The sexiest iPod dock yet!
Pros:
Easy to use, intuitive, gorgeous design. Great sound quality.
Cons:
No remote control. Timecrawler auto-set feature didn'd work.
The Bottom Line:
Great sound, gorgeous design. Worth the price. But shop around, you should be able to buy it for less than the sticker price.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
This is, without a doubt, the sexiest Ipod dock I’ve ever seen. Sure, it looks a bit like a miniature MRI or Darth Vader’s regeneration egg, but that’s what makes it so snazzy and eye-catching! Every other iPod alarm clock on the market is all boxy and boring looking. But this thing has flair.
The controls are very intuitive - Setting the time, alarm settings, and adjusting the backlight was a cinch. Alarm features two separate alarms, which are incredibly easy to re-set and adjust the wake time. No more scrolling through 24 hours worth of minutes to change your wake-time, like with cheaper alarms!
This is compatible with all ipods – it comes with a variety of interchangeable face plates for the actual docking bit, and you can also plug another audio source into the stereo jack – a discman or your laptop, for example. Antennae for AM/FM radio.
The large LCD is backlit with a gorgeous shade of blue, which has three brightness settings. The most dim is perfect for nighttime – just enough light to help me stumble to the bathroom without stubbing my toe, yet not enough to keep me awake. I personally found the medium setting and the high setting to be far too bright for my own comfort. But never fear, the auto-brightness setting senses the level of ambient light in the room and adjusts accordingly. How smart is that?
I didn’t have the greatest of luck with the timecrawler feature, which supposedly enables the clock to ‘read’ the time from a local radio station and set itself. To be fair, I have difficulty getting good radio reception where I live, so it may be an issue of reception, and not the product itself.
The biggest disappointment is the lack of a remote control. It would be really nice to adjust the volume or skip through music without having to get up and walk across the room, but I can live without one, I suppose.
The speakers and sound quality are fairly impressive. The sound quality does deteriorate at higher volume levels, but lets be honest, loud volume isn’t that good for our ears, and this is an alarm clock/shelf unit, not an expensive stereo system. The quality is more than ample for the price.
I may be more kindly disposed to this docking station than others – CostCo carries it at $180, and I bought it with a $40 off coupon, which means I paid $100 less than the shelf price at typical electronic stores. Definitely a bargain, but truth be told, I probably would have paid full price.
