If you’ve never heard music through $400 earbuds, there’s no real reference point; the best way I can paint the picture is to say that none of the usual superlatives like “incredible” or “pristine” have any hope of being sufficiently accurate. You’ll hear new intricacies in your favorite music that you’ve never previously noticed, and the overall audio experience is so expansive it’ll leave you so spoiled that any subsequent attempt to listen to less expensive earbuds will leave the music suddenly sounding oddly two-dimensional.

In that sense the 10vi fully lives up to its billing. And while the inclusion of what probably amounts to a few cents worth of iPhone-specific functionality may not sound like a deal-maker (even some $20 earbuds come with those same built-in controls), my tests with the 10vi were the first time in my 2.5 years as an iPhone user where I could actually take a phone call while listening to my music with earbuds this good (without having to frantically unplug everything so I could hold up the iPhone to my ear or put it on speakerphone). So this product changes the entire equation for iPhone users who value the built-in controls as much as I do, as from our standpoint there simply is no usable competition at this price point (in fairness there are third party mic/button adapters available for use with any earbuds, but they place the mic too far away from your mouth, make the cables too long, and typically make the whole thing too heavy – I’ve used such adapters and I don’t recommend them as anything other than a last resort).

That having been said, from an audio standpoint, the 10vi needs to be compared to other earbuds at its price point whether the competition is iPhone compatible or not. At $419, that means we’re looking at Westone’s competing 3, which sells for a similar $399 and is presently our highest-rated earbud product at that price point. After having spent time with both products, if I were choosing based solely on audio quality, it would be a close call – but I’d have to go with the Westone 3. When the audio sounds this amazing, you can only make comparisons in terms of degrees of magic, and the 3 audio experience is just a tad even more magical than the 10vi audio experience. But if I were to arbitrarily assign a percentage based on my perception of the audio quality, I’d end up pegging the Westone 3 as being five to ten percent better-sounding than the 10vi. In other words, unless it psychologically eats at you that there’s a similarly priced competing product out there that sounds slightly better than the one you’re using, there’s no harm in choosing the 10vi due to the fact that it has iPhone controls and the 3 doesn’t.

Strangely enough, where the 10vi falls down a little is in its physical design. As you can see in the photos, the earbud casings are larger than than what you’d find on less expensive (lesser-sounding) earbuds, and that’s to be expected. But I’ve used various Ultimate Ears earbuds priced anywhere from $60 to $250, and they’ve all managed to be plenty comfortable – yet the 10vi is actually a bit less comfortable than other Ultimate Ears earbuds. The problem appears to be that the rubber/foam buds end up right next to the casings, with no space, so those of us with smaller ears have no breathing room even when we do use the smallest included rubber buds.

In the included accessories category, the 10vi delivers the kitchen sink as you’d expect. In the box you’ll find four different sized rubber earbud tips, plus two sets of foam earbuds tips (which I’ve found consistently improve the audio experience of almost any set of in-ear earbuds), a splitter, a quarter-inch stereo plug adapter, a low-profile port adapter that turns ninety degrees, a cleaning brush, and a hard metal case. The idea of protecting a product this expensive inside of a steel compartment sounds like a good idea, and it is, although the included metal case is about thirty percent larger than the hard plastic carrying case that comes with less expensive Ultimate Ears earbuds and thus doesn’t fit into your pocket as easily.

The TripleFi 10vi isn’t perfect, which is a shame because at this price you have a right to expect it to be. But based on the fact that it’s the only product that can give me this kind of audio quality with built-in iPhone controls, I’ll take it. Even though it’s not even the best earbud product at its price point, nor is it as comfortable as most other earbuds the 10vi is still my new favorite set of iPhone earbuds. Just don’t ask me to give it any more than four stars out of five.

It’s worth pointing out that with Apple’s move toward three-button volume and voice controls for newer iPhone and iPod models, it’s probably just a matter of time before most major earbud manufacturers offer three-button versions of your favorite earbuds (we saw quite a bit of this at CES this month, although nothing in this price range). But as of today, these are the best-sounding iPhone-enabled earbuds at any price – and by a million miles.

As a side note, although I wasn’t able to separately test them, Ultimate Ears also offers this product in a non-iPhone “TripleFi 10” version for $399, which appears to be physically identical to the 10vi but without any iPhone controls.

review by Bill Palmer

We’ve reviewed dockable iPod and iPhone speaker systems whose price has ranged from a few dozen dollars to several hundred dollars and everything in between, and we’ve found that the only fair way to rate such products is to put them head to head with similarly priced competing speaker systems and see how they stack up. In the case of its new Portable Speaker S315i, Logitech’s primary competition is itself, as the company’s own Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 is a product that we’ve long pointed to as the best portable system on the market in the roughly $125-$150 price range (see June’s “iProng 50” awards and last December’s “Best of 2008” awards).



First, the good news: the S315i comes with the same built-in rechargeable ten hour battery, and now includes technology that allows you to optionally double the battery life. The S315i isn’t quite as wide as the Anywhere 2, which was its only dimension that seemed oversized. And despite being twenty dollars cheaper, the S315i sounds arguably a little better, having more substantial bass output than the Anywhere 2, if not quite having the same expansiveness in sound.



But getting there means that some corners have been cut. The first thing you’ll notice is that there’s no remote control in the box. And the iPod/iPhone dock has been reduced to a spring-loaded mechanism. You slide your device down onto the protruding dock connector, allow it to lean back against a rubber stopper, and the spring-loaded dock connector reclines along with your device. It’s clever and it works but it feels cheap; for instance, moving the S315i around while your device is docked will work just fine unless you allow the unit to tilt forward more than about twenty degrees, at which point your iPhone or iPod will fall forward on its spring-loaded base. It won’t actually fall out of the unit, but it’s enough to make you momentarily panic.

My own enthusiasm for this product was lessened further when I realized that the switch for doubling the battery life from ten to twenty hours is really just an audio quality reducer, making the bass sound either weak or non-existent depending on what kind of music I tested it with. To me this feels like trying to gain extra credit in a class where you’ve already got an A+, as the Anywhere’s ten hour rechargeable battery has always been one of its best features, particularly in comparison to similarly priced products whose built-in battery only lasts three to five hours, or even worse, operate on AA batteries. I can think of any number of scenarios in which ten hours of life is superior to three or five, but in how many instances would you need twenty instead of ten? And in how many of those instances would you not be able to just plug it into a wall socket using the included power cable once you got there?



And not to pile on, but while the slightly curvier design of the S315i gives it more personality than the Anywhere 2, those curves mean that the volume buttons can’t be on top, so they’ve been moved to the back. A pair of visual guides on the right edge of the front face tell you where they are so you can find them with your fingers without having to actually look at the back of the unit first, but it still feels like a bad trade-off. As does, frankly, far too much of the product overall.



Part of the problem in evaluating the S315i is that the Anywhere 2 already set the bar too high. In fact this is a category that Logitech has dominated for several years, previously with the original Anywhere, and even the mm50 before that. While this is arguably the best-sounding of the four, and sound quality is inarguably the most important single feature for a speaker system, there are a number of other factors that go into a purchasing decision, depending on each user’s needs.



It’s tough to peg a new version with slightly improved audio quality and an option for greatly improved battery life as being a step backwards, but that’s what the S315i feels like. It’s not exactly a tragic misstep. And not even an unrecommendable product, as the lack of a remote, cheap-feeling dock, and buttons on the back may not matter to you.



But at the end of the day, I’d have to recommend buying Logitech’s own Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 instead, even though it is last year’s model and priced twenty bucks higher. And for that matter, Amazon is currently offering both the S315i and the Anywhere 2 for the same $129 price.



Then again, if you were to pretend that the Anywhere 2 never existed, then the S315i would be more recommendable, despite its various issues. Hence the “it’s alright, I just can’t vouch for it emphatically” rating of 3.5 stars. Give Logitech credit for trying some bold things here; there’s just not enough payoff for the tradeoffs.

Learn more about the S315i at Logitech.com or pre-order now at Amazon.com.

review by Bill Palmer

The lower the price, the lower the expectations. I’ve learned over the years not to expect too much from dockable iPod stereo systems in this price range, particularly then they’re this tiny. By the time you get done building in the iPod connectivity, is there any money left over to include decent audio components that are small enough to fit? So I was pleasantly surprised when I fired up Logitech’s Portable Speaker S125i, which is no taller or deeper than an iPod nano, in that it actually sounds pretty decent.



The S125i vaguely resembles the eyes of a mosquito staring at you, and features a fairly simple design. The iPod dock is on top, while the power and volume buttons are on the front, along with a bass booster button. Without the booster, the S125i has hardly any bass at all, but with the booster turned on, the bass is quite noticeable. Quite synthetic-sounding as well, but that’s the way bass boosting technology works.



I found that noisy and heavy-sounding songs were really only enjoyable with the bass booster turned on, while gentler pop songs actually sounded better with the booster turned off. But I couldn’t find any type of music that wasn’t at least listenable in one mode or the other, which frankly, isn’t always the case at this price range.



Does the S125i sound better than Logitech’s other new offering, the $129-priced S315i? Of course not. Not even close. But by not being as ambitious, the S125i actually gets some things more right by default, such as including a real iPod docking port and having the volume buttons on the front. Although the S125i is listed as being only for the iPod and not the iPhone, I had no trouble using my iPhone beyond dismissing the iPhone’s annoying compatibility warning each time; I was expecting some kind of audio interference, if not from 3G then certainly from EDGE, but that turned out not the be the case. But, and this is a big but, your mileage may vary, as cellphone interference tends to be maddeningly random.



There’s no remote control, and the S125i runs on four AA batteries, a waste of time (the rechargeable AA route) or money (regular AA batteries) if you use the system on battery too frequently. The S125i’s primary value seems to be as a (very) small desktop system that you’d leave plugged in to an electrical outlet most of the time and take it around with you occasionally.



Assigning an accurate star rating to this product is just about impossible because there are too few dockable speaker systems in the $69 price range that are worth reviewing in the first place. But I can tell you two things about this product that should allow you to figure out its potential suitability for you. One is that it’s the best-sounding $69 dockable iPod speaker system I’ve ever heard. The other is that you’d be doing yourself a big favor by finding another $30 and getting something in the $99 price range.



That having been said, if $69 is the high end of your budget, and you’re looking for something small that charges your iPod (and unofficially your iPhone) while outputting decent-sounding audio with an optional bass kick and a AA battery option, the S125i turns out to be surprisingly recommendable.

Learn more about the S125i at Logitech.com or pre-order now at Amazon.com.