The iQube Enigma (Review Updated)

[musicmaker]

Dex, you da man ! Appreciate the time you're taking to help us out here and the extremely clear directions. Glad to report that I've managed to get the cover off. Thanks for the instructions.

My fingers are sore. But mission accomplished. I'm going to massage her plastic clips a bit and end my day with a beer !!

[HiFlight]

Believe it or not, it does get easier after about the 3rd time!

[Dawei2008]

Have a lot of interest on iQube lately. Anyone know where i can get one at US$500 or so besides Moon Audio? MA won't ship it to Taipei though.

[hoosterw]

Originally Posted by Dawei2008

Have a lot of interest on iQube lately. Anyone know where i can get one at US$500 or so besides Moon Audio? MA won't ship it to Taipei though.

There is a dealer in South Korea or Singapore you could try, maybe they have a couple of 'cheap dollar' units left? They bought some units quite while ago when the dollar was still up.

rgds

[Dexdexter]

Originally Posted by Skylab

While I *love* the sound of the iQube, the fact remains that the battery access is a total drag. So I put in rechargeables, and I will never open the thing again, problem solved

Heh-heh, Sky, of course even rechargeables lose their mojo eventually, so it can never hurt to master the opening method. It does get easier!

Yes, that initial opening is an absolute b*tch. And it's somewhat ironic that such a complicated procedure be required in order to maintain such deceptively simple form & function. But, on balance, I think a little frustration in the battery access learning curve is a reasonable enough price to pay for a satisfyingly uncluttered design featuring only 2 visible screws 'round the back.

Although I am loathe to keep dipping back into the Apple-barrel here, it's kinda inescapable for certain parallels to the iQube. I recently purchased a Mac mini. To me, it's another lovely example of economic design:


(In fact, I'm going out to buy another one this afternoon for my in-laws.)

It's pretty well known that Apple sell most of their models with a rather stingy amount of RAM on-board, hoping that the consumer will pay their wildly inflated premium to have more memory installed.

The more thrifty-minded consumer, however, can install third-party memory for far less than half of what Apple charges. But in order to do so, one must access the interior, which requires a sharp putty-knife and no small degree of patience to free-up the mini's sixteen press-fit clips:





Clearly my experience with the mini left me better prepared for the challenge posed by the iQube battery cover.

[All Day Breakfast]

Hi Everyone,

I'll quickly introduce myself by saying that I only recently discovered portable headphone amps and have spent the last few days combing the boards here for info. My hi-end hi-fi interests started when I was a lad but at some point in my life I decided to live a minimalistic lifestyle and dumped my electrostatic speakers and audio research kit to live a simple life with just a few ipods and some etys and UE 5s for walking around and an old X-Can v2 and HD 600's for my work area and a Tivoli PAL, a brilliant piece of kit actually, for general background noise! So when I discovered portable headphone amps my gear lust went into overdrive and I splurged and purchased an iQube. It isn't broken in yet but I'm loving it

Hans:
I spent (ie, wasted) a few hours last night fighting with the ***!%$^& cover trying to get it to part company with the rest of the unit to no avail. I'm not small and I don't have arthritis and I'm not looking forward to continuing the experience. I managed to get the 1 clip side off but that's it. (grumble grumble grumble).

As a customer my reaction is that while functionally you may have a clever cover solution from a customer experience point of view its a nightmare. Skylab's last comment sums it up.

It's clear that you've given a lot of thought to perfect the entire customer journey/buying experience a la Apple from the nice web site through to the excellent packaging and of course the tasteful case design. But then within hours of getting the product you've set your customers a major negative experience which has become attached to every positive mention in these boards.

Two suggestions:
1) You say its very straight forward to open if we only could see how simple it is. Could you put up a video on your web site (stream it through youTube you'll have no cost involved) showing the technique?
2) Rethink the system, there must be another solution other than frustrating your customers. After all, they're the ones who have to sell your product in this highly word of mouth driven market.

Enough, I'm going back to listen to my phones and my new iQube... (thanks for an otherwise brilliant piece of kit).

Eric

[All Day Breakfast]

Update

I finally got the cover off! Thanks Dexdexter for taking the time to write up your instructions, you made my day! I'm off to the shops to buy some rechargables.

[Dexdexter]

Originally Posted by All Day Breakfast

Update

I finally got the cover off! Thanks Dexdexter for taking the time to write up your instructions, you made my day! I'm off to the shops to buy some rechargables.

Whoohoo! You are most welcome, Eric, and indeed Welcome to Head-Fi!

[hoosterw]

Hi Eric, I am truly sorry for ruining your day here.

Product development and bringing something like this to market is not easy, let me tell you. Yes, you are fully right in your comments but at the same time I can do nothing about it. Maybe for a next product but for this version 1 iQube the dice have been rolled. Unfortunately.

I do want you to know that the choice was made deliberately and that we (the design team) accepted this point and we knew it be one of the minors. As was the decision not to have a volume knob position indicator! We had to make such decisions, because we had set priorities and other issues were number 1, like looks and sound. I for me wanted no screw driver or weird outsticking screws or other locking things involved. that was a choice, wrong as it may be but it is as it is now.

Second point came up, price. There was a limit to what the iQube could cost and thus what production costs were then available. So, more smart solution (which always cost more) were out of the question.

I guess it is as with mankind: Nobody is perfect, also not the iQube .

Now for the video, a good idea, BUT it only will show you that it can be done, which we already know. It will not reveal HOW it is to be done, you will only see it happen. Ask Dex I have showed him live. It is just a 2 seconds job. But you have to master the 'feel'.
So for me the added value of a video is very little, it might even make you more frustrated seeing how easily it can be done .

I hope you will enjoy many happy listening hours.

Hans

[All Day Breakfast]

Hi Hans,

Thanks for taking the time to write back with such a full explanation. Your points are all well taken. I think in many ways the product stands out from the competition because of your adherence to a clear vision. So I guess under the circumstances I'm happy to accept the trade-offs. My hands do ache a bit though

At any rate, I've been listening to my iQube all day and thoroughly enjoying it.


Eric

[slwiser]

Hans

There are some very low discharge AAA batteries that come charged if you want to start using them instead of the batteries that you use now. These retain 85% of their charge after a year very unlike regular NiMH batteries. These could be installed and be running when the box is open just like it is now. Here is a page referring to them:

Thomas Distributing

I have ordered the Sanyo EneLoop batteries because I have seen where these have a particular low noise associated with them. Just an thought.

[Dexdexter]

Originally Posted by slwiser

There are some very low discharge AAA batteries that come charged if you want to start using them instead of the batteries that you use now. These retain 85% of their charge after a year very unlike regular NiMH batteries. These could be installed and be running when the box is open just like it is now. Here is a page referring to them:

Thomas Distributing

I have ordered the Sanyo EneLoop batteries because I have seen where these have a particular low noise associated with them. Just an thought.

Steve, I'm so glad you've brought this up. I look forward to your impressions of the iQube's performance with those Sanyos. I have not seen them available here in Belgium just yet, though there are Memorex brand AAA rechargeables that make a similar low-discharge claim, so perhaps they are the same OEM battery marketed by the two different brands.

I notice that they are rated at 800mAh. I bought some Duracell rechargeables today which are 1000mAh (I've not yet installed them since the original alkalines that came pre-installed have still not given out as I burn in the iQube; 95 hours and counting! ).

Am I right in thinking that mAh values refer only to storage capacity and will not have any impact on sound quality? It seems all the rechargeables are rated at 1.2v, while the alkalines are 1.5v. And perhaps the iQube is so very efficient that none of this makes much of a difference anyway...

[slwiser]

Yes, the mAh is the capacity rating. Normal capacity is 1000 from what I have read for alkalines. The 1.2 v is what is given as the voltage after discharge. The alkalines also drop over their life as well. The web site that I noted above has a lot of FAQs concerning batteries if you want to check the FAQs out.

This site is a British site that carries some low-discharge batteries. It appears that their sold out of the Sanyo but I found these:

Uniross U0119948 Hybrio AAA NiMH Pack of 4 at Battery Force

Here is a neat site with lots of battery tests and comparisons:

Technique

On this site this is a typical alkaline battery drain profile that can be found on the methods page. Please compare this with the rechargeable battery that you review for test:

[HiFlight]

I have been using the Eneloop cells in my amps, including my iQube, for some time now, with great satisfaction. Despite the lower mah rating, they seem to last "forever". I can recommend them without reservation.

[dazzer1975]

eneloop are availale on amazon, at least the uk site anyway and have them currently in the iqube with the worth its weight in gold charging cable lol