iPod Speakers Buying Guide

The iPod is a great personal music player, but on its own it falls short for when you want to share your music with others or listen without headphones.  Only the iPod Touch  and iPhone  have their own speakers, but these speakers leave much to be desired in volume and audio quality. That's why many companies offer speaker systems for the iPod models, which provide similar sound to headphones but allow your music to play out loud and without wires.

Choosing the Right System

There is quite a bit of variety in what different sound systems offer. The most basic systems simply play the audio on your iPod out loud, whilst more advanced models offer remote controls to operate your iPod from across the room, video outputs for displaying photos and videos on a TV, or even their own screens  for video playback. Choosing the best system for you requires an evaluation of what features you need out of your speakers.

• Budget: The price range on speaker systems is vast. Entry-level systems can be had on the cheap, whilst the largest, most powerful, and most feature-filled systems can cost hundreds of dollars more.
• Room Size: The amount that the speaker system can project across a room is determined by its size and power. Simply turning up the volume on a smaller system is not enough to cover a large area with audio. If you need your speakers to sound good in a big space, you'll need a big speaker system.
• Bass: Most well-built speakers sound pretty good, but bass production is an important and often overlooked feature of a quality sound system. Look for a system that has solid bass capabilities. Some systems have their own subwoofers to boost their bass.
• Portability: If you want your speakers to be able to travel, they'll need to be lightweight and compact. Some of the most portable speakers have their own carrying handles, and some other speakers designed to travel will fit easily in a bag and won't weigh more than one or two kilos.
• Aesthetics: Speakers come in a variety of designs. Some are small and uniquely shaped whilst other larger systems may have wood panels to fit in with the furniture in a room. Especially for less portable systems, make sure to find something that will look good in the room that it will be providing with sound.

Quick Picks

JBL Radial  The Radial features a lightweight design and a universal dock for all iPods except the Shuffle, as well as stellar sound quality and an output for displaying photos or videos on a TV.	Bose SoundDock  The SoundDock delivers basic functionality and quality sound. Bose also offers a portable  version with similar audio production.	Altec Lansing iM600  Altec Lansing's iM600 is small and portable. It weighs less than 1.2 kilograms and carries a relatively modest price tag compared to its competition.	Klipsch iGroove  Fairly inexpensive, the iGroove has solid sound quality, an adjustable bar for different iPod sizes, and an adapter for other brands of MP3 player.	Altec Lansing iMV712  The iMV712 offers superb sound quality and has a 21.6 cm wide-screen LCD display to view photos and videos stored on your iPod, as well as a TV output.

Popular iPod Speaker Brands

• Altec Lansing 
• Bose 
• Creative 
• Cyber Acoustics 
• DLO 
• iHome 
• JBL 
• Klipsch 
• Logic3 
• Logitech 
• Sonic Impact 
• Sonos 
• Sony 

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