Charging your phone with a cable is ancient
history with the availability of speaker docking stations. Find out which one
caught our attention.
So your new iPhone, iPod or iPad finally
arrived. Now it's time to outfit it with some killer accessories. This time, we
are looking at speaker docks and what all the brands are offering these days
are no joke. Among the dozens upon dozens of models available out there, a
select few have differentiated themselves with a mixture of superior design,
performance, and value. We've assembled them here in this month's mini
Showdown.
As always with our group tests, just
because something isn’t the winner doesn't mean you shouldn't get it. Some offer
the features you may want while others may represent the style that fits you.
Just give a little thought about the kind of place you want to use your dock
now: By your bedside? In the kitchen? As a sound system for your TV? Bear this
in mind as you read on.
In this mini Showdown, we will be looking
at SonicGear, XtremeMac, Logitech and Doss. All of these will be tested with
the same iPod. Also, to make the tests as fair as possible, we turned off the
iPod's equaliser so that all the sound quality extras come from the speaker
dock. Let’s see which of these will be king.
XtremeMac
XtremeMac was founded in October 2001, just
after the release of the first iPod, and made its debut at Macworld Expo in
January 2002 as one of the first iPod accessory companies. Today, the XtremeMac
brand is part of the Imation Corp. portfolio of brands and has a full product
line of accessories for Apple's latest devices. The people from XtremeMac are
Apple enthusiast making them the right kind of people to develop iDevices add-ons.
SonicGear
Sonic
Gear Tatoo 303 2.1 Speakers
Established in 1999, Leapfroglobal started
off in Singapore as a distributor for audio systems. Inaugurated in 2001,
SonicGear started by reaching out to Singaporeans by providing its consumers
reassurance through a reliable product and service integrity. Their product
lines include: multimedia systems, portable speakers, audio earpieces,
headphones, headsets and audio docking stations compatible with the Apple
iPhone, iPad and iPod.
Logitech
Logitech, founded 1981 in Switzerland, make products that connect
people to the digital experiences. Because of the founders' software
background, they chose the name Logitech, which comes from the French word for
software: "logiciel." Asides
from handling multiple computing, communication and entertainment platforms,
Logitech also venture into making docks for Apple products.
Doss
The word Doss actually means “dream of
smart sound", which was established in 2000 and left an impression on
audio market as the main brand of Wonders. It has been the speaker
manufacturing centre since the first products went to America market in 2002.
As Doss grows, they also jump into the docking bandwagon offering users speaker
docks for Apple's devices.
Extrememac luna voyager ii
Extrememac
Luna Voyager Ii
Looking at the Luna Voyager II, the music
that came into mind is Flo Rida's song called Low. It has a really low but wide
profile going on for it So in a way, it actually takes some space on a table
unless you are alright with putting things on top of the speaker dock. But
wait, you can't do that because the speakers are on top. So that basically
leaves you with a speaker dock that takes up a little space. Despite that, it
is a solid accessory accompanied by a nice orange-lit clock, which doesn’t
blast your eyes with unwanted brightness in the dark.
Sonicgear DA-2001
Going retro with its design is SonieGear DA-200Í and it is actually looks good.
They placed all the buttons at the bottom right side but there is a remote
included for convenience purposes. Adding brushed aluminium trim panels is a
nice touch because who doesn't love the feeling of it? There is also a cool
blue backlighting that adds a chill-out feel to it while listening to music.
There is actually two blue backlights placed behind the dock connector.
Logitech Bedside Dock
All the design aspect of the Bedside Dock
makes sense. Sure, it's triangular but that's great as instead of needing to
use any dock adapters, all of the ¡Devices can just lean backwards for support
because of the shape of the dock. The buttons are placed nicely on the right
and left side making it easily accessible. It lacks the music control buttons
(play, pause, skip track and previous track) but that can be solved by just
controlling it via the iDevices music player. However, placing the speakers
right at the side of the dock facing away from each other is a bit off as audio
sounded a bit softer.
Doss Rotation Speaker
Doss
Rotation Speaker
The Doss Rotation Speaker adopts an arc
arch design with a hollow part in the middle. That’s where the iPod or iPhone
goes into. All the music controls are situated at the top part of the dock making
the dock look minimalistic. Despite it looking like an oversized donut, it
actually looks classy as the dock bathe itself in black. The Rotation Speaker
also comes with a remote control with additional buttons to easily navigate the
music menu.
