Yamaha PDX-30 review

An excellent speaker set, but at questionable value for money

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Yamaha PDX-30
The Yamaha PDX-30 really does sound just as good as it looks

TechRadar Verdict

A beautifully warm, rich and detailed sound, but limited features

Pros

  • +

    Powerful, meaty speakers

  • +

    Looks the part

Cons

  • -

    Lacks versatility

  • -

    No dock adaptors included

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Attractive, well-made iPod dock and speaker sets aren't exactly thin on the ground, but there's always room for one more stylish gadget. The new Yamaha PDX-30 is available in four designs: all black, or a white body with blue, grey or pink insets.

The PDX-30 offers a clean, minimalistic look, with the only on-box controls being the volume buttons. Your iPod's click wheel or touchscreen functions are slaved to a handy, easy-to-use remote. It's fully compatible with all iPhones (Airplane Mode not required) and any iPod that charges through USB.

Like most modern docks, you can also use it with an older, FireWire-charged iPod, though it won't charge while it's docked and some of the handset's controls won't work. Also, you'd better still have the universal dock adaptor that came with your device too, as there aren't any bundled with the speaker set.

This is a very tight omission considering its cost. We are very impressed with the Yamaha PDX-30's rich, meaty sound. It boasts an impressive amount of detail, though it's a little heavy on the bass. If you like your sounds very bass-driven, this speaker set will certainly be to your taste.

Overall reproduction is warm, pure and rounded, and stereo separation is spot-on, which is impressive for such a compact device. It's powerful enough to saturate a decent-sized room too. If you like your music loud, you won't have any complaints here.

But for all its impressive strengths, the PDX-30 sadly lacks versatility. There's no audio-in socket to connect a non-iPod audio device through its headphone port. You can't connect your headphones to the speaker dock, so there's no listening in private while you charge your iPod or iPhone, and although the box describes it as a 'portable player dock', it can only be powered through the mains.

The Yamaha PDX-30 isn't the most versatile speaker set on the market right now, but what it does, it does extremely well. But for the price, you could get something that offers a better feature range.

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Ian Osborne