There's no shortage of iPod dock solutions available for the casual shopper, but those seeking a quality option have a more restricted choice – and finding the best hi-fi performer amongst them is a challenge. Approaches vary considerably between brands, and some may suit your lifestyle better than others.
For this sound-off we compare three very different iProducts from three rather different hi-fi brands, all with enviable reputations. Bose offers the SoundDock Series II, Yamaha the distinctive PDX-50 and B&W the dramatic Zeppelin. All aspire to deliver the best music performance possible, albeit with certain caveats. Which one will be your next iPod dock?
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meriwether
September 15th 2010
2. ..well actually, recent reviews reveal the best sounding portable speakers for the iPod?iPhone to be the Cambridge Sound Design's System 12. For $499 they should be good but they do require power and set-up but the sound is oh so sweet!
Also http://www.r4fords.co.uk/
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healeydave
December 10th 2009
1. This was a requirement last Xmas (2008) for me. With an abundance of devices, I suspected a lot of the smaller foot print devices would suffer from sound quality and right I was.
We took my wifes iPod Nano into all the big electrical department stores (which are all next to each other on a retail park near us) and decided we would check them out for sound quality before we made a rash purchase.
I have to say anyone thinking about buying a Speaker Dock MUST do this also!
I was horrified to find the amount of units that were abismal in my opinion (the majority!).
I was equally horrified to find some of the expensive brands like Bose & Sony to be somewhat dissapointing too considering their hiked price factor!
In the end we purchased a specifc model from one brand JBL. JBL does a number of models but we found ONE model specifically that had an excellent sound and depth of bass that most other units couldn't provide at all or were incapable of handling their own sound.
That Model is the JBL Radial PRO (my model code on the bottom 700/0050). Now I cannot stress enough how careful you need to be in purchasing one of these because they have another model that is almost identical in design but nothing like similar!?
The PRO version has 3 silver bands at the bottom of the design, the poorer version has 1 I think.
Its intereting also that once we found a unit with the sound quality we wanted, we couldn't buy it. Absolutely no electrical store or online merchant last Xmas had them in stock, a telling sign??
We eventually tracked one down and I am very happy with it still. It passes my own WYBIA test (Would You Buy It Again).
There are some disadvantages but nothing significant enough to warrant rejecting for the others we tested. The volume increments strangly sometimes you think there should be a setting between what you were on and what you moved to when you pressed the VOL+ button just once. The dock can be easilt broken if you don't use the inserts (supplied) for your specific device. So JBL had it covered with the inserts if you only want to use 1 x iPod device, what if you use a iPod & an iPhone, ah ha!
Other than those minor issues, I would still thoroughly recommend it, Its virtually a no-brainer anyway (as long as you get the right model) nothing else came close when we tested them!
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