Top iPhone and iPod speaker systems: Beatweek 75
June 23, 2010 by Beatweek · 2 Comments
The sixteen top rated iPhone and iPod speaker systems on the market as of June 2010, including portable and home options, alarm and non-alarm stereos, and price points varying from sub-$100 to over $1000:
Altec Lansing inMotion MIX • portable stereo • $299: We’ve been waiting years for Altec Lansing (or anyone else) to offer a successor worthy to the company’s inMotion iM7, the classic boombox-style portable stereo system. And we finally got our with with the MIX: it sounds fantastic even when loud, it’s easily carryable despite being quite large, displays track info on an LCD screen and cool stuff like dual aux ports for additional devices. It kicks the iM7’s butt – finally.
iHome iP1 • home stereo • $299: The most significant new iPhone or iPod accessory to come to market in 2009, the iP1 sets the benchmark for what single-unit iPod/iPhone stereo systems should sound like – and for that matter, what they should look like, as it’s the first iPhone stereo system that truly looks like a 21st century product. But the showstopper is the “B” button, which restores compressed music to what it’s supposed to sound like.
Altec Lansing Classic • portable stereo • $149: Logitech owned this category for years, but their new S315i is a step backward while Altec’s new Classic is a major leap forward. The Classic is basically the MIX in a (much) smaller and lighter package, complete with a built in handle of its own. One caveat: the five hour built in battery life should be longer. But it’s still a winner.
Parrot by Starck • home stereo • $1600: If you’re going to spend the kind of money on an iPod/iPhone stereo system that could instead be used to buy an iPhone and an iPod touch plus all nine colors of iPod nano and still have money left over, then it had better offer a mind blowing experience. Not great. Not excellent. Mind blowing. Nothing less. And believe it or not, the Starck does. It’s just that amazing. It’s also just that unaffordable. But one can dream.
Altec Lansing inMotion MAX • stereo system • $199: Large enough to sound great yet just small enough to be portable, this vaguely retro-styled system sports a built-in radio with a small LCD screen that displays track info. The audio quality is more expansive than you’d expect from a single-unit system, and the iPod/iPhone dock slides in to make the unit streamlined for transport. We do with the battery lasted longer than 3.5 hours.
Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 • portable stereo system • $149: Fairly wide from left to right but impressively thin front to back, this one is easy to toss into a suitcase and sports a built-in rechargeable lithium battery that lasts ten hours or more. The latter is no small feat, as most products in this price range require you to (continuously) supply your own store-bought batteries. Most importantly, it sounds good.
JBL On Stage IIIP • stereo system • $169: The third time’s the charm, as iteration number three of this fairly diminutive circular system emits impressive audio quality for its size and (finally) includes a battery compartment so you can take advantage of its smallishness and carry it around with you. And the “P” somehow stands for iPhone, meaning that you can use it with your iPhone or iPod.
Altec Lansing T612 • stereo system • $199: An oldie but a goodie, it’s still the standard for mid-priced, mid-sized, non-portable stereo systems for both iPhone and iPod. It has a smallish front-to-back footprint and its audio quality is on par with some competing systems that cost $100 more. While we continue to wait for someone (perhaps Altec itself) to knock it off its perch, it’s still the best in its class and price point.
Griffin Evolve • wireless stereo system • $349: The flipside to owning a large, high-quality iPod stereo system is that you can’t take it with you when you leave the room – except in this instance you can, as both speaker units can be carried around. The battery-enabled cubes automatically recharge when placed back onto the main unit. Carry the remote control around with you too if you really want to have some fun.
Chestnut Hill George • stereo system + alarm • $499: The detailed LCD display on the front of this system syncs with your iPod and displays similar navigable hierarchal menus – but its real power is in the fact that the entire front center section can be removed and used as a remote control, which means that you can navigate your iPod’s menus without even having to be within squinting distance of your iPod.
Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin • stereo system • $599: Something this expensive had better sound stunningly awesomely fantastic – and it does just that. Paying two or three times what your iPod or iPhone itself cost you makes sense, however, when you realize that this system in on par with multi-units that are even larger and more expensive. Obviously only for audiophiles, but gleefully worth it.
Audioengine A5 • stereo system • $349: This pair of hefty speakers offer a better room-filling sound than Apple’s own iPod Hi-Fi ever could. You do have to provide your own iPod dock and connect it via line-in, but on the other hand, an Airport Express hookup on the back allows the speakers to be used wirelessly with your iTunes library. And you can space them as far apart as you like.
iHome iP90 • home alarm stereo • $99: This is the sixth generation of the original iPod alarm clock (replacing the iP9), and it still rules the roost in its price range despite increasing competition. The latest features include iPhone compatibility, dual alarms, built-in radio, and a new retro look which, for better or worse, is the most distinctive in this product line’s long history. Comes in black or silver.
iHome iP27 • portable stereo alarm • $99: The portable cousin of the iP9 loses half its height and weight, and folds down flat for travel. In the process you’ll lose the built-in radio and dual alarms, but this is for travel purposes and it fits nicely inside a suitcase (comes with a travel case too). It doesn’t sound as good as the iP9, but it sounds good enough that frequent travelers will do fine using it both at home and on the road.
Altec Moondance Glow • home alarm stereo • $179: This one would be worth its price even if it weren’t an alarm clock. Sound quality is great, an LCD screen displays your iPod’s track information when listening to music, and there’s even a “mood light” on the back. In addition to the standard remote control, there’s also a wireless snooze bar for your bedpost. Unfortunately it’s iPod-only, and won’t be on our list next time if doesn’t gain iPhone compatibility by then.
iHome iA5 • app enhanced alarm • $99: This one is only worth it if you’re going to take advantage of its free iHome+Sleep companion app for iPhone and iPod touch, as it’s not a standout piece of equipment in terms of audio quality. But that app enhancement instantly brings the iA5 to life as a stereo, as an alarm clock, and as a glimpse into the future (those looking for better audio might do well to hold out for iHome’s forthcoming iA100).
View all seventy-five winning accessories for iPad, iPhone, and iPod (including cases, earbuds, car products, stereos, batteries and more) in Beatweek Magazine’s 75th issue which you can read digitally for free right here.
Best speaker systems of 2009
November 2, 2009 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
iProng Magazine’s best iPhone and iPod stereo systems for 2009, categorized by price point and portability…
Review: Parrot by Starck
September 27, 2009 by Beatweek · 3 Comments
New in iProng Labs: a hands-on review of the high-end Zimku “Parrot by Starck” speaker system for iPhone and iPod, priced at an eye-popping $1600…
review by Bill Palmer
Sixteen hundred dollars. Yeah, you read that correctly. Can any iPhone accessory possibly be worth that kind of price tag? Parrot wants to find out, with this new product designed by famous French product designer Philippe Starck (although the product is named “Zimku” it’s more commonly referred to as “Parrot by Starck”), and more tangibly, it comes in the form of two standalone speaker towers that connect to each other wirelessly. Cone-shaped on bottom, each tower funnels up into a rectangular shape that’s only about five inches wide and one inch deep, with an iPhone/iPod dock on the top of one tower and playback controls on top of the other.
If you’re going to spend the kind of money on an iPod/iPhone stereo system that could instead be used to buy an iPhone and an iPod touch plus all nine colors of iPod nano and still have money left over, then it had better offer a mind blowing experience. Not great. Not excellent. Mind blowing. Nothing less. And after having spent quality time this week with the Parrot by Starck, set up in various positions around the house, I can report back that the experience did in fact blow my mind. Is it perfect? No, and I’ll get to that. Is it worth $1600? As always, that’ll be for each of you to decide after reading the review. But here are my experiences and conclusions.
The first litmus test with any wireless product is ease of setup, and in this case, after taking the two towers out of their rather large box and plugging each into an electrical outlet, I found that there was no wireless setup to even worry about. I placed my iPhone into the dock, hit the play button, and music came out of both speakers. Ideally, wireless products should be as easy to set up as wired ones, and while that’s not always the case with various products I’ve tested, it is with this one.
As far as range, I started with the towers ten feet apart from each other, then twenty, then thirty, then forty, all with success. It wasn’t until I placed them about fifty feet apart (with two walls in between them) that I started to get some flakiness from the second tower. It’s not that the audio quality ever did degrade, just that it started to cut out intermittently at that distance. So figure on being able to use these up to roughly fifty feet apart within the same room, a little less if you’re going to put them in different rooms. In any case you’re probably most likely to position them ten two twenty feet apart in the same room, but it’s nice to have the extra flexibility.
Having passed the setup and range tests, it was time to move on to testing what really matters, which is of course audio quality. The music that comes out of the Parrot by Starck is just plain beautiful. Amazing. Stunning. Pick a word, they’re all understatements. The clarity is exquisite. The higher ranges and lower ranges all sound fantastic.
But then you probably already guessed all of that, based just on the price tag. At this price point, and also at this size, the Parrot by Starck had better go beyond merely delivering beautiful rich music, which you can get from a product a fifth the size and a fifth the price. It needs to offer something substantially more. Sure, you can crank the Starck loud enough to literally wake the neighbors without any loss of audio quality (actually, at its top volume, I think the Starck could not only wake your neighbors but enrage them to the point where they come over to your house and murder you), but it’s not just about high-fidelity volume, either. Placing one tower on each side of my desk, both facing me, I felt so immersed in the music that it seemed to be a part of the room itself as opposed to coming from any particular direction – and that’s what you can’t get from even the best of the $300 desktop dockable systems. It’s quite a price premium, but the immersion does offer an entirely different kind of listening experience.
My only criticism of the Starck is with what you can’t do with it. The included remote impressively also works through walls, all too rare in this market, but lacks the ability to navigate the iPhone’s or iPod’s menus, a feature that’s increasingly commonplace on even $100 systems. And perhaps more importantly, you can’t adjust the Starck’s bass or treble ratio. Not that you’d necessarily want to, seeing how stunning it sounds out of the box. But again, this is a standard inclusion for many less-expensive competing products.
Obviously you have to be at a certain income or wealth level in order to afford the $1600 Parrot by Starck in the first place. But if you are, then consider yourself lucky, as the listening experience is nothing short of amazing. It can also be used as a computer speaker system.
Learn more about the Parrot by Starck at Parrot.
