iPOD Speakers - The Best Speakers for Your iPOD

What are the best speakers for the iPOD? Well, you have a few
choices when choosing speakers for your iPOD. Since many home
stereos and home theater receivers (Denon, Marantz, Harman
Kardon, NAD, and Onkyo, to name some of the more popular
ones) now have an iPOD integration option, you can use the same
speakers that you are using for your stereo. If you want speakers
that are made specially for the iPOD, you have several options.

The best speakers for your iPOD -

There are several iPOD docking stations that have integrated
speaker solutions. While this is solution certainly convenient, it does
have its drawbacks. You can’t relocate the speakers to the place in
your room that gives the best sound, while keeping the iPOD
docking cradle in a location that’s easy for you to remove and
replace your iPOD. You can’t spread the speakers out and since
they’re typically only separated by a foot or less, that doesn’t really
spread the sound out throughout the room or give good stereo
separation.

In addition, there is another problem; no bass. While some of you
may be fine with the anemic sound you get out of these tiny, tinny
speakers that come with many of the pre-packaged, docking
station / speaker solutions, most of you reading this will probably
want some sort of realistic bass, if not the throbbing, pounding
variety.

Although people are familiar with subwoofers because of their use in
home theaters, fewer people are aware that you can use a
subwoofer with about any audio solution, given the requisite
connections. The problem with the all-in-one iPOD docking stations
is that there aren’t subwoofer outputs or separate speaker wire
connections on most of them. That means that there eisn’t a place
where the non-electrical engineers in the crowd can connect an
outboard, powered subwoofer, and without that you’ll have no
bass from your iPOD speaker system.

So, how can you get bass from your iPOD? You’ll need a docking
station with removable speakers, or a subwoofer output. Then you’
ll need a powered subwoofer to connect up to your system, and
some great music to listen to.

You can get some really great speakers even with no subwoofer
however. Thanks to modern, digital amplifier technology speakers
designers can cram a pretty healthy amount of amplifier power into
a relatively small space these days.

Here are your options for iPOD speakers:

Docking station with integrated speakers
Docking station with external speakers
Docking station that connects to your home stereo
Adding a powered subwoofer to any of the above solutions
so you can have some real bass from your iPOD

Krell, the Connecticut manufacturer of super high end amplifiers
and speakers has introduced their Kid/Papa Dock iPOD dock
solution, but it is a robust $4,000 and doesn't include speakers. For
those of you who are in the premium market, but think $4Gs
sounds like just a tad much, your're in luck. Krell feels your pain
and has just introduced another iPOD ready solution, the
replacement for the much loved 400xi integrated amplifier.

The new integrated is dubbed the S-300i. It's unique for the
category, in that the S-300i taps audio from the fully differential
output included in the internal DACs of an iPod/ iPhone. It also
maintains this balanced signal throughout the circuitry. A direct
iPod connectivity cable is provided. Typically you only get a line
level audio output from your iPOD to use when connecting an amp
or powered speakers. Clearly, the new Krell, at 150 watts per
channel into an 8 ohm load, and 300 into a 4 ohm load, is a
different animal entirely.

Here are some of the better companies that make iPOD integrated
docking station / speaker solutions:

Axiom Audio - Axiom Audio specializes in factory direct
audiophile and home theater speaker solutions. Since they
are factory direct only, they cut out the middle marketing
layers and save you a big chunk of money. We knew that
when they decided to make a PC / iPOD speakers system
that it would be 2 things; a great sounding speaker system,
and a fantastic value. They exceed expectations on both
counts.

In fact they're so good that the great reviews keep on piling

up. Check out this one -

"So how did they sound? Much better than I expected.

they ARE audiophile quality. The Audiobytes were

demonstrated with classical music, the hardest test of any

speaker and the sound was smooth, sweet, full, and clear. . .

definitely the best I've heard from any computer speaker,

including my Monsoons. which I thought would NEVER be

beaten in their class."

Check out the

Axiom Audiobyte Audiobyte speakers here

-- Don Lindich, SoundAdvice

Altec Lansing - Once one of America's premier speaker
manufacturers, AL now concentrates primarily on iPOD and
computer speakers. Altec has made some pretty nice
speakers as these sort of devices go, and have a variety of
iPOD docking stations and powered speaker solutions
available.
Jensen - Over 40? Remember those Jensen Triaxials you
had in the back of your Camaro?
JBL - JBL is part of Harman America. They have a mamouth
R&D budget and produce everything from the cheapest
speakers to $50,000 home theater solutions. Their huge
R&D department does allow them to leverage their research
from their expensive solutions for the benefit of their less
expensive products.
Boston Acoustics - This speaker company has been around
for a good, long time and has been making some fairly high
end speakers for home audio applications. Now they are part
of the same company that owns Snell, the first company to
make a home THX certified speaker system back in the early
1990's (But not for the iPOD)
JVC
VAF Research - Now these are REAL Speakers for your iPOD.
Yes, they're expensive, but they actually put out high
quality audio and use real speakers to do it. If you have the
budget, these ere the ones to get. They'll make you (and
your iPOD) really happy.

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iPOD Speakers