Digital Trends
Headphones can only take you so far. When you’re ready to crank the dial and rock out, you need real speakers. Fortunately, iPod owners have an array of unique docks and speaker systems that will pump out high-quality audio as soon as you pop your iPod in. Here are a few of our favorites.
Love or hate the brand, Bose’ SoundDock 10 offers sound from a tiny box comparable to a much larger stereo system.
If nothing wakes you up in the morning like a tornada alert, then peripheral and accessory maker iLuv has the perfect iPod dock in the form of the new iMM183 Hi-Fi Dual Alarm Clock Radio with NOAA /SAME Weather Hazard Alert. Unlike your typical iPod/iPhone dock with an alarm clock, speakers, and built-in radio, the iMM183 can pull in emergency weather information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and incorporates digital SAME technology to provide localized weather warnings.
Boston Acoustics has pushed out an update to its dual-alarm iPod speaker system, dubbed the Duo-I plus. The unit works with iPods and is now “Works with iPhone” certified, and features dual alarms, an AM/FM tuner (with 15 available presets), and a 360-degree “snooze ring” handy for slapping when you just don’t want to get up yet.
We’ve seen some pretty extreme docks iPod before, but never any quite like Jean Michel Jarre’s Aerosystem, a high-end iPod dock that looks like it’s an unused prop fabbed up for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The futuristic audio system literally puts the iPod on a pedestal by building its speakers into a tower of glass tubing, upon which Jobs’ jewel sits perched like a museum piece. The speakers – two 20-watt stereo units and a 40-watt subwoofer – rest in segments sandwiched between glass on the way down the shaft. If that all sounds a little dramatic, just try looking at the photos and tell us it wouldn’t look right at home in orbit.
It plays analog and high definition audio. It works with AM, FM and XM. It supports DVD video. All of this in a compact andstylish design. What are we talking about here? The upcoming Polk Audio I-Sonic. As described by Polk, the desktop I-Sonic is an all digital format entertainment system. To start off with, theI-Sonic supports HD Radio, an emerging radio technology which lets AM and FM radio stations broadcast their normally analog signal indigital stereo instead, reaching a listening quality near that of CD for FM broadcasts and FM quality sound for AM broadcasts. HD Radioalso displays song information on the I-Sonic’s display screen and has a feature called multicasting, which allows a radio station to broadcast multiple programs on the same frequency. Beyond HD Radio, the I-Sonic also supports XM Satellite Radio andit’s over 170 channels of music, sports, talk and entertainment through the installation of an optional XM antenna and aXM subscription. For those seeking more basic broadcast options, the I-Sonic also supports traditional AM and FM radio stations,with the option to store up to 30 radio presets mixed amongst AM, FM and XM. 
Polk Audio I-Sonic with Remote The I-Sonic also offers as entertainment features a built-in DVD player and connections for supporting portable audio devices. The DVD player feature,complete with RCA and S-Video output, allow you to connect the I-Sonic to a home entertainment system so you can play regular DVDs, music CDs, MP3 CDs and picture CDs, among others. You can connectportable audio devices such as an iPod through either a stereo mini jack (headphone output typically) or dual RCA jacks (docking stationoutput typically).
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