Altec Lansing inMotion MAX Premium Portable Stereo

Cool Yule Rating: 4.5 stars

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Cool Yule Rating: 4.5 stars

Price: $199.95

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Description: Most of the iPod docking stations I received this year for the holiday guide were either monster systems (the mStation 2.1 Tower), large alarm clock systems (the iLuv and iHome devices) or tiny, portable systems (the Altec Lansing Orbit). So it was nice to try out another Altec Lansing product that fits comfortably in the middle, the inMotion MAX.

The device is just the right size for an office desktop – the flat design has a pop-out dock for the iPod or iPhone that lets the device fit flush with the speakers. The system provides excellent sound through the speakers, which also includes XdB bass-enhancement (Altec Lansing says this has the same effect as a subwoofer) and "Expanded Sound Stage" technology to help fill a room with sound. All I know is that the default setting was quite loud for my office, I needed to turn the system down so as not to disturb others in the building.

A lot of older iPod speaker systems don't work well with the iPhone – when I connect the iPhone to those systems, I get a warning asking me to switch to Airplane Mode so I don't create any audio interference. Altec Lansing says the inMotion MAX prevents this, but the message still came up when I attached my iPhone 3G to the system. The cool iPhone part of the system is that if a phone call comes in while I'm listening to music, the speakers will pause the music and alert me to the phone call. Pretty cool.

The system also includes an alarm clock, FM radio and a remote control that controls the radio and the iPod/iPhone. The speakers come with a power adapter, but also includes a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, so if you want to make this portable you can. The speakers aren't extremely bulky for carrying between rooms, but I probably wouldn't pack this up on a business trip. An auxiliary port is included that lets you connect a second audio source, but the cable isn't included.

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