Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Altec Lansing desk-top iPod player

Lots of companies make speaker systems for iPods (and I have a bunch of them), but one of the most useful is the inMotion iM3.

It's just about the size of a paper-back book, and can fit almost anywhere. I keep mine just below the monitor on my desk at home. It's not powerful enough to fill a stadium, but it's perfect for personal listening. The unit incorporates four 28mm neodymium speakers, and puts out surprisingly deep bass, without a subwoofer.

Your iPod sits in a center cradle, with a standard iPod docking connector that provides both audio transfer and battery charging. There's also an auxiliary input, which I use for my Delphi XM portable receiver. The base has simple tap controls for power and volume up and down, and Altec even provides a wireless remote (which I've never used). You also get a carrying case, and a choice of black or white to match your pod. My 80-gig is black, but I bought a white iM3 before I knew it was also made in black.

If you don't have a convenient electrical outlet, you can run the iM3 on four AA batteries, which should give you over 24 hours of music.

Suggested retail is $130, but you can probably find it for under $100.

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