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The VERS is the thing pictured here. It is made by VersAudio, and you should visit the manufacturer's site. The pictures are of my VERS, and I am relatively certain that this finish is the only one there is. ADDENDUM 8 April 08: David Laituri of Vers Audio says that the unit is now available in three finishes: Bamboo, Natural Walnut and Dark Walnut.
The VERS is a little gizmo, about the size of a shoebox, with an iPod dock on the top, a few connections on the bottom, and ... well ... that's all. It comes with a remote that is in some ways the star of the show, despite the low cost approach to its construction. The power supply is external, and is a 24VDC switching power supply that is wall wart, about 10cm x 4cm x 4cm. The plug is non-polar (as you would expect), so you can place it either orientation with respect to the plug. The power supply is most certainly efficient, and I have yet to feel it even slightly warm, even when I am using the VERS in the kitchen at a volume loud enough I can hear music or podcasts above the sound of the exhaust fan.
The VERS can best be described as yet another i-pliance, with the difference that [1] it works, and [2] it actually seems to have been designed for listener satisfaction as opposed to the slickness factor. Make no mistake, this is no thing like the dreadful iHome. If you just had to, you could get by with a VERS, a pair of Sennheiser HD650s, and an iPod.
About the only measurements I could make were of the power supply. Since the unit operates on all voltages from 100 to 240 VAC, the exact reading at the plug should make no difference. But, I measured it anyway, and it was 125.8 VAC. Nominally 24VDC, I measured the power supply's output at 23.80VDC under both no load and with the unit operating. So ... no sag under load. Along with voltage sag, the other manifestation of inferior design is the AC ripple which was below my measurement limit of ~1 mV. Wow. Not bad!
As wall warts go, this one is worth having. All of which makes me wonder why the folks at Slim Devices include such a piece of junk with their otherwise excellent Squeezebox. Perhaps I have a defective unit, but with the supplied tiny power supply, my Squeezebox is unlistenable via headphones but sounds just fine when run off my HP 3630A bench power supply. Keep in mind, the Squeezebox sells for $70 more than the VERS.
I first heard the VERS sitting on a low table that was between a pair of the Gallo Reference 3.1 speakers. Perhaps not the way most people are introduced to its abilities, but that's the way it happened for me. It was immediately and obviously so much better than any clock radio, or iPeripheral I had heard, that I bought one just as soon as I located my wallet.
As much as I would like to have people believe that I spend all listening hours in the big room with the QUAD ESLs, it is far from the truth. I am more the type of guy who believes that no room in the house should be without instant access to recorded music, or at least the radio. Compromises must be made. The truth is that I spend an hour or two a day in the kitchen, and I want music there, too. It was time to clear some countertop space for the Vers.
The Vers is bass-reflex cabinet, and it is vented to the rear. The ports are flared, and each duct turns toward the outside of the unit where, just beyond the reach of my arthritic fingers, there is another flare. It should come as no surprise that jamming it against the rear wall does not yield good results.
The Vers has a pleasantly plump sound, the type of sound made popular by the Rogers LS3/5 A minimonitor of years gone by. With the two small drivers, high frequencies are less beamed, which makes for a much more pleasant listening experience as one wanders around the kitchen, or now that Spring is here, the front porch.
Unlike the iTube, the Vers will really pump out the sound even if it is not the type of device one would generally play loud. Apparently the input sensitivity and gain are well suited for the iPod's output.
As an Internet Radio addict, I have had occassion to use my Squeezebox with the auxillary input located in the recessed area on the bottom of the unit. This set up works equally well, but the connection is really not designed for frequent switching of sources. The Vers comes with a short 1/8th inch stereo phone jack patch cord, each end of which has a right angle. The right angle connector is essential on the Vers end, and it is mostly convenient with other peripherals.
BTW, not that I would expect there to be a difference, but the sound of the iPod through the Vers is the same whether you use the dock or the headphone jack routed through the bottom panel input.
The bonus is the remote control. The remote control allows access to all the functions of a sixth generation iPod in a logical way. As an engineer, the sign of defeat is taking the instructions out of the shrink wrap, and I can report that the Vers instructions are still sealed and in the bottom of the box. Although the remote is powered by a little battery, there is enough IR output to use it in my south-facing living room across the length of it, even with the sun streaming in the windows. I wish other manufacturers could understand that a remote that only works from an arm's length is only a semi-remote control.
Of course there is no free lunch: if one is far enough away to use the excellent remote, the display cannot be read. Nonetheless, being able to stop the iPod when the phone rings, or to adjust the volume from a chair is still a useful feature even if it is being done blind.
To paraphrase Jimi Hendrix, move over iHome and let the Vers take over. At less that $200, you can afford to buy a handful and either hand them out as gifts or put one in every room.
