Review: Altec Lansing MIX

by Bill Palmer

Back in the early days of the iPod, there were portable dockable stereo systems and then there was Altec Lansing’s iM7, a giant all-white $249 cylindrical tube shaped system that ran on batteries and could be hoisted on your shoulder like a ghetto blaster and was bigger and badder (and better sounding) than any other portable dockable system on the market.



But like so many iPod accessories from the early days, the iM7 eventually went by the wayside and was never really replaced by anything comparable, either from Altec Lansing or from anyone else – until now. The MIX, also known as the iMT800, may not look much like the old iM7, as the MIX has a black body with silver handles (two on the front, one on the top) and the same gold trim currently featured on the company’s earbud line, but it embodies the iM7’s original spirit. Shaped trapezoidally from the top, rectangularly from the front, and feeling a bit lighter when you pick up than you might have expected, the MIX is an intimidating monster of a system. And that’s before you turn it on.



Any product like the MIX is going to require a necessary amount of potential skepticism right out of the box, not only because it costs three hundred dollars (at a time when most vendors are scrambling to produce less expensive versions of their most popular products), but also because the company is asking you to carry around something this large: is it easily carried? Does it offer enough battery life for the portability to be put to good use? Is the included remote decent? And, of course, the most important question of all: is the audio quality strong enough to make any of the above even matter, or is this one of those products that throws in the kitchen sink in an attempt to hide the fact that there’s no kitchen?



Eyeballing the MIX, I expected it to weigh fifteen to twenty pounds, so I was relieved when I picked it up and found that it weighed closer to ten. The handle on top allows you to carry it in one hand at your side (or if you really want to, on your shoulder), while the pair of handles on the front allows you to carry it front of you with both hands. But perhaps more important than than flexibility is that you can carry it around with your iPhone or iPod docked in the unit, thanks to a metal roll bar (padded on the inside) that slides down onto the top of your device and holds it securely in place, within what is otherwise a standard Universal dock. This feature drew immediate skepticism as I recalled how the proprietary secure enclosure on the old iM7, which worked flawlessly with the iPod models that were on the market at the time, ended up being increasingly unusable with later iPod models that just plain didn’t fit into the enclosure, and ultimately likely led to the iM7’s early demise. But the roll bar here on the MIX is a different beast. Instead of trying to contain your device within the unit as the iM7 did, the MIX allows your device to be on the outside of the unit but still securely in place. After having tested it with everything from the iPhone to iPod nano, I’m left to conclude that the roll bar is designed such that any future iPhone and iPod models will also be fully compatible with the MIX, provided they’re not physically larger than the largest current models. For those of us who never could quite get the iPod nano to work satisfactorily with the iM7, the importance of the MIX’s apparent forward compatibility cannot be overstated.



But there are sexier features to talk about than a roll bar, and plenty of them. The orange LCD screen displays track information for your iPhone or iPod, as well as any track info provided by the FM radio station you’re listening to, along with an old school pull-out metal antenna for said radio purposes. And the feature that Altec Lansing is promoting the heaviest is the pair of line-in ports on the top of the unit that allow two additional audio devices to be attached. Such ports have traditionally been posited merely as a method of connecting a non-dockable device such as an iPod shuffle or a non-iPod, and are usually buried quietly on the back. But Altec is taking an entirely different tack here, instead promoting the idea of using the MIX at a party and allowing a couple of friends to connect their own iPods or iPhones while yours is in the dock, and using the on-board controls or the included remote to toggle between them at will. As such, the top well for the handle can be used as a makeshift quasi-dock, or the devices can simply be laid on top of the unit.



Speaking of the remote, the portability motif is extended here with a spring-loaded belt clip at the end of the remote itself which will allow you to carry it around at a party without losing track of it. And borrowing a good idea from the old iM7, the MIX‘s remote can be tucked away into a slot on the unit itself when not in use. Also on the remote are four preset buttons for the radio, along with an EQ adjustment button (the latter of which is also built into the on board controls).



But in the end, what matters above all else is audio quality. Judging the MIX’s audible output is best done by comparing it to other similar products on the market, and frankly speaking, there are none. It’s tempting to try to draw parallels between the MIX and iHome’s new iP1 because they share the same price tag and roughly similar size, but the two products really have nothing to do with each other, as the iP1 is a stationary system based purely on impeccable audio quality, whereas the MIX is a portable system that takes the kitchen sink approach. That the iP1 sounds better than the MIX is as expected as it is irrelevant for review purposes, other than to emphasize the self-evident fact that features like portability and built-in radio do cost money, and as such products with those features should only be purchased if you plan to put those features to use.
The more relevant comparison is whether the MIX is really worth a hundred dollars more than Altec’s own $199 MAX, and the answer there is a resounding yes. While the MAX sounds great for its size, the MIX blows it away with four front-facing speakers and a side-firing subwoofers. The short of it is that the MIX is by far the best-sounding portable stereo system for iPhone and iPod currently on the market at any price.



And I suspect that’s what will ultimately make MIX users the happiest. The “party” angle, with the extra aux ports, while it makes a great marketing push, isn’t going to make or break the product; even those who buy the MIX with partying in mind will still likely log most of their hours with the MIX back in their office or dorm room. But regardless of whether you plan to put the party aspect to use or not, the bottom line is that would be a category-killing five star product even without the partying angle.



So what puts the MIX over the top? In an era where more and more portable stereo systems are coming with built-in lithium batteries, something I generally favor, a unit of this size wouldn’t last very long on a lithium battery (as evidenced by the MAX’s paltry three hour battery life, and it’s not nearly as big). But the MIX, which runs on eight D batteries? Thirty hours of real-world use, which makes me pleased that, in this instance, they didn’t go the lithium route after all.

Learn more about the Altec Lansing MIX (iMT800) at AltecLansing.com