TwinMos Boom 1 2.1-channel iPod audio system

A maximum 8W per channel can be generated by the docking station and an additional 25W by the sub-woofer, which won't get your party started, but is loud enough to use for a small gathering or to annoy your neighbours. The problem we encountered though was that the louder the volume, the more distorted or crackly the music quality became, which is a well established problem when running relatively low-power speakers at high volumes.

For example, we selected the Plain White T's current chart hit Hey there, Delilah, a cranky pop/rock-esque love ballad that sounded... well... mediocre. The sound quality wasn't terrible, but the main problem was that the music lacked any meaty bass tones and finer instrumental tuning that, say, a decent compact stereo would provide.

TwinMos' Boom 1: also available in black

The Boom 1's either a stereo for small flats where the music can't be too loud, but needs to be a loud enough to get people dancing... or it's a simplistic stereo for people that want to dock their iPod and have fast access to their music catalogue without worrying about the finer points in, say, classical music.

While the Boom 1 produces a decent enough level of sound with its combined wattage, we found the sub-woofer needed at least a 3ft distance from the docking station to get a decent separation of sounds. This sometimes proved a problem though, because the supplied cable was fairly short.

The egg-head sub-woofer is possibly a style talking point, but cumbersome to lift and position because it has three stabilising feet and is only really safely positioned on a table - which can affect its sound quality. You can opt simply not to connect it, but the resulting sound from the docking station alone is tinny and not much better than the sound quality of a moderately-priced laptop.

One stand-out feature is that, owing to its compatibility with picture-enable iPods, the player has a video out jack that enables it to display pictures stored on your iPod on a larger screen display. Whether it'll work with the new iPod Nano and Classic, which require extra authorisation technology before they'll pass through video signals, remains to be seen. It did work with our older Nano, though.

Verdict

The Boom 1 is a good little device that makes few attempts to dress itself up as a superior sound system for iPods, MP3 or CD players. The design is average and it will sit in a corner quite easily without drawing much attention. The sound quality is mediocre, but is good enough for small parties or background music while, say, in the kitchen or reading the paper.