Philips Fidelio DS9000 review

Philips’ new Fidelio DS9000 is a high-end iPod dock, and you’re left in no doubt where your money went when you struggle to lift it out of the box. Not only does it weigh a reassuring 6.5kg, but it’s also curved and smooth, so there’s not much to get hold of.

Unlike your average speaker system, the Fidelio isn’t made out of plastic. Instead, it’s constructed using ‘veneer lamination’ whereby layers of lacquered ply wood are formed into the seamless curved shape. Philips says this eliminates unwanted vibrations and leads to better acoustics. It’s only a shame that you don’t get to see it, as the black cloth grille covers the entire front.

Behind this grille are a pair of 4in woofers and another pair of 1in tweeters. They have an impressive combined RMS power rating of 100W: enough to easily fill the largest living rooms or bedrooms. Each woofer and tweeter pairing has its own separate 3.4l chamber, and has a port to increase bass.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons with B&W’s Zeppelin since both docks are a similar price and size, and both claim to produce studio-quality sound. The DS9000 lacks the Zeppelin’s video outputs, and there’s no way to update the firmware. The only connector, beyond the power socket, is a minijack input.

However, the main reason to buy a dock such as this is to play music from your iPod and there’s a spring-loaded connector in the centre which will accept virtually all iPods and all iPhones without an adaptor. iPhones and iPod Touches fit particularly well, although we had to remove all cases before the connector would seat properly.

The Fidelio uses the player’s digital connection to play music, and uses its own digital-to-analogue convertor. While it was hard to tell the difference compared to using the iPod’s headphone output plugged into the DS9000’s auxiliary input, audio quality was extremely good.

Despite the lack of a separate subwoofer, bass was almost overpowering and we were disappointed to find no audio controls to adjust this. All you get is a volume control – with a proximity sensor that illuminates the buttons as your hand approaches. If you dock an iPod Touch or iPhone, you’ll be prompted to install the Fidelio app. This has its own music player, although you can only play playlists, not browse your library. If you navigate to your music library, you can use the remote to browse it, and we had no trouble doing this with an iPhone 4.

It also has a clock and alarm, but you need to leave the app running for the latter to work. Hidden away is the most useful feature: a graphic equaliser. This has various presets, but a user mode allows you to control the sliders to subdue the bass.

Our panel of judges was split between preferring the Zeppelin and the DS9000, and the overall consensus was that both were as good as each other. Some preferred the Zeppelin’s clarity and better stereo separation while others loved the warmth of the Fidelio and the thumping bass. Of course, if you don’t own an iPod Touch or iPhone on which you can install the app, you’re better off with the Zeppelin’s balanced sound. The DS9000 seemed more powerful, though, and more capable of filling a large room.

Another of the Fidelio’s advantages is price since it costs £30 less than the Zeppelin. This could give it the edge if you’re otherwise undecided. We narrowly prefer the DS9000 for this reason, plus it’s more responsive and better-designed remote control. However, the lack of a physical bass control means it misses out on an award.