March 2012
i-deck 200 - The Sunday Times' ingear Best Buy
"Monitor Audio's speaker dock for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a typical British hi-fi design: devoid of frills, quirky to look at and with an emphasis on sound quality. The one novel piece of technology it employs is an automatic tuning system that uses a built-in microphone to monitor the acoustics of the room and calibrate the sound balance accordingly. This feature works well - but it's the pair of excellent speakers and punchy amplification that are the stars of the show, producing a powerful, expansive sound that can handle quieter pieces of music with delicacy but has a mightily loud bark when needed.
The system is a good match for larger rooms or even occaissional garden use (although there are no wireless or battery options). Although iPads will sit on the i-deck's digital 30-pin connector, the maker does not recommend it. There is a 3.5mm input for a tablet or other audio sources. The device's build quality is excellent."
Rating 5/5
Verdict: "Superb sonics, solid build - a great buy."
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March 2012
i-deck 200 Review by What Hi-Fi?
"Sonically, it's always been strong; at almost half the price, and among new peers, it's only more impressive. Listening to Lana Del Rey's Off To The Races, there's solid bass and a good sense of dynamics helping the track sound punchy and fast. Treble notes are exciting without sounding bright and Del Rey's languid vocals sound natural.
The i-deck was unlucky not to win five stars at the old price. If audio performance is your key concern, at this price it's hard to argue with what's on offer here."
Rating 5/5
Verdict: "Low on frills but high on quality; at this price it's a sonic star"
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March 2012
i-deck 200 Review by HiFi choice magazine
"We reckon the APC feature is a bit of a winner, as this unit certainly has some of the best bass we've heard from a table-top unit. It's not just extended, but also unusually well controlled and detailed, and it quite literally underpins a very assured performance."
February 2012
MSN's Most Desirable Music Gadgets
MSN Tech & Gadgets have featured the i-deck 200 in their collection of "Most desirable music gadgets", here is what they had to say:
"Monitor Audio is one of those well-established British hi-fi firms with a serious pedigree in designing and manufacturing quality speakers. As such, its i-deck 200 has quickly become popular amongst the discerning audiophile crowd.
As well as looking cool, the i-deck 200 genuinely does sound fantastic. Dual 100mm C-CAM bass drivers individually powered by custom-configured 50W amplifiers and 25mm gold dome tweeters, all driven by precision-tailored 20W power amps is why. But you don't really need to remember all of that! You just need to listen to it."
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February 2012
Trusted Reviews i-deck 200 review
"Further adding to the Monitor Audio i-deck 200's prowess is the inclusion of an in-built DAC (digital to analogue converter), something that only the upper echelons of the iPod dock competition include. This bypasses the circuitry of the iPhone/iPod/iPad (deemed substandard for audiophiles) and takes the digital signal directly, using its own 28/56 bit dual precision processing to do the heavy lifting.
Also, an innovative Automatic Position Correction (APC) system configures the output of the i-deck 200 depending on where it is positioned. In the rear of the i-deck 200 is a mic which produces three frequencies pulses (70, 85 and 100 hertz) and their reverberations help the dock determine if it is near a wall or corner. If the power button flashes once no correction is added, twice shows it is compensating for being placed near a wall and three times if placed near a corner. APC only kicks in if the i-deck 200 has been disconnected from the mains as this leads it to assume it has been moved.
All of which suggests Monitor Audio should have created a superb sounding premium dock, and thankfully it has."
"Never has a dock been better value for money."
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