I've never considered the iPod an ideal way to listen to music. Oh, it's a fantastic, convenient way to store and access music. Don't get me wrong. But I'm the kind of guy who likes to listen to music in all its pure, high-fidelity glory. I like to sit in my living room and crank up my surround system and let the music take hold of me with crisp bass and smooth range and accurately separated instrumentation and natural vocals. You know, that enveloping sense of aural immersion. I know I'm old-school, but that's the way I think music should be.

I've tried to make the most of my iPod so that I can squeeze high-quality listening experiences out of it. I've ditched the default 128Kbps recording setting in favor of a custom 192Kbps setting. That helps. But I've come to realize that the truly limiting factor to my iPod enjoyment is the headphones. I had upgraded the crappy earbuds to a nice over-the-ear pair of Sennheiser headphones, but until now, I hadn't tried listening to the iPod over a devoted speaker system. I needed a solution somewhere between the notion of just plugging my iPod into my main system—a nice solution, although not at all portable—and lugging around my headphones. How could I open up the sound in a variety of settings?

I recently had the opportunity to hook up my iPod to dreamGEAR's i.Sound Harmony speaker system. I've had some experience with personal speaker systems such as these, listening to the weak, tinny, low-fi sound at my local Best Buy or Circuit City. In almost all cases, the bass is particularly hollow, and the treble is thin and shrieking. As I set up the i.Sound Harmony system in my primary listening area, I had a good feeling about the configuration and obvious build quality.

The system's inclusion of a separate subwoofer was what really got me excited. I hooked everything up quickly and easily, jacking left and right flat-panel speakers (quite sleek, by the way), to the subwoofer, which acts as the system's central hub. I powered on the system, and before I hooked up my iPod, I admired the ebony stylings. (It's also available in white.) A liquid-blue LED let me know that the i.Sound Harmony was ready to play some music.

Now, I won't lie to you. This $99 system can't compete with my $5000 hi-fi setup. I didn't expect it to. But in my limited experience, this system stands above most of what I've seen in this enticing market segment. I listened to at least a dozen albums (what an antiquated concept!) and came away impressed by the fullness of the bass and a generally spacious range, despite the fact that you get only volume and bass adjustments. I noticed very little distortion, probably thanks to my aforementioned habit of recording at high data rates.

This is a great little system, and it's a step toward a more high-fidelity listening experience from the iPod. As a bonus, the i.Sound Harmony also comes with a cute little adaptable stand to hold your particular iPod version, as well as a separate, super-collapsible iPod travel speaker system that actually sounds quite good. I'm listening to it right now, as a matter of fact. Oh, another bonus: The universal audio jack accepts audio from any portable-audio source.

You should check it out. Or tell me about your experiences with similar iPod sound systems. How do you prefer to listen to your portable audio device? I imagine the vast majority of iPod users are headphone users. Do you share my desire to open up the sound? Comment on this article at the Connected Home Media Web site, or give a shout-out at the Connected Home forum.

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A simple M-M headphone jack to RCA cable and I have my Dell Pocket DJ hooked up to either my Carver Pre/Carver Amp/Cerwin Vega soundstage at home, or my friends systems of varying hipness, circa 80-90's, for parties. Jack up a rowdy mix and let the tuneage pour forth! Or lay down a smooth jazz session and kick back and relax. I also travel with a laptop and 250GB external drive and use the same cord, and I also have a radio shack cord that has a Ground Loop inhibitor built in to keep from getting any power hum. Thru a variety of adapters, I can jack from the headphone output to pretty much any input on any stereo or separate powered speaker setup. There are a lot of PC speaker setups that will take the headphone jack in and create wonderfully full sound, easily as good sounding as any radio station or CD (I also rip at 192, thus the 250 GB drive). I currently have a couple Dell Subwoofer/satellite speaker setups in garagaes around my group of friends. There are plenty of "iPod" speaker setups/boomboxes appearing now that sound just as good, and some that sound like total garbage. I haven't had a CD player or turntable hooked up to my home stereo for a couple years now (except the turntable, I recently grabbed a MOTHERLODE at a garage sale and digitized them - wonder if I have o tell the RIAA???) As far as useage – I am similar to you, it comes in waves. I have a MP3-capable on CD head unit in my truck, which also has an aux input on the front. I will jack in my Rio 256 with 1GB SD card, or my Dell Pocket DJ, or my laptop if I am on a long trip and have it out to hook to the GPS. On a plane, it’s definitely the Pocket DJ and a set of Etymotic “seal out the squealing baby” earphones. Riding my bike on the trails around here I have an old pair of NXT flat panel speakers I got as a freebee taped to my handlebars which allows me to listen to music without shutting out the rest of the world (and you’d be amazed how many gals like to ride next to a guy with a good mix of tunes flowing from his bike, total geekfest or not!). Then there are days I stick it on the local AM sports station and forget about the world of digital music. The personal digital player is a boon, but not a way of life, no matter how hard Apple’s Ad Agency tries to make you believe it. Mark in BG -August 16, 2006 I don't own an iPod or any other MP3 player. I just wanted to comment here about this week's survey. You should also add "I don't own a portable music player" to the list of choices. I've noticed this a lot about your weekly surveys, they always leave out one obvious other choice. Why not let everyone respond, not just gear the surveys toward one direction. You might be surprised at the results. JS -August 16, 2006 You wrote "....as I set up the i.Sound Harmony system in my primary listening area, ..." I would imagine that this where you have the $5000 HiFi system that you mention, unless you can afford to have it in your "secondary" listening area.. So...why not just connect the iPod directly to this system using a simple cable? FB -August 17, 2006 FB: I wasn't clear about my distinctions, so I've edited for clarity. I wanted a solution that gave me "open, hi-fi sound" but retained the portability factor. I actually haven't tried the cable option, though. Thanks! Jason Bovberg -August 17, 2006 JS: I thought the fourth option kinda covered your choice. :) Thanks for the input. I try to get all options into the polls, but sometimes I miss one. If you or any readers want to poll the audience on a particular topic, just let me know! Reader-submitted polls sound great. Jason Bovberg -August 17, 2006 Jason: No the 4th option doesn't cover my choice, because I don't feel MP3 players are "evil", or the "downfall", or whatever it was you jokingly had entered. I just don't own one. You could still leave the other choices, but consider it the 5th choice. I'll be watching future polls! Thanks. JS -August 18, 2006 play my music videos again now Name (required): -November 1, 2006 READER COMMENTS: We want to hear what you have to say about this article!     Acceptable Use Policy Your Comments (required): Your email is only used if our editors need to contact you. It is not used or stored for any other purpose, nor posted with your comments. Enter the text from the image below Please refresh the page if you have trouble reading this text.