I used to have a pretty decent stereo in my living room, but I've had a couple of amp/receivers fail that I haven't replaced. With the completion of the home theatre, all of the working equipment was moved downstairs, leaving a void in the living room. This wasn't such a big deal because we don't really listen to music all that often upstairs. If we really want to listen to something, there's an under-the-counter radio/CD player in the kitchen or we could turn on the TV to one of the digital music channels.
Despite all of that, one of the reasons for getting an iPod was that we could get a speaker docking station and set it up in the living room, giving us access to a larger library.
I wasn't in any particular hurry to get the dock, but Andrea really wanted one, so, as I always do, I started doing some basic research.
I didn't want anything ridiculously expensive (somewhere around the $150 range would be fine), too hideous, and something that projected decent sound. without actually hooking the iPod into a real stereo I knew that the quality would never be spectacular, but if I was worried about that I wouldn't be using any compressed audio files in the first place.
I did some rudimentary searching online to see what was available from my local stores and then did some basic research into several models that interested me. With that knowledge, I then headed into Future Shop for some sound demos.
Buying stuff at Future Shop is always hit-or-miss, unfortunately. You really do need to know exactly what it is you want, since the staff tend to be non-helpful. Add in the fact that it's sometimes very hard to demo anything and you've got a recipe for frustration. Still, I usually know what I want, which is why I keep going there.
Once I got to the store, I headed to where the docking stations were. As luck would have it, most of them had a power connection, making it easy to give each unit a test. I reached into my pocket, pulled out my iPod, plugged it into the first dock, and ...
A sales droid ran over. "Can I help you?"
"Not really," I replied. "I'm just testing."
With that, the guy starts trying to move me to particular units. I brush him off.
I give the first station a whirl and I'm immediately unimpressed. I move to the next unit and start it up.
Now there are two sales droids. I'm not sure why this always happens, but whenever I'm trying to demo something, I'm immediately surrounded by people who think they know more than I do.
I continue to try units and the sales droids continue to try to interact with me.
"Well, what did you think of that one?"
"Don't like it. Too tinny." I try to be curt, with the hopes that they'll get the message. They don't.
"Yeah, that one's not very good. You should try this one instead." Grrr.
Despite all of the annoyances of the sales droids, I manage to narrow my selection down to two particular units: the Altec Lansing M602 and the Mirage OmniVibe.
I've got a set of Altec Lansing speakers for my desktop and I think the sound they produce is quite nice. The M602 had a similar sound quality (although not as nice without a dedicated subwoofer), configurable bass and treble settings, a remote, and the price was decent ($150).
The OmniVibe had fantastic sound (as you would expect from any Mirage kit). It also comes with a remote, but does not have bass and treble settings. The price was also pretty steep (I believe it was about double).
The decision came down to two things. First was the price. $150 was reasonable and $300 was not. The Mirage had much better sound, but I didn't feel the cost was justified. Second, the OmniVibe has a top-mounted speaker set-up, which would be better if installed in a semi-central location. The M602 has the speakers front-mounted, like a ghettoblaster. Since I was likely to set the unit up on top of the entertainment unit, I figured the front mounts would be a better choice.
So I walked out the with M602.
I eagerly set the unit up when I got home and I must say that I was pretty amazed at how the system manages to fill the living room with sound. Andrea was also impressed with the sound.
Deep down, I know the OmniVibe would have been a better selection, from a sound perspective, but given our listening habits, the M602 has been perfectly adequate.
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