-I'm David Carnoy, executive editor for CNET.com, and I'm here with the Audyssey South of Market Edition iPod/iPhone Audio System.
This is a higher-end iPod speaker that cost around $400, and it does look a little bit like an oversized wireless router.
It's kind of got a funky shape to it.
You have your tweeters on the top here, and then these 4-inch woofers down below here.
It does have a nice heft to it and it
does sound really good for a speaker system.
This side there's a lot of bass here; good detail.
Audyssey is known for making the calibration systems built-in to home AV receivers, and this is really its first stand-alone consumer product.
So, it brings a lot of audio chops to the genre.
It's also got some interesting features.
This has built-in Bluetooth that allows you to stream music wirelessly from your iPhone, that is, if you don't wanna dock your iPhone.
You wanna do some e-mail or
text messaging, you can do that, and then stream your music wirelessly with this thing.
You can also stream from a Bluetooth computer and make this your computer speaker.
There's also a USB passthrough port on the back; allows you to dock your iPhone and sync it with your computer by just having in the dock.
There's a button on the back, you press the button, it syncs.
There's also a built-in mic in the speaker for speaker phone functionality.
We do notice that when you're testing it, you have to be connected via Bluetooth from your cellphone to use this as
a speaker phone.
On top of that, you can use this, for instance, as a Skype calling from your computer and using the mic built in here and listen to your conversation via the speaker.
That's all there really is to this.
You do get a small remote with the system.
It allows you to control the basic functions of your iPhone or iPod, but aside from that, no AM or FM radio.
Of course, if you're using your iPhone,
you can add apps that allow you to stream music, for instance, Pandora.
Yes, this a little bit on the expensive side at around $400.
But if you are looking for an excellent-performing iPod/iPhone speaker system and a compact one, this is definitely worth a long look.
I'm David Carnoy, and that's the Audyssey South of Market Edition iPod/iPhone Speaker System.
