the difference at home, on the player using the same earphones. So why couldn't I tell the difference in the car or on the plane? Because there is a great deal of ambient noise in the environments in which people listen to these devices. Playing SACD quality music in a portable music player is similar to placing the highest end esoteric speakers in a subway station for critical listening!

Like many things in life, when audio quality isn't perfect, most of the time it's good enough to be considered very good... and for most, that's good enough!