Review: inMotion iPod Speakers (updated) 38
Audio: First of all, understand that you are not going to get fantastic full-range audio from a speaker system that uses 2 pairs of 1" drivers. It's just not physically possible. This is not for audiophiles; it is just for travel/convenience listening. However, the inMotions use an interesting trick to make up for the lack of low frequency/bass response: they reproduce the higher frequency harmonics (which the little speakers can reproduce) that the lower bass registers would produce in real life if played over larger speakers. The resulting bass can sound a bit hollow and artificial at times, but it is impressive the degree I perceive it to be present is given how small the drivers are. You do distinctly perceive a fair amount of bass without any actual low-frequency thumping or movement of large amounts of air -- pretty cool.
The high-end response is good, as expected from the small drivers, and the midrange response is better than most small micro/travel speakers that use only one pair of 1" (or smaller) drivers. The simulated bass is surprisingly effective but subject to noticeable distortion if your EQ settings over-amplify the lower frequencies or if the unit is turned up too loud. I have found the "Acoustic" EQ settings seem to work well for the inMotions, luckily, on the iPod you have many EQ settings to play around with.
This bass-enhancement circuitry and/or the built in amplifier does add a bit of noise. You can hear it when you max out the volume w/o the iPod connected. It is not really noticeable at normal listening levels, though.
Because the speakers are located close together and cannot be angled outwards, stereo separation is limited, and music sounds somewhat "mono" and clock radio-like. However, putting a hotel menu or hard cover book opened to 90 degrees with the apex pointed at the midpoint between the speakers helped to spread the audio out a little.
Overall a good sounding set of speakers for less "bassy" music (great for guitar rock, jazz, acoustic and vocal pieces; not so good for techno/dance) at moderate to quiet listening levels. These would be great for Audio Books. Distortion becomes a problem when you turn the speakers up beyond what is reasonable for such small drivers, but you can provide surprisingly full and loud sound to fill a good-sized hotel room (try using the Bass Reducer EQ setting if you have to turn them up really loud).
Hardware/Build: The base station and speaker assembly are fairly well built, but still a bit cheap feeling for something that costs $149. The whole thing folds open/closed much like an oversized audio tape case to protect the drivers. The side arms are made of a brushed aluminum complementing the look of the iPod.
The docking connector for 3G iPods is exposed, and could use a cover of some sort. However, I have one from the firewire cable that came with the iPod that will do just fine, assuming it doesn't fall off and get lost too fast. There is a spacer that comes with the inMotion that is supposed to give a better fit with the 10 and 15/20GB models, as the slot has been made to fit the thicker 30/40GB iPods. I found that the spacer wasn't needed for the thinner iPod to fit well, so I suspect the thicker iPods will have a rather tight fit.
The volume buttons are a -/+ affair to the left of the iPod with a slider switch for power on the right and a power indicator. There is no volume level indicator and since the audio signal is taken from the line-out pins on the 3G connector, you cannot use the iPod's on-board volume selector/indicator. Not really a problem -- the non-amplified line-out's on the iPod reduce distortion to the signal that the inMotions have to work with anyhow.
Connections: On the back of the inMotions are line-in and line-out connections, both 1/8" headphone jack connectors. The line-in port is used for 1G and 2G iPods which don't have the new connectors to dock with. A short dual-male 1/8" cable is included for hooking up the iPod's headphone jack to the line-in port. There is also a little rubber platform that covers the 3G dock connector and recess so that an older iPod has a place to sit between the speakers. The little rubber thing didn't stay in too well, but it was a nice thought.
There is a connector for the included DC 9V/1.6A wall-wart power supply. Unfortunately, the sucker is a bit large and it would have been nicer if the prongs on the AC adapter collapsed for better stowing. Also present is a connector for the special firewire cable that came with the iPod, so you can recharge the iPod while it is still sitting in the inMotion.
However, plugging in the firewire cable with Apple's 12V/1A AC adapter (which is nice and small, and has collapsable prongs) does not also power the inMotion. It would have been a cleaner solution if the inMotion could have been powered off the Apple AC adapter so you wouldn't have to carry around 2 AC adapters, and it would also have meant less of a cable mess behind the thing.
Battery Life: The manufacturer claims 12 hours, this will be very dependent on the volume levels you select. I have not run the 4 AA's down completely yet, but it has lasted as long as the iPod's internal batteries have so far. And no, it does not re-charge the iPod from its 9V AC adapter when docked, nor does it charge the iPod from the 4 AA batteries it uses. That would have been nice too.
Summary: Actually pretty good sound reproduction for such little speakers, certainly much better than my TiBook's speakers. No more hotel clock radios for me, but bring a good pair of headphones/in-ear monitors for really critical listening. If you're willing to run on batteries alone, it is a nice compact way to go.
The inMotions are a bit overpriced and could use larger speaker drivers (it looks like there is still enough room to mount larger speakers) that better yet could be angled outwards for better stereo dispersion. Also, there could be better integration of the Apple AC adapter (maybe someone out there is handy with a soldering iron? :) ) so you wouldn't need to carry around quite so many cables/AC adapters.
I'm glad I got these, as they'll make my already indispensable iPod more useful when traveling.
An update from EverLurking:
I noticed that another review of the inMotions stated that the power adapter that comes with it does in fact recharge the iPod. I went and checked it out, and Yes, the included power adapter will power the speakers and recharge the iPod at the same time. My mistake; I guess my iPod was fully charged at the time I first briefly tested the inMotion's adapter, and I didn't notice that the iPod was drawing power from the inMotion. It does not recharge the iPod while running off of the batteries (which is reasonable, as this would drastically shorten the life of the batteries for driving the speakers).
So you only have to carry around one adapter -- Good. I still think using Apple's little white iPod adapter would have been nicer though. The sucker now gets a 7.5 rating in my book, 8.5 if it was priced near $75.
Re:Review without pictures (Score:1)
Pictures on the Apple Store [apple.com]
Personally, I think it looks like butt. After reading this favorable review, though, I think I'd be more inclined to look past the nasty looks of the thing.
Re:Review without pictures (Score:4, Informative)
There's a fairly nice big picture (as well as specs) in the PDF brochure [apple.com].
Not a bad review, though at that price I think I'll stick with my Sony TR-55 speakers [sony.com] which are much more reasonably priced at $50USD, have a remarkably good sound for their size, and excellent battery life (upwards of 10 hours). Sure, they don't have the bells and whistles of these, but they're 100 bucks cheaper! You may also want to check out the TR-77 speakers [sony.com] if you want to spend a bit extra, think they're around $90USD.
Oh, seeing as I'm commenting on iPods, my fellow Europeans might be somewhat tempted to know that Apple Europe are now offering free iPod engraving [apple.com], so you can't grumble that Apple keep doing these offers for the US only ;)
Best luggable sound ever (Score:5, Interesting)
Price too high? (Score:5, Funny)
You bought a $500 MP3 player, and you're bitching that the speakers cost too much?
Re:Price too high? (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, I'll say this: what crazy isn't so much the price but the fact that it requires yet another adapter to use. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm out of plug-in space. I'm not rich, and I don't have a house full of outlets, but I do have a few outlets -- and several power strips -- and I'm sick of adapters. I'm especially sick of the goddam adapters that are big. I've gotten to the point where I won't buy a product if it's got one of those fatass adapters that's so big that it blocks two other plugs just to get it to fit in my power strip.
Here's a tip for Apple, AltecLansing, and even Microsoft: work on something -- anything -- that can *REDUCE THE GODDAMN SIZE OF POWER ADAPTERS* and, if that's not possible -- work on something that'll reduce the *NEED* for adapters.
Power over ethernet? I dunno. Whatever that is, if it works and frees up some of my power outlets, I'm all for it.
Anyway, the fact that this gadget requires two adapters -- its own and the Apple -- is just dumb. It should be reviewd at 3/10 instead of 7/10.
Let's see some progressive, forward-looking thinking on the power outlet situation. I leave my house thinking a power surge is gonna come, fry up all my powerstrips, and catch my drapes on fire. My dogs are gonna burn, my beloved toaster over is gonna fry, and I'm gonna be standing by a heap of ashes, wondering what happened to all my photoalbums. And I'm gonna have some smartass fireman asking me why I didn't store the important stuff in safe-deposit boxes off the premises?
"Like I'll store a couple of beagles in a safe-deposit box?"
Gone because of some Altec Lansing speaker system?
No thank you.
Re:Price too high? (Score:1)
Amen! Is it really so hard to come up with an adapter design that do
Re:Price too high? (Score:2)
Disclaimer: (a) This doesn't mean that there is no room for improvement in the transformer design. (b) This is a SIMPLIFIED version of the facts, for those /.'ers who don't have an engineering degree. PLEASE don't nitpick terminology, its the general gist of things I'm trying to get across!
Benefits:
Re:Price too high? (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, when I'm travelling, I take a simple 1/8" to RCA cable -- most hotel TVs have RCA inputs on the back, if not the front, and I plug my iPod in there.
BTW, I never use the "brick" for listening -- that's the advantage of having a fricken 10 hour battery!
Re:Price too high? (Score:5, Insightful)
They're cheap? So everyone. You don't like things to be cheaper? Your logic basically says rich people like cheap stuff, and homeless people prefer much more expensive items.
Also, to the person who said $149 shouldn't be "bitched about" when you spend $500 for an MP3 player. First, *I* didn't spend 500, I spent $299. Which means an "accessory" is suddenly 1/2 the value of my iPod. No thanks.
Now, granted, I don't make much money, so I am in the market for something more expensive.
Re:Price too high? (Score:2)
A general trend is for a rich person (or, more accurately, a financially-educated person) is to buy something outright rather than finance it. Even better is to buy something outright when it is on sale or marked down for going out of style. Uneducated people are more likely to buy something impulsively on a payment plan plus get sucked into the extended warranty scams (yes, extended warranties f
Re:Price too high? (Score:2)
Further, for things over a few thousand dollars, you should go out and get real insurance for replacement value and then eat the cost of mechanical repairs (you did buy a historially reliable car based on your research before buying, right?). So, in conclusion, all extended warranties are scams.
Re:Price too high? (Score:1)
I think the statement was dead on.
american rich, spoiled and rich is more like it.
Re:Price too high? (Score:4, Insightful)
Voltage would be perhaps 16-24 volts DC. The connectors would be small, and impossible to plug in backwards. Every external device on the system - LCD monitor, USB hard drives, Linksys routers, scanners, maybe inkjet printers, would have two jacks and allow a daisy chain of the power from one device to the next. So, you could plug the power from your scanner into the power from your USB hard drive which would be plugged into the power from the main computer.
Each device would have a circuit breaker, not a fuse, so the total capacity could not be exceeded.
If you wanted to use your little device without a computer to convert the power for you, you could get a little cheap wall wart. Each device would have a flexible range in input voltage that it would accept, so the wall wart would not have to be highly regulated. Just make it 18 volts +- 1 volt and that should be good enough. All you'd have to think about is what the device needs for watts, and how many watts the wall wart can supply.
This is so easy, I don't know why nobody has implemented it yet.
Re:Price too high? (Score:1)
Re:Price too high? (Score:2)
Does that make a difference?
DaveC
Re:Price too high? (Score:2)
OK, I'll bite. First, the iPod can be powered via a tiny wall brick [akamai.net], or via the Firewire cable when connected to your computer. Also, Apple Powerbooks come with an extension cord for their wall bricks that can replace the brick's prongs. The end of the extension cord is a st
Re:Price too high? (Score:2)
Re:Price too high? (Score:1)
Re:Price too high? (Score:1)
Re:Price too high? (Score:1)
The fact that I may buy an expensive item doesn't mean I want to be gouged on everything I purchase. The fact that I may think $500 is a good price for a 40G iPod does not mean I'm automatically going to think $150 is a good price for a cheap set of travel speakers.
I suppose you'd say that someone driving a Porsche should be willing to spend $250 on a travel mug for his coffee, and is a whining idiot if he refuses.
PS: H
7 out of 10?? (Score:2)
Sounds like someone values form over function. I appreciate the review info, but with that list of negatives, I'd be suspect of anyone that would buy such a package.
Re:7 out of 10?? (Score:1, Troll)
so? (Score:2)
re: Distortion becomes a problem when you turn the (Score:5, Informative)
The amp in these speakers is too generous with it's output, and is sending too much power to the speakers when set to a high volumn.
This is common place in all commodity speakers and speaker systems. Manufacturers make them this way because the source audio you are playing may have been recorded at a low volumn - and thus needs to be amplified to a higher degree than the 'average' sound being put through the system. IE, sound recordings are not normalized for volumn to a 'standard'.
Go get an 'executive' sterero for a couple of hundred dollars. turn it up too loud, and you'll get distortion.
Take a factory stereo in a car, and turn it up too loud, and you'll get distortion.
I guess my point is: how is this a 'con' for this set of speakers, when 99.99% of all speakers bought suffer frm the same problem? It's like complaining that cars have only four wheels.
A correction on the issue of Power Adapters and $$ (Score:4, Insightful)
So you only have to carry around 1 adapter. Good. Still think using Apple's little white iPod adapter would have been nicer though. The sucker now gets a 7.5 rating in my book, 8.5 if it was priced near $75.
As to the issue of price, well, I'm looking at the price based on how well the speakers perform as a percentage of the overall cost of the iPod. I paid $399 for my 15 GB iPod which wasn't cheap, but I knew I was getting a dammed good mp3/AAC/WAV player. Relative to the aggregrate cost of the 400 odd CD's worth of songs I've put on the thing that are now completely portable and at my fingertips, the $399 was a bargain.
At $149, the inMotions are 37% the cost of an iPod. I'd be fine with this if there was better stereo separation and slightly better drivers, but given it's limitations as listed in my review above, I'd say that the $75 (18%) price point is much more attractive/reasonable IMHO. Now don't go calling me a big cheapstake ($75 bucks does buy quite a bit of good beer), I did after all, go buy the thing and give you guys a free review : )
DaveC
Re:inMotion iPod Speakers (another alternative) (Score:1, Interesting)
What kind of distortion? (Score:3, Interesting)
When I first got my Mac, I made the mistake of getting the Apple Pro speakers [apple.com]. These things look good and sound OK at low volumes. But when you turn up the volume, they start emitting buzzing sounds under all the bass notes. A pretty lousy product, since these speakers are designed for use with a Mac G4 and can't handle the full 10W power output of the proprietary speaker jack that they plug in to. (FWIW, I quickly replaced them with a set of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 [klipsch.com] speakers, which are MUCH better.)
But there are many other kinds of distortions. Analog clipping doesn't sound like digital clipping, which doesn't sound like a speaker "bottoming out", which doesn't sound like the Apple Pro distortion. Some kinds of distortion are tolerable, while some kinds are not. Some kinds gradually increase as you increase the volume, and others appear in full force when the volume crosses a threshold.
I mention all this because the 1" drivers in the inMotion look very similar to the drivers in the Apple Pro speakers. (I am aware that they're not the same - Apple's speakers are made by Harmon Kardon, not Altec Lansing.) If they distort in the same way, then I wouldn't want to use them even if I got them for free.
On the other hand, if they distort in a less annoying manner (perhaps the way my clock radio distorts when I turn the volume up too far), and only do so at a relatively high level, then it wouldn't be a problem.
Re:What kind of distortion? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Expensive, but suprisingly good (Score:1)