Apple‘s now-iconic iPods might be all the rage in portable music players, but they don’t offer any built-in capability to pump your music out into the real air. So a mega-industry of iPod peripherals has sprung up, including a number of speaker systems (even one from Apple itself!) designed to convert a iPod into a 21st century boombox. However, many of these speaker systems are bulky, heavy, and take up a heap of space—if that doesn’t appeal to you, audio accessory maker Klipsch would like you to consider its iGroove SXT iPod speaker system.
“Our smallest and most affordable iPod speaker to date, the iGroove SXT gives listeners a lot of bang for their buck,” said Tony Ostrom, Klipsch’s director of product planning, in a statement. “Because it takes advantage of refined industrial design, premium materials, and innovative technology, this little four-pound system can easily fill a room or office with larger-than-life performances.”
The iGroove SXT features two long-throw 2.5-inch drivers in a tuned, ported cabinet with two ¾-inch microTactrix Horn tweeters exclusive to Klipsch, fed by a 6 KHz crossover. Klipsch says the unit puts out up to 90 db at 1 meter distance—that’s definitely loud enough that you’ll notice—and it supports iPods equipped with Dick connectors (which includes the iPod mini but omits the shuffle models). The units sports a Class D amp, offers a rear aux input for connecting up non-iPod devices (or, say, a shuffle), and there’s an S-Video output for viewing iPod-stored video on an external display. The entire unit weighs four pounds, measures 4.75 by 12 by 4.625 inches, and comes with an IR remote. (And, yes, it charges your iPod while it’s docked.) It’s only available in black, but it can be wall-mounted with an optional adapter.
Expect to see the iGroove SXT in May for a suggested price of $169.99.
