Vers Cherry iPod Dock
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03.11.08
Many years ago, when my 1972 Sherwood amp and records filled a wall unit, a friend replaced all of his gear with a Walkman and a tiny amplifier; I was seriously impressed. The records and cassettes are history and CDs are following as we move to dematerialized music in our little green iPods; I still plug mine into my Sherwood but like the looks of this little green docking station and amplifier.
It replaces 80% of the plastic with sustainably harvested cherry, is screwed together for disassembly, uses half the power of a conventional amp and comes in recycled packaging. They also claim that it sounds better: "There's a reason why many musical instruments are still made of wood; nothing sounds as warm, as rich - or as natural." Not cheap at $159 but Vers claims "The hand craftsmanship required to create a Vers system takes time - more than a week to build one cabinet." Now if only it were solar powered. ::Vers via ::Hippyshopper
It's amazing how these days, something as simple as a product built with natural materials and assembled with screws (to allow disassembly, repair, and modification) is an odd, progressive act. And yet it is. I'm glad to see it. (And kudos to the writer for still using his old amp--I bet it sounds better than most of what's out today!)
It's kind of striking to see this item topped by the iPod, which is the very opposite--full of toxic materials, basically non-repairable or user-serviceable, and essentially disposable. It's perhaps the current ultimate example of disposable society and planned obsolescence.
Now if only someone could apply the standards used in building this amp/speaker to building music players and computers. That would be something.
I received one of these for Christmas and it is completely awesome.
The packaging is 100 recycled and it isn't over-packaged like a lot of the world is these days.
I had a small issue with mine and the customer service was exceptional.
The sound is great and the remote is intuitive.
Not to mention, it's very attractive.
Alex
$159 is cheap in my book for a well made ... what is this thing called? Anyway, I'd expect a plastic one with some hyped up name like Bose on it to cost the same.
JVC also makes speaker cones out of wood, which sound amazing. Be nice to mate the two.
Hear hear ... aPple users don't seem to need a stereo triangle any more :)
I'll take a Trends Audio TA-10 as my Class-D amp.
We were pretty impressed with Vers too, which is why we signed on to sell it at our store.
As far as the comment about iPods, I think about them differently. Can iPods be made greener? Of course they can. But I think they're a lot better than how they were described.
First of all, they are easily repairable and are user-serviceable. (Not everyone can do it, but I don't believe it's any harder than repairing the Vers would be.) Secondly, no one is forcing anyone to throw out their iPods, the same way no once forced Lloyd to throw out his amp. That is a matter of consumer choice, not the technology itself. Thirdly, iPods are RoHS compliant, just like the Vers is.
Finally, downloading music seems to be better for the environment than buying CDs. (Read the Treehugger post about it here.) And helping make that happen is probably one of the iPod's greenest characteristics of all.