TechRadar Verdict
A very obvious improvement over the way people normally use iPod speakers
Pros
- +
Easy setup
- +
Wide signal range
- +
No obvious sound deterioration
- +
Exceptionally convenient
- +
Supports non-iPod devices
Cons
- -
High priced luxury item
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Many of us have iPod speakers, but not all of them have remotes - and even the ones that do can be a pain to use. After all, if you're sitting on the sofa, you can't read the iPod screen from the other side of the room, leaving the remote redundant for browsing tracks.
The ideal solution used to be in the form of those rare remotes with LCD screens that let you do basic browsing. But forget those, because things have moved up a level. Meet the Cerulean TX+RX, a Bluetooth setup that turns your iPod into the remote and beams tunes to the speaker from your hand.
Plug and play
The Cerulean TX+RX has a transmitter (TX) that docks into your iPod's Universal Dock Connector port, and a receiver (RX) that sits in the speakers' docking bay. Nice, eh? It wouldn't be in our top ten most needed gadgets but is a luxury product that works really well within a 15-metre range.
It's plug and play with no initial setting up to worry about. You can change the volume of the tunes being beamed using the click wheel, too. Also in the box is a USB charging cable.
This draws power from either your Mac or another USB power source - for example a USB plug adaptor (not included) - and will charge your iPod. Unfortunately when you attach this cable between your iPod and a Mac, the iPod mounts on your Desktop, which stops the beaming tune mid-track.
It needs to be unmounted to resume playing, which is vaguely annoying. Other cabling is in the box for adapting non-iPod music players to the same purpose, like a portable CD player, for example, to beam that signal to the speaker, too.
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The Cerulean TX+RX is compatible with other products in the Cerulean range, like the Cerulean FI headset. The price is steep but the quality is undeniable.
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