Nice product, but I'm sure there is a better one
Written: Feb 15 '07 (Updated Dec 18 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compact, great sound quality
Cons: Awkward controls, remote is near useless, makes streaks on iPod
The Bottom Line: It is quite a nice unit with some great features, but the flaws make it hard to justify the price tag, unless you find it on a good sale.
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| dandino's Full Review: SDI iH5 Docking Station, Speaker System for Apple ... |
Several months ago, a friend came over to our house and commented on our “old school” stereo. It was a 5-CD changer with dual tape deck and a nice set of speakers that served me quite well through many dorm parties (hence the beer stains). Apparantly my wife agreed, and she got an iHome for her birthday from the same friend who made the comment.
LOOKS
The iHome looks pretty nice, you can get it in white or black to match your iPod. A metal mesh protects the speakers. It is very small and quite flat, comparable to the size of a thick Harry Potter hard cover novel. Like most stereos, there are wire antennas that dangle in the back. Unfortunately, all the buttons and controls are on top, so you can’t put it on top of any furniture too tall or you’ll have to pick up the entire unit every time you want to hit a button.
SOUND
I was thoroughly impressed with the sound quality and volume from such a small pair of speakers. The depth of the sound was simply incredible. The box showed some diagrams of how they are able to achieve this piece of technology and I had no clue what they were talking about, but it made for a nice picture. The sound from this won’t give you so much bass that you rattle the windows, but it will make for an enjoyable listen to whatever you choose.
DISPLAY
The display is set on the highest possible brightness. The radio is in our bedroom, so I noticed that when I turned the lights off to go to bed, I was bathed blue. I’m not sure why anyone would need a backlight so intensely bright, but there are ways to turn it down which I needed to figure out before I went to bed. Other than that, the numbers are a good size to tell the time, along with smaller numbers for the date, and little icons to show you if you’re listening to the radio, your iPod, or auxiliary.
CONTROLS
This is where the unit starts to falter a bit. They tried to take styling cues from the iPod itself and made click wheels, loud click wheels. If you try to change the alarm time while your wife is already sleeping, she will wake up to the should of many tiny spring loaded plastic ball bearings popping away. I see nothing wrong with simple up/down buttons, but they tried to copy a click wheel and the user-friendliness suffered. As for the buttons, some have multiple functions. Some of these functions are illuminated, others are not. For an alarm clock/radio, there shouldn’t be this complicated of an operation. It’s not as if you’ll need to go into sub menus to do what you need to, but you will have to stand there and figure out what you need to do. Part of the appeal of iPods is the simple and intuitive controls, the iHome did not succeed here.
DOCKING
The unit comes with various adaptors to fit the different generations of and versions of the iPod family. It appears that there was some disconnect in the way this was designed, because there was no proper adaptor for the 30GB iPod video that my wife has. There was a card in the box explaining that I needed to modify a different adaptor with rubber stickies. So I had to pry off the stickies from one of the adaptors, and replace them with a thicker pair so that the iPod would be stable in the dock. One of the things you’ll often hear about iPods is that they are sleek and sexy. After using the iHome, you’ll notice those rubber stickies leave skid marks on your iPod, not so sexy.
REMOTE CONTROL
I’ll be brief, it’s useless. I need to be 2 feet from the radio in order to use it. It small, cheap, and flimsy.
Overall, it produces excellent quality sound while charging your iPod. However I feel that for $100, things like the remote, docks, and click wheels should have been more carefully designed. The only reason I wouldn’t recommend this to a friend is that I’m sure there must be another product that gives more value for the buck. If it sold for half the price, I’d probably have given it a more positive review.
UPDATE
I recently purchased an iPhone 3G. This dock is not compatible with it. If you have an iPhone, make sure you get the newer models that are compatible. iHome has updated their product line.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
dandino
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Location: Long Island, NY
Reviews written: 49
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
I like tools and electronic gizmos.
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