Review: Kensington SX2000 Ipod speakers

If you've ever had the delight of visiting an Apple Store - in our opinion, the epitome of hands-on technology shopping - you'll no doubt have envied over the range of Ipod speaker systems.

Fancy and expensive designs from Bose, Altec Lansing and Apple itself leave you wishing your boss had given you that Christmas bonus after all.

However, Kensington's SX2000 is a neat-looking Ipod speaker system that costs less than £80.

It uses NXT flat-panel speaker technology, which makes for a very slim design - just 10cm deep. But it manages to exert a reasonable volume of sound, if a little overzealous on the treble, from the elongated pane.

Although there's a definite sweet spot (about five metres back, directly in the centre), it can be turned up loud enough to fill a kitchen, bedroom or living room quite comfortably.

However, at neighbour-annoying levels, the soundstage begins to crack and it's not long before the separation between bass and treble is hard to decipher.

Speaking of low rumblings, the bass is impressive but only because of the flat design; it's nowhere as crisp and punchy as the Bose Sound dock or Apple Ipod Hi-Fi. Pushing it up against a flat surface yielded better results, though.

The SX2000 supports all Ipods that have a dock connector and comes with interchangeable inserts to cradle the Ipod Nano and video Ipod.

There's a line-in socket on the back for connecting almost any audio source.

It will charge any Ipod when docked but the unit only operates on mains power. There's no remote control either, so volume has to be manually altered using buttons on the front and music has to be navigated using the Ipod's controls.

At £80 it's a cheaper option than many other cool-looking speaker systems but the drop in price is reflected in the distinctly average sound quality.

See also:

Review: Intervideo Ivideotogo for Ipod

Convert video files and DVDs ready for playback on your Ipod  22 Mar 2006

Rise of the dreaded pod-slurper

But viruses are still more feared than Ipod-based data stealers  17 Mar 2006

Logitech Wireless Music System for Ipod

Turn your Ipod into a remote for your stereo system  16 Feb 2006

Gear4 Pocket Party v2 speakers

Small and portable, but the lack of volume control makes these Ipod speakers hard to recommend  15 Feb 2006

Apple Ipod AV Connection Kit

Control video, audio and photo playback from the sofa - apparently  10 Feb 2006

Apple Ipod Radio Remote

Turn your Ipod into an FM tuner  08 Feb 2006

Buyers' Guide: Digital Music Players

Digital music players come in various guises, and it's not always easy to know the differences. We explain the main types of player.  15 Feb 2006

Motorola Rokr E1

A mobile phone that thinks it’s an iPod  10 Oct 2005

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!