Three things.

If you look closely at the various F80 internal pictures from the Factory Visit and other articles, you will see that every inch of space in the F80 is already used. Where would the Dock Connector and iPod recess go??? Would you sacrifice a bigger and heavier F80 to accommodate an iPod??

If you purchased an F80 for �1,500 or $3,000, how long into the future would you expect to use it?? Looking at the age of much of the equipment on this Forum`s user profiles, I expect that most would say 10 years or more

Now consider that, if Meridian had built in a 5G iPod Dock Connector that may not have been able to accommodate the much thicker 4G iPod with Video (from only 2 years ago). With the iPhone being narrower than the 5G iPod, what assurances do you have that any in built iPod Dock connector will handle future iPod successors. How pissed would we all be if we bought an F80i, which could not handle securely the 6G iPod due within the next few months.

I can see why they went with the external dock route, which gives them hardware independence longer term, when we all feel Wireless will be the way of the future

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