Altec Lansing inMotion iM7 Portable Audio System for iPod (White)
by Altec Lansing Technologies
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List Price: Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Altec Lansing inMotion iM7 Portable Audio System for iPod (White)
Customer Review: Excellent sound at a better price point than the Bose dock
Summary: 5 Stars
After having had no desire for an iPod for years, I finally and quite suddenly realized I couldn't live without one. I have to have music on when I work, and I realized every morning I was taking out a few CD's from one of my two CD changers at home and bringing them into my office to play on my 3-disc bookshelf system. My office soon got cluttered with CD's and I realized I could end the madness with an iPod to hold my 500 or so CD's.
I knew I'd need a lot of storage (and ultimately decided on the 30gig video), and I was planning on complementing it with the Bose sound dock, but wasn't relishing spending the combined $600 to make this happen. I'd heard the Bose at a friends wedding and was impressed with its sound but turned off by its awkwardness when it came to portability. After reading some reviews, I went for the Altec Lansing iM7, sight unseen (or should I say sound unheard?) I'm THRILLED with my decision! The sound is rich and full with surprising bass for something of its size. The sound fills up my sizable living room, and it just rocks my little 10x10 office! All music sounds good on it from straight-forward rock (Doors, Pearl Jam) to more melodic bands (Coldplay, Sigur Ros), to alternative industrial (Manson, NIN) and the unit really shines with electronic alternative (Depeche Mode, VAST).
Any negatives there are are minor, and should not be a consideration in your purchase. These include the remote control with an impossible to load battery compartment (I had to hold the 1-inch by 3-inch unit betwen my knees and use a dime and a pair of scissors to get mine open!). The remote sits snug in the back of the unit, and the rubberized recessed handle is comfortable for carrying the unit from one place to the other (although it isn't recessed deep enough if you plan on carrying the unit for a prolonged period of time while using batteries). Speaking of batteries, a fair warning: the IM7 goes through them, and QUICKLY. I took the IM7 on a boat trip, and after about 10 hours the brand-new batteries were completely drained. Considering the unit takes 8 D-sized batteries, it's pretty costly to run the unit when not using a wall outlet.
Putting your iPod in is simple enough, just push the door in and it drops down like that of a casette player. Behind the space for the iPod is a ratcheting flipswitch that holds the iPod in its socket (although oddly it didnt ratchet enough for my 30gig, but it does close far enough for 60's and 80's). The unit comes complete with 4 interchangeable wall-plugs in the event you live outside of or are planning on travelling outside of the USA. This unit will never replace an expensive home theater, but if you've already invested in an iPod, you owe it to your ears to give this a try.
EDIT: Several months after I purchased the IM7, my girlfriend got me the Bose sounddock, so now I don't need to lug the IM7 from my office to her place to my place and back to the office. Since I wrote my initial review I've upgraded my iPod to an 80 gig. I placed my old 30 in one of the units, and my new 80 in the other, and in my opinion the IM7 beats the Sounddock hands down. Take it from someone who owns both: the IM7 is the way to go.
Customer Review: Simply awesome - buys like this have kept me coming back to amazon
Summary: 5 Stars
Sorry to hear about the folks that got defective products or whose IM7's conked out after 2 years, but I think they might have just been unlucky. I've had my IM7 for three years now and it's spent at least 1.5 of those years sitting in the dust of a carpeted floor, got heavily soaked (and acquired permanent water stains) when my apartment was flooded, got bashed and battered as I've carried it around, and it still sounds as completely awesome as the day I got it. My only complaint is it can't take my iPhone so I have to use a cradle dock.
Simply awesome. Rock-solid bass but not fakely pumped up or overwhelming. Beautiful, almost exquisite sound at high or low volumes. Beats all the speaker systems I've ever owned, including several hi-fi's I have since junked, even beats listening to the pretty excellent harman kardon speakers in my car. My only small complaint is it didn't sound as good with input from various windows mobile phones (HTC's) I've used over the years. It seems to be optimized for ipods and itunes (also sounds better than Windows Media Player on my laptop), but maybe I'm wrong.
Does anyone know if Altec Lansing have produced a successor to these beautiful speakers? I want to buy some more even if to just give them away for the awesome feedback. Buys like this keep me coming back to amazon.
*** Review update from Lagos, Nigeria 30-Nov-2010. My IM7 is maybe almost four years old now. Still as good as day one, still sounds awesome. Quality sound at high or low volumes, whatever kind of music, truly entertaining. Really impresses most folks that hear it.
I'm about to move to a new apartment and I need a new speaker dock for my living room, plan to use the IM7 in the kitchen or upstairs in a bedroom. Not because it doesn't sound good enough because I think it does, but as I mentioned above it's sporting scratches and stains from years of abuse :). I don't like to use complex speaker systems anymore, a really good dock is enough for me.
So last Saturday I bought a copy of What Hi-Fi (I think it was), and ploughed through "expert" reviews drooling over the BW Zeppelin and Arcam RCube. I stopped at a store in Victoria Island this afternoon to listen to the Zeppelin. Docked my IPhone and shock! Above average, but slightly subdued results.
Unimpressed, I played the same songs on my IM7 soon after I got back home. I have to say it beats the Zeppelin hands down, at least on the Zep's default settings. However pls note that my IM7 remote was lost in transit to Nigeria, so bass and treble settings are as they came out of the box.
Just confirms that you shouldn't always trust expert reviews, these guys go through too much stuff to care all the time and can have all sorts of biases. My advice is to try things out for yourself, and if you can't, research tons of user reviews and look for repeating themes. I'm now planning to buy a second IM7 before they go completely unavailable, and also try out the Arcam RCube. Will update this review with any developments. Cheers!
Customer Review: Much more then expected for the money!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am new to the iPod since I waited until it would playback video. But I am NOT new to great audio products. I was searching for a portable unit which would work with battery or A/C and I was ready to buy iBoom or a boombox style unit from Memorex. They were both under a hundred bucks and that appealed to me.
Then, I heard the Bose system and the Apple audio system. They both sound terrific! The price tags were enough to choke me though. So I started to look for the cheaper units again. While working my way back down the line of portable and small table top units I came across this unit. The iM7 was without a doubt the best of the bunch! I searched at Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, WalMart and a couple other places and couldn't find it anywhere. Then it was on-line to find reviews and pricing.
After reading reviews and having heard it for myself, I could easily justify the larger expense. (Whenever you get a dollar amount in your head you end up not liking when the amount goes higher and I was stuck on a hundred or lower). So, off to buy on-line. I first stopped at Amazon.com and that is where I stopped. Although there were other venders here who sold the unit cheaper by a bit, Amazon was close enough to the best price and I knew I could return it easily if there were a problem and I could get it shipped quickly.
Well, not only did it arrive a day earlier than was displayed as the first day of a 4 day window, I was extemely surprised how great the unit sounded once I could hear it in a real world setting and not in a big store display area. I tried all sorts of music on it and I was amazed with each style after style. I had already learned in reviews there was treble and bass controls when you used the remote so I knew it had a little control and that's all you need these days with an iPod type unit.
A wonderful surprise and unadvertised...
I don't have to spend the $100 on Apple's video docking unit! This unit will also allow me to display the video on a regular TV!!! It has S-Video and Composite outputs for video. It says you can show your iPhoto slide shows, but it WILL show videos as well from a video iPod. So, cut the price in half as you just saved 100 dollars!
The unit will also charge your iPod and it's totally adjustable to fit every unit snugly from nano mini to classic and video versions! With an included wire you can also play any other type of aux input device. So, if you have the shuffle you can use this. I have! ;-)
So, this is the unit if you love good audio quality, a solidly made device and plenty of options in a relatively small unit. Easy to carry, fun to play and it looks great doing it!
WORTH EVERY PENNY!
Customer Review: And The Winner Is...
Summary: 5 Stars
The following is an edited rehash of my review for the Bose SoundDock. Thanks to the holidays I am now the owner of the Bose system and both the Altec Lansing inMotion iM7 and inMotion IM3. After hours of listening to every type of music on my iPod I had to (begrudgingly) give Bose it's due for (marginally) producing the best sound of the three. Not in every category of music, but in a significant few. The presets on my iM7 were weak at the high end, so getting the sound quality up to a comparable level with the SoundDock required a little tweaking of the base and treble controls on the iM7's (very mediocre) remote, but it can be done.
In addition to respecting customers enough to make their own sound choices by providing tremble and bass controls, Altec Lancing's iM7 includes a host of features that are illogically ommitted from the Bose. An input jack so you can also use the speakers to output music and computer sounds from a desktop or enhance the quality of a movie played on a portable DVD player or laptop. An S-video jack to output photo "shows" (with sound track) though a TV from an iPod photo. A convenient slot to store the remote when the remote is not being used, like when transporting the iM7. A headphone jack. And, of course, the option of battery power and a handle that make it portable. On top of that, the fit and finish on the iM7 is noticeably superior to the SoundDock. It's no surprise that the iM7 has a five star overall rating while the SoundDock's is a full star lower.
Even if they were offered at the same price the iM7 gets my vote over the SoundDock. But they're not the same price. The iM7 is $100 less. It appears that Bose takes that money and adds it to what they save on features and invests it in a massive marketing budget to convince consumers that Bose products are worth their premium prices.
For the record, I don't dislike Bose. I'm very happy with the Bose system in my car and I love the Bose outdoor speakers facing the hot tub. They make decent products. I just think they're suffering from the same hubris that brought General Motors to its knees.
I'm keeping the Bose because it was a gift. The iM7 is on top of my computer monitor and the SoundDock is in the living room to take advantage of the two areas it wins out over the iM3, design and snob appeal.
By the way, the Altec Lansing in Motion iM3 is great. While the smaller speakers can't compete with either the SoundDock or the iM7 you can't beat it when it comes to traveling. The iM3 even includes an iPod input so you can use it as a desktop dock and move music and programming from your computer to the iPod. I can understand why the iM7 omitted that nice little feature, but I wish they hadn't.
Customer Review: I LOVE THIS PRODUCT!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought an ipod video a few weeks a go, and decided that I would also really like to have a stereo to play my music aloud. I actually was thinking about getting the Bose Soundock when I read about this product in a review.
This stereo, the Altec Lansing iM7, fits my music needs better than I could have ever imagined! It was very, very easy to hook up (Some of you have made comments about the remote. If you have trouble putting the included battery inside use a bobby pin or safety pin to push the opening button on the side. If you try to do it yourself, you'll batter your fingers!) For someone who's not swift with electronics, it took me about 7 minutes to set this up in my bedroom.
THE SOUND! After all the great reviews about the sound of the iM7, I was not surprised when I finally turned it on and heard myself the great quality of base that comes from this stereo. Finally, a system that will do justice to my music! Whether I'm listening to the blues, rock, orchestral music, This sounds great!!
On the actual stereo there are three buttons: Power, Volume Up, Volume Down. To change a playlist, you have to scroll through your ipod. ((No trouble--At least you can only use one hand, unlike other systems I read about where you have to hold the ipod in place while you try to scroll to a song you like.))
The remote is also great: It allows you to turn on the system, alter the volume, bass, or treble, as well as pause/play, skip forward and backward buttons!! Its very small though, so keep it somewhere you'll never loose it. The ipod fits in the opening in the front, and there's even a cradle for an ipod mini. I was worried at first that my video ipod wouldn't fit, but it does!! And it works so perfectly!!
If the Remote, portability, and the great sound aren't enough to get the iM7, than get it for the ease of taking songs from your ipod (letting go of the earphones) and letting the music fill the room with power and majesty. I love how I can be moving around and still listening to my music, without having to have my ipod attached to me, worrying that my ears are going to be damaged from having the volume so loud.
I've tried to mention everything in this review, hopefully it helps you make your decision. I would also like to just add that I am very pleased with the quality of Altec Lansing. I have not had any trouble with this system so far and I'm so happy that for once I made the right electronic decision. I Hope you get it and I hope you enjoy as much as I do!