Pros

• Great sound
• Nice design
• Economical
• Comfortable

Cons

• Cable easily broke on review unit
• Ear-pads cause sweating after some use

The Bottom Line
iFrogz has impressed us in the past and even though the CS40 easily broke during our review, we’ll chalk it up to an early production run issue. Heck, our original Fallouts (read review) are over a year old and still pumping out the bass. No, for the price and the sound, I would say give the CS40s a try because I have to think iFrogz would send you a replacement if they broke so soon from purchase.

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Recommended
Yes

Full Review
iFrogz is a rising star in affordable headphones and it has inched further in engineering and development with the CS40. Padded for comfort and yet keeping the style of the iFrogz line, the CS40 attempts to bring quality, comfort, and vogue onto your head. The question is, has iFrogz accomplish this?

Read the rest of this entry »

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Pros

• Very comfortable
• Option for use with cable
• Foldable for compact storage
• Good overall sound
• Includes multi-country power adapters

Cons

• A notch too quiet
• High MSRP with a bit high street cost
• Not enough bass

The Bottom Line
If you’re looking for some comfortable and good sounding headphones without the tangled mess of wires to connect to your Bluetooth device, and you can find it at a good price, then we would recommend you champion yourself the Sennheiser PX 210 BT. Your ears will thank you.

Recommended
Yes

Full Review
Sennheiser is well known for its quality in sound among the audiophiles. Audiophiles also know how poor Bluetooth is for great sound so the PX 210 BT has an up-hill battle from the start. Sennheiser adds some nice features like easy to feel buttons, multi-country charger, audio cable for when the battery dies, as well as making it compact when folded up. Add in the comfort factor of the headphones and you have a feature rich headset, but what of the main feature? Sound.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Tremendous remote control database
• Simple key layout
• Very easy to customize
• Powerful infrared transceiver

Cons

• Bit complex to set up remote (too many steps)
• Favorites require association to Activity
• Unable to disable vibration within application
• Inability to add user images for buttons
• Steep price

The Bottom Line
You can finally take control of all remote controls in one place with the Rē. The Rē contains enough built-in infrared databases to make you say aloud, “I’ve never heard of half of these brands,” while easily finding your well known brand. Finally be able to view a DVD from your home theater with just one button press while the Rē powers and sets everything up for you.

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Recommended
Yes

Full Review

I once had an iPAQ 3600 series that had a built-in universal remote by Nevo. I loved it as it was always with me and became a major factor in my work outs at the club since I no longer had to beg the staff to change the channels on the TVs. It also made home entertainment as well as playing tricks at my friends house simple and fun. Thankfully Barry Baril of NewKinetix also enjoyed the same experiences as I did with his iPAQ of yesteryear and this was, “One of my motivations to build the Rē,” he told me in an email. Outside of the built-in infrared port missing from the iPhone, is the Rē as good as the Nevo?

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Incredible big sound from such a small unit
• Cool retro look
• Full iPod/iPhone integration
• Supports non-Apple hardware
• Remote with storage compartment
• Informative and easy to read LCD screen*

Cons

• Lack of storage for iPod/iPhone adapters and audio cable
• * Difficult to read LCD when characters are scrolling
• Black color susceptible to dust
• No HD Radio

The Bottom Line
Altec has packed a box with boom and it’s called the MIX iMT800. It’ll play jamz from your iPod or iPhone…and tell you the name of that tune and who’s singing it. Sporting the retro look from the 70s and 80s, Altec when classic with a AM/FM radio and threw in a slick remote. Down to the orange LCD display, the MIX screams “take notice!” and once you have, your ears will thank you for doing so.

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Recommended
Yes

Full Review
I have always been a huge fan of Altec Lansing. Biased? Ya, maybe, but with such a rich history of great sounding products, who wouldn’t be? When Altec sent me the MIX my first item of test was the bass it thumped about in all of its PR Altec had sent. In went the iPhone 3GS and on went the test play list. “Woo,” was my response and believe it or not, but my next action even surprised me. I turned down the bass. Not because it was sloppy but because it was too over powering! “Dude, this thing booms!” I shouted over “September” by Earth, Wind, & Fire. Ya, but how would it sound against Aretha, Andy Gibb, JT, Slaughter, Mother Love Bone, and Will Smith? Could the MIX get jiggy with it?

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Excellent sound
• Tight and accurate bass
• Compact
• Comfortable

Cons

• Cable is a bit too short
• A bit bright in the highs
• Does not support iPhone phone features (lack of mic or remote)

The Bottom Line
Apple made its users stick out with white ear buds and AKG wants you now to stand out from the Apple crowd with its Wasp. The black and gold (Pittsburgh Steelers terms here) does make the statement that these earbuds are different and once in your ear, you too will hear that difference. While somewhat of an investment for “mere earbuds”, it’s an AKG investment that will not disappoint once shoved into your ears.

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Recommended
Yes

Full Review
For our second review of AKG product, we chose the Wasp version of the K 330s to take for a spin on our iPhone and Mac Pro. AKG is a name well known for its grand sound and work with professional artists so it would be interesting to see what it could do for a challenging format such as in-ear headphones for under $100. At first, I was really surprised by what I heard. Were my ears deceiving me?

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Amazing sound
• Compact and extremely portable
• Integrates nicely with iPhone/iPod touch or Sonos Controller
• Sleek and yet simple looking
• Very easy to use
• Did we mention the amazing sound?

Cons

• Requires a ZonePlayer or ZoneBridge adding to initial cost
• Bit slow adding itself to the ZonePlayer zones
• iPhone/iPod touch or Sonos Controller required for portable control adding to initial cost
• Lack of iPhone/iPod dock

The Bottom Line
If you haven’t moved into the digital age or want to add to your existing hub, then you have to look no farther than the Sonos ZonePlayer S5. This is a slam dunk for adding music to any room or place in or outside of your home, easily. With dynamic, rich, room-filling sound, you can finally remove that clunky Bose system and let Goodwill take it because now Sonos owns the bedroom; heck, it owns every room with the S5!

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Recommended
Yes

Full Review
Sonos has been rocking our world for over four years ever since we first reviewed the original ZonePlayer back in June of 2005 (read review). Since then, Sonos has shrunk the ZonePlayer, released a smaller version minus an amp, plopped out a bridge, and even made some speakers. Oh ya, it also provided a free controller application for iPhone and iPod touch users to which Sonos took that knowledge to update it’s already slick CR100 controller to a more iPhone-like CR200. Taking all this work and seemingly combining it all, Sonos just recently brought to the world its latest invention; the Sonos ZonePlayer S5. The first all-in-one unit from Sonos, this takes the ZonePlayer 120 (ZP120) and Loudspeaker 100 (SP100) and puts them together to create the ZonePlayer S5 (S5). What you get is a sleek, yet really simple, looking portable digital music center. Plug the only wire it has into a wall outlet for power, wait about a minute while it finds a ZonePlayer or ZoneBridge, and then you’ll be enjoying your entire music library. Now you’re only limited by placement of your ZonePlayer/ZoneBridge and a power out let to where you can put this bad boy. That’s it. Shesh, who doesn’t have power, like, everywhere in and out of their home? Do you see the potential for this? Oh ya, it freakin’ sounds awesome, too!

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Large easy to read screen
• Feature rich
• Great sounding built-in amp
• Plays iPod and DVD video
• Expandable with Sirius XM, Bluetooth, and GPS components

Cons

• On-screen soft buttons not responsive
• iPod listing very slow with large library
• Extremely difficult to navigate iPod
• Large screen wasted with small character amount
• New tracks “blanks” out info and lags on refresh

The Bottom Line
Alpine has a long history of making steller products that push the envelope of technology and its full sized Double-DIN strives to continue this tradition. With its out-of-the-box integration with an iPod, a beautiful looking interface, and excellent sound, one becomes surprised when they find fault with the iPod integration. While it’s first iPod unit, the iAD-X001, excelled even with its short comings, the iVA-W505 leaves one wondering where Alpine missed the boat with this iPod venture.

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Recommended
Maybe (Due to Price)

Full Review

When SvenOnTech reviewed the first fully iPod integrated Alpine iAD-X001 upon its release, we were excited to see the advancement Alpine made with the single-DIN unit. Sure, it had some minor issues, but it was a first generation and short comings are always expected with such releases. Sure to Alpine’s character, the problems were all corrected in the next-generation units. So with a large LCD screen allowing large real estate for menus, text display, and easy to reach buttons, the iVA-W505 has the potential to blow the roof off where the little guys left off.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Excellent sound
• Compact
• Comfortable

Cons

• Cable either too short or two long (comes with two)
• Does not support iPhone phone features

The Bottom Line
AKG is well known in the professional world for extreme quality and rich sounding headphones and the K 450 brings that tradition to the personal market. Professional roots come at a price, but any discriminating listener will not be disappointed with a set of K 450s sitting on their head.

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Recommended
Yes

Full Review
I first heard the K 450s at Macworld 2009 and thoroughly enjoyed the richness of the mini-headphonse. Bass was fluid and deep while highs were crisp and defining. Even in the midst of a noisy convention center, I was able to take in the musical experience from my iPhone with a smile on my face.

AKG sent me a pair of K 450s for some in-depth R and R with them. In a quite office to give them a run through, my impression only improved with the K 450s. The quality of sound is amazing, even while knowing that I am listening to compressed music which in itself has flaws. Yet the K 450 emphasizes the beauty of the sounds it receives and magnifies them in your ears. The highs are clean and crisp and never harsh. Some headphones I’ve reviewed usually have problems in this area adding bitter, jarring, scratchy tones to the highs especially with spoken word. I never had this problem with the K 450s. In fact, listening to well recorded podcasts was a treat with the AKGs making you feel as if you were in the studio with the podcaster.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Amazing sound for the price
• Easy hook-up
• Comes with everything you need
• Nice looks

Cons

• A bit large
• No mute/off switch

The Bottom Line
No matter your microphone needs on your PC or Mac, the Snowball will make your voice sound as if you had recorded it in a professional studio with sound engineers at the board.

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Recommended
Yes (Strong)

Full Review
Have you heard the Snowball? Really, it’s the best way to find out just how good it is, right? Well, after you’re done reading the review, we’ll furnish the link to our first podcast in which we used the Snowball and THEN you’ll really get the full review. Until then, let me tell you a bit out about this white grilled-faced mic from a company called Blue Microphone.

I first came across Blue Microphone at Macworld Expo 2009 and sat down on a tall bar stool and spoke to Tyler Barth, Director of Marketing, at Blue Mic. The animated and excited Barth went on to lay out Blue Mics history and importance in the recording industry. He told me of the Eagle’s love for the mics so much to the point that one of the members bought a mic for every one of his grandchildren last Christmas. I chuckled at the thought of my childhood rock heros having grandchildren but the point was well made.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Great sound for the price
• Comfortable
• Customized options seem endless
• Quick delivery

Cons

• Lack of channel marking
• Ear pieces slide off easily

The Bottom Line
If you are looking for a pair of headphones that are beyond descent without a high price tag, then you must check out iFrogz Fallouts. I don’t know how they do it, but for $35, these sound better than some headphones at twice the cost…and you can customize them!

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Recommended
Yes (Strong)

Full Review
Okay, let me put it out there right in front so there will be no misunderstanding. I am an audio snob. My music must have strong bass, good highs, and no muddy mids. Done, let’s move on.

When iFrogz approached SvenOnTech to review the Custom Fallout headset, I was expecting, well, junky headphones. I mean look at the price, $34.99. You can’t produced a descent product AND customize it at that price. Obviously iFrogz was going after the bling-bling market and focusing on the customization and throwing some cheapy drivers in from China. Right? Wrong, when I put on my customized Fallouts, I was completely surprised by the sound quality. Flabbergasted may be a better adjective. All the way back to the SvenOnTech HQ I jammed to various tunes on BART off of my iPhone and even attracted the attention of many other travelers. I guess that happens when you start singing out loud. Hey, it was a train from San Francisco; this type of behavior is expected.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Rich sound
• Comfortable foam tips
• iPhone compatibility

Cons

• Remote button difficult to enable
• Price
• Ear gels not as comfortable as foam tips
• UPDATE: Remote button hangs on collars

The Bottom Line
Skullcany is known for hip looking and rich sounding headphones. It ventures into the iPhone realm with great success bringing all of its skull experience to make some very nice earbuds for your iPhone candy adventures.

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Recommended
Yes

Full Review
Way back in May of 2004, SvenOnTech first introduced the world to Skullycandy with its SkullCrushers review. Man, did we love those babies. In fact, we still use them four years later! So when I met with Skullcandy in January and got a sneak peak of the FMJs, I was very excited. Skullcandy sound was coming to the iPhone!

SvenOnTech has used the FMJs for a solid two weeks and it is what we’ve come to expect from Skullcandy. While not crushing our skull, it does rock ‘em. The bass is great with an asterisk, that is. Alice Cooper’s Brutal Planet took its toll on the FMJs when the volume exceeded about 65% (R&B EQ setting) but at the lower end, it sounded great. tobyMac’s Hype Man struggled at the R&B setting but jaaaammed in Hip Hop and Bass Booster preset. Mat Kearney’s Undeniable shined at nearly every EQ setting on the iPhone. Because Skullcandy is about rich, deep, sound, I had to throw KJ-52 at the FMJs and Say What You Want did what it wanted when it came to getting funky but never slapped the ear drums with sloppy sound. I pushed the FMJs with You Can Still Come Back. With its full rich spectrum of tones and yet bass heavy, I just kept loving what Skullcandy put in my ear, baby. By the way, the volume was all the way up at the Hip Hop EQ setting for all of KJ’s selections. Ouch, my ears hurt after that test. (Any thing for you readers!) I tested other thrashers to the ears such as Project 86, Styx, and Night Ranger. Okay, the latter two aren’t thrashers, but they use to be considered such.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Small and lightweight
• Comfortable even with prolonged use
• Good sound
• Versatile charging options

Cons

• Tad too quiet
• Static issues when phone is on opposite side of ear placement
• Tone indicators need to be more obvious for each function

The Bottom Line
Plantronics continues to take a very good Bluetooth headset and make it better. With improvements to sound and volume quality, the Discovery 665 is one of the better headsets available in the sea of hands-free options.
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Recommended
Yes

Full Review
I’ve been using Bluetooth headsets (BTh) since they became available here in the United States in 2002. My first review of a BTh was the Jabra FreeSpeak and I compared it to offerings from Motorola, SonyEricson, and Plantronics. The Discovery 665 has come a long way since that comparison and I must say, I am much more impressed with this BTh than I am of pretty much everything since that review.

Plantronics prides itself with its headsets noting most predominatingly that it was the first headset used in outer space being used on the NASA moon landings. Still currently used at NASA, Plantronics brings its space-aged technology to regular Joe’s like you and me. The Discovery was the first Plantronics headset to really go the extra mile. I picked up the first model, the 640, two years ago and was pleased with it then. My only issue was it was tone heavy and the volume too low. So I moved onto other headsets, including those by Apple (review) and Jawbone, yet never really ever being satisfied.

When Plantronics sent SvenOnTech the Discovery 665 in January, I have to admit, I figured it would be just like the 640 and have the same faults. When I charged it up and placed it in my ear, I was pleasantly (okay, shocked) surprised just how loud the volume was. My head-banging years in high school has done its work on my ears, so I could use it a tad bit higher, but the volume was noticeable better than the 640. I was excited to use the Discovery 665. Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Incredible sound
• Impressive price point
• iPhone compatibility
• Wall-mountable
• Remote control
• Sleek looks

Cons

• Power connector placement
• Inability to hear calls on systems speakers
• Lack of remote dock

The Bottom Line
Finally, a system you can listen to your tunes to from your iPhone without the GSM interference purging through the speakers with it’s annoying and menacing sound. Oh, did we mention the classic killer Altec Lansing sound?
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Recommended
Yes

Full Review
Okay, okay, I’ll admit my bias right out. I love Altec Lansing products. I have ever since those first door speakers my dad put in his Ford Ecoline 150 van back in 1985. I still can remember playing the The Theme to Beverly Hills Cop from them at the beach that summer and how rich it sounded. I blasted those babies!

Since that day, I’ve always been keen to investigate anything with the Altec name on it and more times than not, I walk away impressed. When I met with Steve Schlangen, Product Manager of Altec Lansing, in January in a private meeting room off the halls of Moscone Center during Macworld Expo, I really know what to expect from the T612. It was the first real show off of the first officially “Works with iPhone” certification speaker product for the iPhone. Schlangen called it the “rock star of the show” and when he sampled it for me, I couldn’t have agreed any more. The thing was steller in its music representation. With 60 Watts RMS and 120 peak, this thing will fill up the room with rich tones and deep bass quickly. The T612 does this easily from its pair of 3 inch drivers and 1 inch tweeters incased behind a sleek looking black grill.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Light and thin
• Best mount we’ve seen or used. Period.
• Great interface
• Good POI database
• Competitively priced

Cons

• Poor battery life
• Doesn’t specify end points location on road (left side or right side)
• Slow processor which causes delayed input

The Bottom Line
The GPS market is becoming crowded and thus more affordable. SvenOnTech has been reviewing these units for the last six years and we have to say, we are impressed with Harman Kardon’s entry into this market. We really disliked how the unit would not specify if our destination was on the left or right side of the road and how the processor would lag behind our finger presses. Other than that, this is a fine GPS.

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Recommended
Yes*

Full Review
SvenOnTech has seen many GPS units and for the most part, GPS is GPS. What separates the boys from the men is interface, accuracy, and volume. Yes, men speak much louder. Accuracy has been pretty spot on for many manufacturers we’ve tested with only poor address placement being the real major problem in this area. When it’s time to turn in a complex intersection, Harman Kardon, like most others, do this well. For the most part, addresses on the GPS-310 were pretty much spot on with the actual location.

The only dismal aspect to accuracy we found was that Harman Kardon thought it not prudent to tell us if our end point was going to be on the left or right side. When you’re in a large busy city and you’re in the left lane of four, and then you notice when it’s too late that you need to be in the right lane, well, that sucks. In one instance when this happened to us, it took us ten minutes to get back to where we had to be due to the no u-turn signs everywhere. What a frustrating thing when the whole idea of a GPS is to get you to your destination without worry. This is why you see an astrek next to our recommendation. If you can live with this limitation, then yes, we recommend it. If not, move onto another brand. (According to our contact at Harman Kardon, all three models do not give street position of your destination.)

We took the GPS-310 all over the Bay Area and Central Valley of California. We put in over 40 hours of testing into this unit, and did so side-by-side with a competitor we’ve tested (and reviewed here on SvenOnTech.) We found the GPS-310 to be more accurate and quicker, when we missed a turn, to re-route us than the other unit. In all fairness, the other unit was about a year old and a lot can happen in this industry in just twelve short months. From San Francisco, to San Jose, to Fresno, to Stockton, to Manteca, to Elk Grove, to Sacramento, to Oakland, to Pittsburgh (CA), to Walnut Creek, and beyond, the GPS-310 just did an excellent job of getting us to our destination. Again, outside of the lack of telling us, “Hey, it’s going to be on your left side,” we couldn’t have been any happier with the GPS-310.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Premium sound
• Competitively priced
• iPhone compatibility

Cons

• “Heavy” remote button
• Price could be lower

The Bottom Line
With a limited selection of earbuds that work natively with your iPhone, Maximo brings nice sounds at a decent price to your ears.

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Price:

Recommended
Yes

Full Review
We’ve already told you about Maximo in a previous review of its standard earbud offerings. We liked what we heard so when Maximo sent us its top of the line earbuds made for the iPhone, we were quick to jam them into our ears and plug them into the silly recessed iPhone jack. Off in our day and another review.

Similar to the iM-490s, the iP-HS2s come with various sized rubber earbuds (eartips) that fit onto the headset. These help fit to your ear canal and isolate the sounds of the iP-HS2 from the sounds around your dome. When you give them a good wiggle to find that proper fit, the outside world truly fades away in the background. Like the standard iMetal earbuds, the iP-HS2s have really good bass response as well as excellent highs. Everything else in between is just as soothing. Playing a variety of music and talk, jazz, rap, rock, classic rock, and podcasts, the iP-HS2s sounded great all the way around. During certain demanding moments, such as 808 bass in those hip hop grooves, the iMetals struggled to let the ear drums kick with the boom when the volume was high. For what these puppies cost, that’s to be expected. Truth is, many earbuds at any price wouldn’t be able to handle the deep bass at such a high volume anyway.

While at Macworld, I exclusively used the iP-HS2 and it was great. I could take calls while walking through the Moscone Center easily being able hold a conversation with my callers. No one ever complained about my voice volume and I never had difficulty hearing them.

What makes these earbuds special isn’t just the fact that it plugs into the iPhone without an adapter but that it also has a remote button much like the one found on the native Apple iPhone earbuds. Like the set that comes from Apple, a single press of the button will pause a playing track. If a call comes in, the pressing of the button will pause music (if on) and answer the call. Another press ends the calls and music resumes where left off. A double press skips to the next track just like the Apple headsets. Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Premium sound
• Inexpensive
• Nice accessories (airline adapter, pouch/container)

Cons

• iM-290 not as comfortable as higher models

The Bottom Line
Sound is important and so is price. Finally, the two can meet in the name of Maximo! With any of the three models, you will be impressed and satisfied with your purchase.

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Recommended
Yes

Full Review
We’re all looking for those great ear buds for our iPods like those sweet Shure or V-Moda ear buds for something you can afford rather than the $100 plus ticket these two command. Well, SvenOnTech may have just found those very earbuds for you…just in time for Christmas!

Maximo contacted us a few months ago and sent us all three of its ear bud offerings. The iM-290 budget earbud, the iM390 for iPods and such, and the specially Sansa designed iM-490S. The later two are pretty much the same earbud with a slight variation in look and cord attachments. Priced from $29.99, $39.99, and $49.99 (respectively,) these are true bargains for the sound they produce.

We flung the Sansa ones to our SanDisk lovin’ man, Nathan, and he gave ‘em a spin. Nathan put his SD playing Sansa to the test pulling out bass heavy music, crisp highs, and all around everyday listening. His impression? “Awesome, dude!” Ya, Nathan liked them. He also appreciated the short cord connector that allows you to shorten the iMetals and plug into the Sansa remote without creating a headphone cord length of five thousand feet.

I tried the other two and was impressed myself with them. For $30, I was really surprised how good the iM-290 sounded. I mean really impressed. Sure, they didn’t jam on the bass heavy stuff or shatter my ear drums on the highs, but dude, for the price, they certainly out did some $50 head sets I’ve heard. Lacking the nice little rubber ear pieces of the two big brothers, the 290′s do start to give some discomfort to your ear canals after long periods of use which should be expected at this price point.

Maximo recommends a “burn-in” period on all of its earbuds. So we did that with all three sets playing music at a low level for about an hour of an iPod with the EQ flat (off). After completing this burn-in stage, I placed the iM-390s in my ears and listened to iTunes directly off my Mac Pro through my Altec Lansing’s FX6021 ear phone port. I pushed the earbuds with some heavy bass (via the R&B preset EQ setting,) and I was amazed that they handled the loud music with the burden of the bass pretty well. After an hour of various genres ringing through my ears, I took them out without a tinge of soreness in my ears.

I then took the earbuds and used them on my iPod for an hour and then moved onto the iPhone with both the Monster and Shure adapters. Both the iPod and iPhone had better results than with the Mac Pro due to the lower wattage being pushed into my ears. Bass was tight, mids good, and highs decent. I found high quality podcasts such as This Week in Tech (TWiT) and CNET’s Buzz Out Loud, sounded superb with the 390s. I actually found myself in my truck wanted to hear them on my iPhone rather than via my iPod on the Alpine head unit!

Overall
There is nothing earth shattering with these earbuds. They are just excellent economical earbuds. Maximo’s Andrew Houston told SvenOnTech when he introduced us to the product the line that it was Porsche-like sound at VW prices. We liked that description so much after using them for a month that we titled our review as such. Houston hit it on the nose, or rather, ear!

The iM-290 , iM-390, and the iM-490S are true bargins for the sound. While we love the higher end earbuds we’ve reviewed in the past, I think we would all agree here at SvenOnTech that these earbuds are the first in the budget line to definitely not just brush off because of its price. These are excellent pieces of audio devices that we hope many will be able to appreciate like we did.

Price: $29.99 (iM-290), $39.99 (iM-390), $49.99 (iM-490)

Platform: Standard Mini-Stereo Headphone Jack (1/8″)

Product information

Pros

• Excellent iPod integration
• Premium sound
• Easy to use

Cons

• No power scroll feature for iPod listings
• Lack of built-in CD player
• MSRP price

The Bottom Line
If you’re looking for an excellent head unit that was meant for the iPod, this is it. At an affordable street price, there really isn’t any other after-market solution this tightly tied into the iPod available to date. Add to the mix Alpine’s great looks, large buttons, and superb sound; you can’t go wrong.

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Overall:

Ease of Use:

Sound:

Features:

Price:

Recommended
Yes

Full Review
I first saw the Alpine iAD-001 at the Macworld Expo 2007 and was excited to see a head unit made for the iPod from the ground up. With its large display, iPod-like navigation (emphases on like,) and classic Alpine large buttons, I knew that this would be a winner when it hit the streets. I couldn’t wait to stick it into my vehicle.

Fast forward to late June and there arrived my Alpine iAD-X001 along with the Sirius and a Bluetooth module. I’ll be focusing on the iAD-X001 in this review, but will touch on the other two add-ons. When I opened the boxes and laid everything out, I smiled with anticipation. I couldn’t wait to plug in my 5.5G iPod into this head unit. Having used the iPod module for my top-of-the-line Pioneer AV system in my Grand Prix GTP for the past year with dissatisfaction, I was ready to put this Alpine to the test. Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Extreme thump yet accurate bass response
• Clean highs
• RF remote
• Exceptional battery life
• Stunning style

Cons

• Poor rear port covers
• A bit pricey

The Bottom Line
We’ve loved our Altec Lansing inMotion im7 since we first received it nearly three years ago but after getting the HK Go+Play, dude, the Altec is going on eBay! Harman Kardon nailed it — completely! — with the Go + Play. There is no better way to bring your tunes with you using your iPod on the go. Period.

Ratings

Overall:

Bass:

Highs:

Durability:

Style:

Price:

Recommended
Yes

Full Review
We here at SvenOnTech thirst for bass. We love our 808 yet demand accurate boom from the likes of Tchaikovsky and the Beatles (come on, no one beats Ringo for solid rhythm.) So when we got the Harman/Kardon GO+PLAY, we did what we do with all things with speakers: we slammed some KJ-52 into it. When KJ’s voice came out nice and clear over the deep bass of his soul-filled jamz, we smiled. Then we threw on some Fresh Prince, aka Will Smith, and man, did our GO+PLAY get jiggy! It was thirsting for more, so we gave it some 80s music to play with. You know, the good stuff like “Sunglasses at Night”, “I Just Died In Your Arms”, “Walk Like an Egyptian”, and “Paradise”. Phil Collins “Paradise” sounded amazingly rich and full bodied, like a good dark beer from Germany (Deibel’s anyone?) I don’t think I’ve heard it this good since I last listened to it in my $5,000 stereo in my last car.

I was sure to take it through the paces. I threw it jazz, alternative, classical, oldies, disco, easy listening, rap, heavy metal (man Def Leppard sounded great again!) and even spoken word stories such as “Pilgrim’s Progress”. They all sounded excellent. In fact, it’s as if the HK GO+PLAY gave my old, tired, 80GB of music new life. Remember, this is from a iPod which mainly contains compressed music and yet, Harman / Kardon belts new life into every song you throw at it. Read the rest of this entry »

Pros

• Impressive Sound
• Excellent Mids
• Great Bass
• Good Fit for Bookshelves

Cons

• None

The Bottom Line
If you need a great sounding speaker for tight quarters like a dorm or bedroom or just do not wish to have floor towers in your living room, the Axiom M3 v2 are perfect for your needs.

Ratings

Overall:

Bass:

Highs:

Durability:

Style:

Price:

Recommended
Yes

Full Review
I’ve spent hours listening to different speakers in a sound-tight room at high quality speaker dealers before when searching for the perfect speakers. While my wife doesn’t hear much of a difference between Brand A and Brand B, my sensitive ears are able to distinguish the subtle differences. So when these Axiom M3 v2 speakers arrived, I made sure I put them through the same test I did my current speakers.

I put the M3s in the same room as my Klipsch Synergy B3s. A small family room with lots of objects to have sound bounce off of, the M3s would have a tough job filling the room with rich sound. When I placed them next to the Klipschs, I immediately noticed that the Axioms were smaller and thought, ‘Uh-oh, we may have a problem here’. After plugging the left channel into one of the M3s and leaving the right channel in the Klipsch, I browsed for some jazz selections on my Sonos. Once I found a good variety, I started playing my selections.

Sitting in-between the two channels, I could get a good side-by-side sample of the speakers from Klipsch and Axiom. While this configuration does prevent an even balance, it helps you hear the difference of the speaker itself. And a difference I heard. Now, I’ll be honest, it wasn’t an Earth shattering difference and not even one the average listener would be able to hear, but to me, it was a difference enough that would have me put down my Visa for the Axioms over the Klipsch easily.

I changed from jazz and went into some good ‘ol alternative. The heavy sound and fully layered sounds came out very nicely. To say naturally would be a bit wrong since most things in alternative really aren’t natural to begin with. For that, I put on some Tchaikovsky. Yes, that cannon in 1812 Overture rumbled to the point that I wanted to duck. Well, not duck, but it did sound pretty darn real. The strings in Chopin peaces I selected sounded wonderful as did the keys in my favorite Beethoven peace, Moonlight Sonata.

When I threw down some rap jams, that’s when I became impressed. The bass response to the 808 kick of TobyMac was excellent! I went down the list of rap jamz in my Sonos playlist and song after song impressed me. The M3s belted it out!

Overall
Listening to the Axiom M3 v2s for a week truly told me that these bookshelf speakers are one amazing pair of speakers. They can play deep bass with little effort and duplicate delicate highs fairly well. From jazz, to classical, to rap, the M3s have you and your small to medium room easily covered!

Price: $330/pair

Platform: Bookshelf

Product information

Pros

• Excellent bass
• Comfortable
• Killer looks

Cons

• Some highs a bit too high
• Some what pricey

The Bottom Line
With dozens and dozens of headphones and earbuds available to choose from for your digital audio player, it’s becoming very difficult to discern which ones are really any good, let alone stellar, and worth the cost of purchase. Looking at the Vibes stats seems to indicate that these earbuds are worthy and after listening to just a few seconds of some bumping jams by Will Smith, we can tell you without a doubt, V-MODA has got some sweet winners right here in the Vibe!

Ratings

Overall:

Highs:

Bass:

Comfort:

Price:

Recommended
Yes

Full Review
Let’s get this out on the table right off the start. I’m a bass lover and if I can’t get some boom-boom in my room (or ears), then I’m not satisfied. When I work out on a treadmill, I use my big over-the-ear Skullcandy (review) headset to get that bass I so desire. I gave up half of my trunk in my previous car to insure I could get those 12″ JLs in. Yes, I need bass.

So when I read the press release that these V-MODA Vibes could produce some nice bass, I smiled and thought, “Sure.” Wanting to verify the claim, I requested a pair for review and V-MODA was kind enough to put their money where their mouth was and sent SvenOnTech some Red Roxx earbuds. Everything from the mailer package to the V-MODA box was done in class. There’s nothing missed here, folks, V-MODA has got all aspects covered for one fine product. But, “How do they sound?” I thought as I removed them from their fancy packaging. Well, in a nutshell, killer! Read the rest of this entry »