I think it is interesting that if one waits long enough what was old and obsolete technology and often times by many considered "inferior" or "obsolete" will come back around and not only be the latest in high technology but all the rage as well. We are in my opinion on the brink of such a phenomenon and it involves vacuum tubes. That's right the lowly 20th century vacuum tube. For a long time TV's, Radios and more used Vacuum tubes, then came solid state circuitry and vacuum tubes were quickly replaced. Now they are coming back and I have to say that I am very happy about that.
Roth Audio is one company that is helping to breathe new life in to the lowly vacuum tube and they are doing it with the help of one of the hottest and most popular 21st century digital device the Apple iPod. Roth Audio has designed and released the coolest looking, best sounding music dock for the Apple iPod (iPod must have docking port, or 3.5mm output jack) the Music Cocoon MC4 Front Photo Rear Photo. If you don't have any Apple iPod you can connect any other MP3 music player that can output its music through a 3.5mm jack. You can also connect your CD player to it through the included RCA (red, white, yellow jacks).
The Roth Audio Music Cocoon MC4 is a small, very cool looking amplifier (you have to provide your own speakers) that has an Apple iPod dock on the top, 3.5mm jack and RCA jacks on the back. As I said you have to provide your own speakers and they need to be 8ohm or less. The Speakers connect to the unit with the included banana jack cables (I had to cut the banana jacks off one end to use the speakers I had which were bare wires). Besides the cables, power supply, and the MC4 unit you also get a very well made metal remote control as well as some adapter plates to fit the various iPod's that have docking ports on the bottom.
The unit was very easy to setup, it is small and compact but don't let its size fool you. The Music Cocoon MC4 has sound quality even from compressed MP3 files that rivals that of a high end stereo system that costs a $1000 or more. I actually compared the sound quality of the Music Cocoon to a friends $2500 Yamaha Stereo system and to my ears the Music Cocoon blew it away and I firmly believe it is because of not only the high quality construction and components in the Music Cocoon MC4 but also because of the vacuum tubes it uses. I can clearly hear a difference between the Music Cocoon and the Yamaha stereo as well as my lower end bookshelf system, the music sound more alive, rich, and fluid and I am also hearing instruments and vocals in my music that I didn't hear before and I firmly believe that this is all thanks to the vacuum tubes. The awesome sound isn't the only cool thing about the Music Cocoon MC4 it has a clear top housing so you get to see the glowing vacuum tubes which is really cool especially at night in low light.
The controls on the Music Cocoon are simple. You have a volume control knob (the volume automatically drops to a low volume when you turn the unit off, so that you don't risk blowing out your speakers or causing other problems when you turn it back on) and then there is the mode selector knob which lets you choose between iPod (for when you have an iPod docked with it), CD for when you have a CD player connected to it via the RCA jacks in the back and then MP3 for when you have some other music device connected via the 3.5mm jack on the back. That's it. It can't get any easier.
The bulk of the units controls are on the solid and substantial metal remote control. Power on/off (you need to press the button and hold, the unit then comes on and about 15 seconds after that you can start using the unit. The 15 second delay is because the vacuum tubes need to warm up). The Source button allows you to choose between the iPod, CD and MP3 modes. The Mute button mutes the volume, the Menu allows you to navigate your iPods menus. The same for the up and down arrow buttons. There is a play and pause button as well as a button to have the current track repeat or all of the tracks repeat. There are volume up and down buttons, an enter button and a track skip forwards and back buttons. There are only two things missing from the remote a fast forwards and a rewind button and a shuffle button to have the iPod play the tracks in a random order.
Speaking of the remote, the remote is my only complaint about the Music Cocoon MC4. My complaint is in the layout of the buttons and how they are organized, it just isn't natural and because of this I find the remote a little awkward. To see what I mean take a look at the picture of the remote Remote Photo. However, even with the remote being a little awkward I love the Music Cocoon MC4. It has the best sound quality I have ever heard and to think that this is done using vacuum tubes and highly compressed MP3 files, this is just astounding.
My only question is why it took so long to marry digital technology with analog technology. The Music Cocoon proves that this is a marriage made is music heaven. If you want the best from your iPod or other MP3 player or CD player the Music Cocoon MC4 is the device for you. Just make sure that you have a good set of speakers (you need two of them) that are 8 ohms or less. |
