You just can’t get away from the iPod.  It dominates the mobile audio space and everyone seems to have one these days either in iPhone form or the standard iPod Touch.  While Apple’s perfected the personal experience of music with their portable line of iPods, they have left the sharing of music up to 3rd part manufactures.  The iPods’s internal speakers certainly don’t cut it, so companies like Altec Lansing have developed solutions for music lovers that want to share what they are listening to with family and friends.  But what do you do with multiple devices iPods or iPhones in the mix?  Fighting over the stereo system can be avoided with a dual dock device, such as the Octiv Duo (MSRP $99.99).  Altec Lansing takes that concept a step further by introducing a way to mix the tracks between ...

Every speaker design represents a mix of advantages and compromises. Achieving good reproduction across the frequency range from low to high often involves employing drivers of different sizes linked with a crossover network. The large majority of loudspeakers feature such designs. Yet, it's possible for a speaker to approach full-range response without a dedicated woofer and tweeter (or other arrangement) connected by a crossover network. Instead, several drivers of the same size can be employed by using an equalizer to shape response and boost the bottom end. The most famous such design is the Bose 901. This speaker, first introduced in 1968, relied on nine 4.5-inch cone drivers for an “omnidirectional” sound to simulate the sound of a live performance. The 901 cabinet featured an angled back containing eight of the nine drivers, while the front panel housed a single ...

The influence of Apple's iDevices in today's marketplace gets stronger with every passing day and the iPad is certainly taking the home theater market by storm.  Popular applications like Netflix, hulu Plus and Pandora are dazzling the masses while it's also being found useful as a custom remote control for home automation and other uses around the house.  There haven't been an enormous amount of speaker systems that come with iPad specific docking moldings, but that trend will likely change as the iPad continues to dominant the tablet market.  One such device that arrive early in the product life cycle of the iPad is the Altec Lansing Octiv Stage 450, a compact speaker system with the ability to mount the iPad on a large docking stand.  Design:The device is very simple in design.  The base of the unit measures only ...

The product category of power conditioners is one that often stirs debate, for and against, in the audiophile community. Some argue that a properly designed power supply needs no additional components to perform well, while others believe that the quality of delivered AC determines the quality of the audio performance.  I have heard some audiophiles proclaim a conditioner is an indispensable piece of gear, and others claim it makes their systems sound worse. What makes this review interesting is that I have no experience with conditioners. I normally plug my tube amp directly into a high quality AC receptacle, and my preamp and sources into a passive power strip free of any surge protecting devices or fuses. So I am calling this the “clean slate” review.To greatly simplify for the sake of everyone, a power conditioner is an electrical device ...

I don't get to travel as much as I'd like to in the traditional sense, but every piece of audio equipment I review takes me on a journey of sorts. Whether it's embarking on a symbolic trip overseas to the component's origin or into the rarefied air of gear whose price exceeds my bankroll, the paths are always interesting and often enlightening. And sometimes they are flat out surprising. At the end of J.R.R. Tolkien's “The Fellowship Of The Ring,” hobbit hero Frodo Baggins finds life in his old homeland, The Shire, no longer possible. His quest to save Middle Earth from the dark lord, Sauron, has exposed him to things beyond his imagination and broken his innocence. Too many things have happened, and he no longer can dwell in the idyllic yet naïve world of his kin. Finally, Frodo ...