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Portable Speakers for your iPod
By
Published: Jan 01, 2005
Category:
Gifts and Gadgets
Speakers for your iPod
So you’re now among the ten million iPod owners.
And because you listen carefully to your Butler, you traded up in the earphone department from the cruddy earpieces that Apple provides to the Shure E3c Sound Isolating Earphone Stereo Headphone — a bargain at $179.99, although it’s said that nothing compares to the Shure E5c phones , which sell for a mere $499.99. [Do you really need the Shures? Yes. You do. And if you are still hesitating, please look in my eyes and empty your mind as I slowly count down from 10….]
Ok. Now you need one more device, because you are, as they say in the promo text, still dancing alone. And dancing in such splendid isolation that if someone knocked on the door or ran a red light, you’d never know — well, in the case of the runaway car, you’d know, just too late to do much about it.
But why point out the need for eternal vigilance when we’re on one of the happier topics available: a properly kitted-out iPod. Let’s turn to sound enhancement in 3D. Yes, speakers. Mini-speakers. Speakers so light and simple that you just drop the iPod into a docking station and press PLAY.
Why do you want speakers? Because, if you have not discovered this already, the iPod can easily become the central repository of your music collection, holding not just the faves you’ve downloaded but songs you’ve bought from iTunes. Because it’s faster to launch music on the iPod than it is to find the CD you want and load it in your changer. Because blasting music directly into your head is, over time, unnatural. And because you travel.
Butler has field-tested the most popular iPod speaker systems. Because different people have different needs, no effort was made to pick The One. Instead, the goal was Best of Breed. And there are, in Butler’s view, three breeds.
THE TRAVELER
If you travel for business or like to camp out, you want a portable speaker system that is light and rugged. This would be the
Amazon.com: Altec Lansing INMOTION Ipod Portable Speaker System: Explore similar items which Amazon sells for $117.99. If you have Altec Lansing speakers attached to your computer, you know they deliver shockingly crisp, clear sound. And so, given their size, do these speakers, which are, for those who speak tech, powered by ” four full-range, custom-designed neodymium micro drivers.”
For size, these can’t be beat. 8″ wide, 5/4″ high when open (1/2″ when closed).. Weight: 15 ounces. In other words, the equivalent of a trade paperback book. On four AA batteries, you get 24 hours of music. Plug it into the wall, and you can recharge your iPod as it plays. And it comes with a protective travel bag.
Sound: considerably better than a boombox. A little fuzzy in the bass at high volume, but at regular volume, provides sweet, balanced clear sound to all corners of a 12′-square room.
THE FIRST CLASS TRAVELER
The Altec Lansing inMotion iM3 Portable System sells at Amazon for $179.99. Bigger speakers. A remote control device. Allegedly richer sound.
THE STATIONARY LISTENER
You’ve seen the ads for the Bose SoundDock System everywhere. And it’s lovely — a curved wave that’s pure speaker with a dock for the iPod that makes these two objects look as if they were destined for marriage. And maybe they are — in an office or bedroom. The Bose is a Real Piece of equipment: 4.5 pounds, almost a foot wide. It doesn’t fold up. It can only run on electric power. And it’s $299.00.
So what’s the attraction? Well, the sweeping design makes it considerably more of a Design Object than the little Altec Lansings. The bass and treble are more powerful, and you get a deeper bass at greater volume.
What you sacrifice: portability. And versatility: Unlike the Alec Lansings, the Bose can only be connected to an iPod — not to a computer.
You can go to an electronics store and try these out. But Butler suspects your travel habits — the phrase “lifestyle” sticks in the throat — will be the key factor in your choice.
Get these, and you’re iPod compliant. For now, anyway.
To buy the Shure E3c earphones, click here .
To buy the Alec Lansing INMOTION Portable Speakers, click here .
To buy the Alec Lansing iM3 Portable Speakers, click here .
To buy the Bose SoundDock System, click here .
