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4/
The audiophile choice mirrors the well-known Wadia/Apple scheme whose review confirmed impressive results. Leashed to the €1.000 Benchmark DAC1 USB, the docking station had spelled danger for my highly held €3.000 Fonel Simplicité while colleagues demurred and assigned a tad greater musicality to the Fonel. This was likely due to my Thiel CS2.4s at the time which aren’t known for silkiness but more ruthless vivisection. Regardless, it was clear and ultimately decisive that the Wadia/Apple solution was not a sonic bottle neck. Our familiarity with the sound of the Benchmark converter recognized it unscathed when fed from the portable. Most would predict that the Archos combo followed suit. After all, "digital is digital!" Ain't it?



Since personal experience doesn’t concur, I A/B’d both docking stations with various musical fare over my new Thiel CS3.7s. And no, I didn’t detect any differences beyond the realm of imagination. Hence I won’t render the usual sonic descriptions. Those duplicated the iPod/Wadia review to be strategically married to the choice of D/A converter. Needless to say, the Archos 7 doesn’t merely play music but can surf the Internet to read fairaudio translations on 6moons. As an aside, significant differences—albeit not of the 2nd coming sort—arise with the digital link. The StraightWire Mega Link II which I didn’t fancy for being too analytic was clearly different from the finely balanced Audio Data cable. Personally, I’d not underestimate the digital cable suspect/subject.


Conclusion: There’ll of course be more upscale, flexible and slicker solutions than the Archos 7/DVR combo to integrate hard disk playback with the resident hifi. But make no mistake, when it comes to ye olde price/performance ratio, this French duo is ultra brainy. The sonic determinant remains your own converter. Even computer phobics won’t be pushed into frustration using these components. It's a welcome realization for certain old-fashioned audiophiles.



Compared to the Apple iPod/Wadia 170iTransport duet, one appreciates here the bigger display, the far larger storage, the greater remote functionality, the uncomplicated network player application, the better headphone performance, the compatibility with the open FLAC format – and finally, the lower price. Conversely, the A/W combo has the possible advantage of synchronizing between PC and iPod without any glitches and higher speed while the sensitive touch screen of the iPod touch is unequaled. The iPod also is a true portable whereas the bigger heavier Archos 7 becomes a borderline case. An accidental drop of the Frenchman further runs the risk of tragic damage since it contains a classic hard disk which the seemingly solid metal case won’t protect. From experience, I know that the various Apples with flash memory are very stable. Last but not least, Internet access with my iPod Touch was somewhat speedier while page fill once online went faster with the Archos (based on the Opera browser which requires registration prior to use). For image sharpness of web pages particularly with text, the iPod won.


Facts
  • Supported formats: WAV, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, MP3(30–320 KBit/s) as well as non-copyrighted AAC/M4A data (€15 plug-in)
  • Dimensions: ca. 190 x 110 x 16mm WxHxD
  • Mass: ca. 640 g
  • Networking: UPnP, 802.11 b/g, no Ethernet
  • Other: Client/network player via WLAN, 7” touch screen with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, replaceable Lithium/Polymer battery, Opera browser (requires initial registration)
  • Audio sockets: Headphone plug, S/PDIF digital input, USB 2.0, RCA analog outs
  • Beyond audio use: Internet via Basis Opera-Browser, e-mail and photo management, Internet radio, web TV, various video functions
  • Website

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