After work, I was killing time at the local Best Buy and thought I’d look for an alarm clock dock since I had eschewed my trusty old-school alarm clock for the alarm function on my iPhone. While browsing, a kind employee came over to assist me. He asked if I wanted better sound quality and I said sure, why not? We waltzed over to the sound accessories and I noticed the pricetags immediately jumped up at least two-fold. I was really looking for something on a budget, something to get me by that would charge my phone and give my speaker a boost when I play podcasts and music in bed, but I had time, so I let him show me around.
The very first item he plugged my iPhone into was a Klipsch iGroove SXT,a sleek, simply designed powerhouse of a speaker dock. There are only three buttons (volume up and down and a power button) and your iDevice of choice plugs in snugly between two large speakers. The fullness of audio output floored me right off the bat and he invited me to crank up the sound. I obliged and to my surprise, the audio quality was not compromised by raising the volume. No crackling to be heard, no loss of either bass or
treble. In fact, the unit sports both woofer and tweeters, something especially nice for the price range. The $149 pricetag was a bit over my range, but I almost dropped the cash right then and there. Nonetheless, we tried the other units available, including a Bose unit that was twice the price. Of course, the Bose delievered great sound, but for half the price, the Klipsch really held my attention. I instead decided to refuse an impulse buy and do a little research at home online.
My research returned many good reviews of the product, backing up my initial impression. I did some price checking and found a factory refurbished model for $79, almost half-price. I decided to take a chance and ordered the speakers. I impatiently awaited the rather speedy delivery time, checking the tracking number every day until the unit arrived. I hungrily tore through the brown paper wrapping and carefully sliced open the plain white refurb packaging. Inside, I found a manual, a set of dock adapters, a remote control, and an AC adapter. I plugged it in and set my iPhone in the cradle. My small apartment was soon filled with thick, luxurious sound (I played some Cake to test it out, in case you’re curious). The unit now stays on my nightstand except for when I move it to the kitchen to keep me company while I’m cooking or doing dishes.
I will make a quick mention of the remote, which is a mixture of good and bad. I haven’t been able to find the IR receiver, so sometimes I don’t get a clear shot from across the room, but generally the remote responds nicely. The skip and back buttons only work with the iPod feature on my iPhone (not Pandora or other apps), but I use the remote almost exclusively for volume adjustment between songs/tracks, so this isn’t a huge drawback for me. And while I’m on the subject of volume adjustment, I will say that I wish the buttons on-unit had a bit more tactile feedback. I like to know for sure that a button has been pressed, but all too often the only way I can tell if I’ve made a change is to press the button a few times (or hold it down) and see if the volume changes. The volume meter on my iPhone is hidden while it's plugged in, so there's no visual feedback for the volume adjustment either. But as with the remote, this is small gripe and probably stems more from my OCD tendencies than an actual design flaw.
The iGroove charges my phone as quickly as the standard USB/AC adapter and happily, when I receive a text or phone call, the signaling ringtone plays through the speakers, so I don’t have to be within earshot of the built-in iPhone speaker to be notified of incoming communications. This is also useful when my phone is charging in the other room and someone calls me.
Additional ports in the back allow for aux input via a standard 3.5mm stereo plug (so they could be used for computer speakers) and an s-video output, presumably to output video content to a television. I have yet to try this feature out, but will add that to this review should I ever feel the need to try it. For now, I'm happy using it as a charging dock and powerful set of external speakers.
If you’ve been looking for an elegant solution to charging and amplifying an iDevice, go with the Klipsch iGroove and thank me later.
