Chord Indigo Digital Audio Center

Can a $12,000 box pass the muster of MP3-hating audiophiles ? using a specially modified iPod?

Don’t be fooled: What you see is not an iPod dock. Although it looks like yet another glammed-up piece of audiophile-look-alike gear, just like the ones that bait iPod addicts with shiny tube amps, the Chord Indigo is something entirely different. And something true audiophiles might not be ashamed to actually own.

Chord calls it a digital audio control center, which basically means it handles just about every type of digital input imaginable, and uses it own high-fidelity DAC (digital-to-audio converter) to pump out the analog signals an amp needs. Optical, USB, Bluetooth or iPod, this device will handle it, and spin the bits and bytes it receives into high-quality audio via an integrated Pulse Array DAC.

As long as you use uncompressed audio files – like Apple Lossless or WAV – the Indigo should deliver it with the same fidelity as if it were burned to a disc and playing off a high-quality CD player, melding audiophile quality with MP3 convenience. In order to extract pure, unmolested audio from the iPod, the Indigo actually includes a modified iPod Classic that has been retrofitted precisely for the purpose. If you’re more inclined to use your own, it also includes an iPod Bluetooth adapter that uses the A2DP standard, which allows wireless transmission without compression.

Of course, performance comes with a price, and in the case of the Indigo, that price is a steep £8,000, or about $12,100 USD. Will your ears notice a difference worth thousands of dollars? That’s for you to decide. More information is available through Chord Electronics.

Chord Indigo Digital Audio Center