iPod: Office
Picking the right speakers for your PC
April 5, 2004
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Altec Lansing inMotion Portable iPod Speakers
Great sound in a stylish package |
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Your office PC might have nice speakers, but if your music collection is on your iPod and you use a Mac at home to configure it, those speakers are going to be useless. Sure, you could unplug them from the PC and line them right into the iPod — just pull out the mini-plug that resembles the one for your headphones, and plug it into your iPod's headphone jack. While this is simple, it leaves your PC mute, meaning you may no longer hear alerts on your computer, causing you to miss an e-mail or worse, ignore a dangerous virus warning.The pricier, but less troublesome answer is a set of speakers for your iPod. The king of portable speakers is the Altec Lansing inMotion system ($149 at apple.com). It's the size of a paperback when folded up, and just over twice the weight of the iPod itself. It unfolds into a little altar upon which your iPod (though not iPod mini) can recharge while playing. It sounds better than you'd imagine. At first we tested it with mellow stuff, like Jack Johnson and Gillian Welch, and it passed. At a low volume up close it's crystal clear; turned up (but not all the way!), it resonates across the room. Next was the hip-hop test, from 50 Cent to Wyclef by way of Eminem, Jay-Z and OutKast. While the bass isn't really heavy — the four tweeters are, after all, just an inch in diameter each — you can hear bass instruments coming through. When the bass is kind of dirty to begin with (certain Eminem and OutKast tracks), it will fluster the speakers into crackling a bit. For something a little less mobile, try in Creative's I-Trigue speaker systems (from $99.99 to $129.99 on creative.com). With a subwoofer and two speakers, it might solve the problem of bass response. But then again, it could cause co-worker problems. Creative also makes a small portable system, the TravelSound i300 ($79.99), styled in white for iPods. Neither system can charge the iPod.
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