Hello everyone,

I just bought the Ipal portable AM/FM speaker from Tivoli. It allows you to connect any ipod or mp3 player via a headphone size jack input. I have the choice on using a dock connector cable that on the other end has the headphone size plug into the iPal or the simple headphone jack to headphone jack cable.

I know you are supposed to get better sound out of the dock connection from the ipod beacuse its not utilizing the iternal amp. Anyone have any experience with this and know if that causes more battery drain on the iPal?

By the way, it sounds great for such a little portable speaker system!


Brandon

Any audio or "power drain" differences would be negligible. Even an "audiophile" with "golden ears" would be hard pressed to hear a difference through a $20,000 stereo system (regarding the two outputs), let alone a little monophonic box/amp speaker. I don't mean any offense. I think for its size the iPal is probably the best on the market, but if you are concerned with sound quality you might consider the necessary bulk of a stereo (left and right speaker are separated) sound reproduction system, instead.

I can see a convenience factor in using the volume controlled output because your singular hand-held device (the iPod) acts as both a control for track selection and volume. You don't have to fiddle with two devices in different locations, just one.

Thanks for the input. I was just curious and figured i would run it past all of you.

I did some testing between the 2 connections and it seems there are very very little differences.

I think its a matter of convenience as you mentioned at the end of your post.

Thanks,

Brandon