Every audio show has a room that starts a buzz. Sometimes the buzz is unkind: "can you believe how BAD that was?" Sometimes the buzz is kind: "did you believe how GOOD that was?" Sometimes the buzz is a mix of shame and disbelief: "I went in there prepared to hate it, but it was AWESOME!" That last reaction was often heard at Axpona , pertaining to the "Home Theater in a Chair" from i-Fi.

It's easy to see how the idea would be a target for abuse. Let's take the biggest, comfiest nerdiest recliner imaginable, and do the nerdiest thing imaginable with it. Let's create a one-person home theater or audio system with a variety of inputs and self-contained speakers that totally take the room out of the listening equation. In the process, let's give even more credence to the idea that audiophiles are anti-social, and want only to be left alone to play with their toys.

That's the set-up, anyway. Reality being what it is, the i-Fi chair confounded expectations and left seasoned reporters lolling in the big chairs, enjoying the music and looking for all the world like puppies waiting to have their bellies rubbed. Think of it as Revenge of the Nerds, for your living room: the unlikely, ungainly lead does good and is loved by all. All the scene needs is Tears For Fears' "Songs From the Big Chair". Really.

If The Chair had been done on the cheap, or by the wrong person, it likely would've been a disaster. Luckily, Jeff Ostler, i-Fi's founder and President, is a serial entrepreneur with serious audiophile cred. Ostler ran a Salt Lake City audio dealership with John Giolas, presently Director of Sales and Marketing at Wilson Audio. Ostler currently reps another speaker line, and has businesses which produce arcade games including racing simulators. From there, it's not a giant conceptual leap to the i-Fi chair, offered by Ostler and General Manager Jamie Beers.

The reason the big chair works as well as it does is that it has a litany of features that would do the late Billy Mays proud: what we have here is NOT just the World's Most Comfortable lounge-chair,covered in Genuine Italian Leather, but an Apple-licensed iPod dock, a wireless receiver, volume and source controls, nearfield monitor speakers, PLUS a subwoofer, PLUS a built-in vibratory transducer for full tactile impact (AKA butt-shaking)! And did we mention the cupholder?

As a catty observer noted, "all you need is a beer cooler and a catheter for audiophile nirvana." It would all be meaningless, of course, if the sound quality wasn't there. Recording engineers have known for years that monitor speakers placed in the nearfield can produce an open window to the soundstage, and that's exactly what the i-Fi brings, with some extra oomph on the bottom end (literally), thanks to the sub and shaker. The sound is smooth, extended, detailed, punchy, and involving. You can actually hear the lack of room coloration in the sound sample we recorded (hit the play button).

The icing on the cake is the elimination of system wiring and set-up hassles, and elimination of the need for acoustical treatment. Bingo: a real-life, decent one-box system. Okay, it'll be a BIG freakin' box, but still, one box. Yours for $3995, in your choice of black, burgundy or chocolate leather, Made in the USA.

The i-Fi could make a lot of folks happy. Really, most listeners/gamers/movie-viewers would be well-satisfied with its performance, and it could eliminate a lot of domestic discord. How many audiophile products can claim that?

-Audiogon Bill, Posted at Audiogon Music Forums, April 2010

Most Unusual Product at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest - The most unusual product I saw at the show was a near-field listening chair from a new company called i-Fi. The chair incorporates small minimonitors mounted on the chair, electronics to drive them, a subwoofer, and a built-in iPod dock on one arm of the chair . The chair itself is a motorized recliner in gorgeous Italian leather. The idea is that the chair provides private near-field listening from an iPod or any other source. A very subtle shaker is also mounted in the chair to simulate very low bass. All this might sound rather gimicky, but the i-Fi chair was designed and built with audiophile values (the company founder owns Wilson Alexandria X-2s). I played my own CDs in the i-Fi chair and was shocked at the way in which the system produced a soundstage well out in front of the listening position, the smooth tonal balance, and the effectiveness of the shaker. I was even more shocked at the price: $3995, which includes a very nice leather recliner. 

-Robert Harley, Author of The Complete Guide to High-End Audio, Editor and Chief of Absolute Sound

The i-Fi chair is a very comfortable, high-quality reclining chair into which is built a pair of woofers, a shaker, various electronics, and a pair of detachable speakers. The chair houses controls for amplifying an iPod or any source with RCA outputs. Listening can be done with the removable speakers or headphones. Two models are offered which are identical except for the detachable speakers provided. The base unit sells for $3499 while the upgrade is $3999. The upgrade speakers, in wood finish in the photos, use Vita drivers.

The speakers themselves can be small and use small drivers because the woofers are part of the chair itseIf. Control is provided over the shaker (presumably used more for home theater than audio), volume and input. There is also a cup holder.

I see no reason that other small speakers could not be used. The speakers sold with the chair, though, are optimized for the listening distance. It will be interesting to see what other reviewers thought of this component but I found it surprisingly good sounding and pleasant to listen to. The i-Fi chair offers a very spacious sound that is very much like listening in the very near-field of a normal stereo system. It is my guess, though, that this chair will appeal most strongly, among audiophiles anyway, to headphone afficionados. The chair offers a headphone amplifier as part of the package so the listener can simply lean back and adjust the volume.

A lot of thought, design, and engineering has gone into this product over the three years in which it has been developed ard I think it will do well. Time will tell if that proves to be the case. In the interest of full disclosure, I, and, I assume, other journalists, got an email from the i-Fi company prior to RMAF offering a free SACD for auditioning their chair. I can say perfectly honestly that I would have written exactly the same things about this product had this not been the case. My journalistic integrity is not for sale for the price of a single SACD. Three or four SACDs, of course, would be another story.

- www.positive-feedback.com

James& Linda almost walked right past this room, but their aching feet and those overstuffed leather chairs were just too tempting.

What we have here is audiophile, near field listening system built into an electrically adjustable lounge chair . There is also a surround sound version, but they were most impressed by the two channel model. The speakers are small proprietary monitors mounted right on the chair via Kimber Cable. A subwoofer is under the bottom cushion where it can be both heard and felt if desired.

There are three Class D amps built in for power. Knobs for adjusting volume and bass & treble are built in the right arm along with an iPod dock. There's even a wireless receiver. Two other buttons placed conveniently at your fingertips adjust the footrest and reclining.

"You may think having the speakers right "in your face" would be awful, but nearfield listening is anything but that. The speakers comptetely disappear and the sound seems to come from way across the room or right inside your head, depending on how the music was recorded. When we say "inside your head", to James it sounded "like the best pair of headphones he's ever heard" on a very intimate Nora Jones cut. Orchestral music however was spread out seemingly 15 feet out in front of the chair. We hear he did ask how much it would cost to ship one of these to Florida, to which Linda chirped, "Only one?'

- www.stereomojo.com