Philips Fidelio DS8550
The Fidelio DS8550 is a really good, versatile speaker system at a very attractive price. The DS8550 can use Bluetooth for wireless streaming, but also has a dock for iOS devices, and is one of the few such speaker systems that will even allow you to dock an iPad – or to use the standalone iPad stand that Philips throws in too. The audio quality is excellent, with a warm, rich sound that works particularly well with more mellow music. It’s got a rechargeable battery too, and is light enough to easily carry from room to room or to take outside for a BBQ if we ever get some decent weather this summer. The Zeppelin Air' sound is better - just - but you can't argue about the price differential.
Reg Rating 90%
Price £249
More info Philips
SoundFreaq SoundPlatform
The SoundPlatform isn’t the most elegant speaker system I’ve ever seen, although you could be charitable and describe features such as the little knobs for adjusting treble and bass as ‘retro’. Those little knobs can be used to fine-tune the sound to suit your taste, although the speaker doesn’t produce quite as full-bodied a sound as some of its comparably-priced rivals. It uses Bluetooth for wireless streaming, and there’s also a SoundFreaq app that you can download for adjusting treble, bass and other settings on your iPhone or iPad. However, the SoundFreaq app is poorly integrated with Apple’s iTunes app, which makes music selection a bit fiddly at times.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £200
More info SoundFreaq
Ten... wireless speakers
COMMENTS
Don't know if its just me.....
But I just *hate* superfluous features.
I don't have an iPod or iPhone and, while many of these speakers will work with the non Apple kit I *do* have, it just grates my sensibilities that there is this prominent "dock" that I'm never going to use.
Even when they can be hidden away, you still know its there, but can't be used so, for me, the dock-free Altec Lansing has to be the clear winner.
Tch...
You could have said "*iPod* wireless speakers". I thought this was something interesting.
From a tech site, I'd have liked to hear how many of these support DLNA's "Play to..." function, to be useful with non-Apple kit too.
Of jacks and docks
I can use the audio in jack if I want to. I can use it with just about any audio source I can find.
I can use any of the buttons on the dash if I want to.
I can't use the iThing dock because my phone isn't an iPhone and my music player isn't an iPod.
To continue your car analogy. You can buy cars with built in bike racks. You can sling pretty much any bike onto them. It doesn't matter if I don't use the rack, my bike will fit it if I want it to.
If the rack was custom designed to fit the bikes from a certain manufacturer, and my bike is from a different manufacturer, then its not a matter of "don't use", its a matter of "can't use" unless I buy a new bike from that certain manufacturer.
What I would have to do is fit an after-market bike rack and ignore the factory fitted one, which would be an arsingly stupid situation.
Re: No "affordable" options?
Yeah, I'm with Tim here. Even a bit in the box at the top of the first page indicating the price range would have been handy. As it is, I had to click through five pages of kit and read all the summary boxes to find out there wasn't a single model that I could even begin to afford.
I mean, it's only a wireless speaker. I have a San Francisco Smartphone and a no-name chinese Android tablet that, combined, cost less than the cheapest of these speakers. And I guarantee I'll get a lot more use from the phone and tablet.
No "affordable" options?
I know "ten eye-wateringly expensive iPod speaker docks, some of which might have AirPlay" is more of a mouthful than the title you chose, but it would've arguably been more accurate :-(
Just for starters: if you want to round up some "wireless" speakers, where are the Bluetooth models? They're not all tinny £30 jobbies - Creative's D100 puts out surprisingly good-quality output over Bluetooth (A2DP), and if you shop around you can find it online for under £50. (I saw the D100 on sale for a short time in our local Currys for £35, and having tried one out in the store, I'm still kicking myself that I didn't go for it.)
Personally, I've never seen the point of an iPod dock that costs three times the price of the iPod docked into it, but maybe I just lack imagination...
