Review: EOS Wireless for iPod
July 14, 2009
Wireless iPod speaker systems have arrived in various incarnations over the years, the most successful to date being Griffin’s $349 Evolve, whose pair of built-in speakers can be picked up and carried around with you while continuing to play the music coming from your iPod docked in the base station. Now EOS offers up a different paradigm in which the base station is a stationary speaker itself, there’s a wireless speaker in the box, and a second/third/fourth wireless unit can optionally be added.
It sounds good in theory, and from a wireless perspective, works automatically and flawlessly right out of the box. Dock your iPod (or, unofficially, iPhone) into the base station, start playing your music, and you’ll hear it coming of the base station along with the wireless speaker(s), wherever you’ve placed them. If that’s in another room or even outside, no problem, as long as it’s less than about 150 feet away. Each unit has its own adjustable volume, and the base station includes a remote control.
Two things hold the EOS Wireless back from its full potential. One is that the wireless speakers each need to be plugged into the wall for electricity (they can hang directly from the outlet, which is pretty cool, or be placed further away from it via the power cable). But unlike the Evolve, whose speakers are portable, these can’t be moved around the house on a whim without finding a new electrical outlet each time.
The other issue is the sound quality. We’re talking serious money here: $249 for the base station and the one wireless speaker; $149 for each additional speaker. Trouble is, though, that the base station itself doesn’t sound any better than typical sub-$100 iPod speaker systems on the market, with too much treble, not enough bass, and no ability to adjust that ratio. Fire up the included wireless speaker in the same room and it sounds better overall, but that already puts you at $249 before you start adding more wireless speakers. In other words, it’s only worth its hefty price tag if you plan to take full advantage of the wireless functionality – otherwise spend your money on one of the plethora of much better-sounding non-wireless systems in this price range.
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