iGroove for my iPhone
Written: Jul 30 '07 (Updated Aug 09 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Elegant Design iPod/iPhone Speaker, Excellent Sound Quality, Remote Control, Wireless Connection with other RoomGroove Speakers
Cons: Wireless interference from iPhone, No Speakerphone, No USB port, no well insert for iPhone
The Bottom Line: The RoomGroove boasts pleasant aesthetics, excellent sound and multi room capability for an iPod/iPhone speaker. It does not connect/sync with a PC, and cannot be used as a speakerphone.
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| aashok's Full Review: Klipsch Roomgroove Ipod Speaker (1006602) Docking ... |
When I purchased my iPhone on June 29th, I knew that it would be used heavily to play music & movies. In the past I would play music from my Treo 650 on the inMotion IMT1 speakerphone sound-dock. This made it very convenient for me to play my favorite music in the background at my office. So I was almost immediately looking for a similar device for the iPhone. I noticed numerous choices with various features at the Apple store on 5th Ave. But I finally decided on the Klipsch RoomGroove speaker at $299. In the store it seemed to have styling that matched the iPhone, and it sounded just great.
SOUND QUALITY
So far of all the speakers I have tested at the Apple store, the Bose iPod sound dock, the Apple HiFi and the Klipsch RoomGroove seem to have the best sound. The differences in sound quality between the three, is very subjective and based on your personal preference. I prefer to hear deep rich bass in my music. The Bose Sound Dock while it sounded good, just seemed to have a very single dimensional and flat bass. The Apple HiFi had excellent overall sound with rich bass, but just looked like a very large rectangular box. The Klipsch seemed to have just the right mix of deep rich room filling bass, with sleek clean aesthetics. Right now I have ‘Barry White – Never Gone Give You Up’ playing on my iPhone, and the sound has a wide range and tremendous depth. Even Joe Walsh and his guitar sound great on ‘Rocky Mountain Way’. And Axel was really wailing away on vocals on ‘Sweet Child O Mine’. It sounds very much comparable to some expensive shelf systems I’ve owned in the past. When I played a movie on the iPhone, the video image was obviously rotated 90 degrees to the right, but the sound played just great.
RADIO INTERFERENCE
The iPhone does cause some radio interference every time it is receiving a call or connecting to the EDGE network, while docked in the RoomGroove. But this is to be expected with the iPhone. There is absolutely no interference when this speaker is used with an iPod. GSM networks in US run on on 1800-1900 mHz. It is a known issue that this causes radio interference noise on audio equipment ie speakers, and receivers in the proximity of the mobile phone. The only way to eliminate this is to put the iPhone into airplane mode (turn the cellular radio transmitter off). The RoomGroove was designed only to play audio from an iPod. As such it does not have a microphone and cannot be used as a speakerphone. I wonder when Klipsch and the other speaker manufacturers get the message and start producing shielded speakers with a microphone for the iPhone.
SIMPLE REMOTE CONTROL
Keeping in-line with the minimalist design of the iPhone & iPod, the included IR remote control has only the most rudimentary controls. The main control buttons include Power, Vol up & dn, song skip forward & reverse, Play/Pause & Mute. In addition you can select the audio source ie iPod, Aux, or (listen) receive an audio signal from another RoomGroove. It runs on one CR2025 button cell battery. I had no problem using it from 18 feet accross the room.
KLIPSCHCAST
This feature allows the speaker to transmit or receive CD quality audio between other RoomGroove speakers. For example, if I have a RoomGroove speaker playing songs from my iPhone in my home-office, I can simultaneously listen to the same song thru the RoomGroove speaker located in my bedroom. There are Listen & Transmit buttons located at the top right of the speaker. Multiple RoomGrooves can be set to the same home code, in order to minimize interference from conflicting frequencies in use by the neighbors. This feature works in the 2.4 gHz band, and actively scans and avoids any other frequencies in use by a WiFi network of cordless phones. This is a nice way to pipe music wirelessly throughout the house. But at $300 per speaker, it will not be cheap compared to traditional wired solutions.
ELEGANT DESIGN
It is quite obvious that Klipsch was inspired (or motivated) by the trend toward simple & elegant yet functional design of Apple products. The RoomGroove speaker is approximately 7 inches tall, 16 inches wide & 5 inches deep. The black finish with silver accents looks perfectly matches for the iPhone. There are two volume + & - buttons at front top center. The Transmit, Listen & Power buttons are toward front top right. The listen button is lit in either blue, red or purple, depending on the source of audio being played through the speaker. There is a Klipsch logo at bottom front center. When you lightly touch it, a tray slowly slides out revealing the standard 30pin iPod connector. This can be used to play audio on the speaker while the iPod / iPhone gets recharged. There is an AUX 3.5mm input jack in the back. This could be used to connect another audio device ie CD/DVD player. There is no USB port on this speaker. Which means you cannot connect it to a PC in order to Sync an iPod or iPhone. The unit came with seven universal well inserts. You can insert the one matching your iPod into the docking tray. While there was no well insert included for the iPhone, I did not have any problem in inserting the iPhone and playing it in the RoomGroove Speaker. The only wire used is for the AC adapter, and even that has a smart cable management system. Any excessive cable can be wound around the AC adapter, which can then be clipped to the back of the speaker. This minimizes cable clutter behind your desk.
THE BOTTOMLINE
The Klipsch RoomGroove is an elegantly designed solution for playing high quality audio from your iPod or iPhone. In my opinion it sounds and looks much better than the Bose Sound Dock, or the Apple HiFi speakers. It does not have a microphone and cannot be used as a speakerphone for the iPhone. Also it is not shielded and will cause radio interference from the iPhone radio transmitter.
Recommended:
Yes
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