Philips AZD208/05 Docking Entertainment System with Dynamic Bass Boost

This would be the perfect entertainment system if a little more consideration had been given to the design during the planning stage. Having said that, this doesn't make it a bad product; just not what it could have been!

As far as sound quality goes, this is excellent. The description says it comes with Dynamic Bass Boost, so to try it out, I played some organ music though it. (You can't get more bass than an organ, can you?!) It didn't struggle with this at all, and the quality was amazing.

I also like that it plays CDs as many an entertainment system these days seems to omit this in preference to a mp3 docking point. This has got both, and not only caters for iPods and iPhones through the dedicated dock, but also all other makes through a separate mp3 port. Therefore, it's a pretty comprehensive system that caters for many different formats of music.

However, there are also negatives to this system. First of all, it doesn't have a DAB digital radio. While the future of analogue radio is uncertain, digital radio has been around for many years, so I have come to expect it on the majority of new entertainment systems. The fact that this doesn't have it means that already, the competition has one up on it.

It is also quite old fashioned looking as the controls aren't fully digital either. The tuning switch and volume control are like something that would have come from the 1990's, and the tuning control makes it particularly hard to get the radio tuned to precisely the right station. This could have been solved by digital control, like nearly every other system has!

So, to sum up, it has great quality sound and will play a vast range of media, but you might want to hide it in a corner so no one can see it!

This Philips iPod dock also boasts a CD player and Radio. The speakers output only 1.5 watts each so this isn't going to rival a more dedicated HiFi system but they certainly perform better than some of the ultra thin iPod docks I've seen. The size and built in carry handle make it portable, and it can be used with batteries if you fancy taking it out into the garden - but it does take 6 batteries, and not double-As either, it takes LR14 batteries which are the big beasties you never seem to have in at Christmas!

The unit is very easy to use, simply drop your iPod onto the dock and use the buttons on the machine. The player does feel a bit plasticky but it seems durable enough. The actual iPod dock recess is covered by a flap which, when open, supports the iPod to keep it secure. When not in use the flap gives the unit a tidy look, and more importantly - it won't suffer from dust. The display is very small and doesn't contain much information, it's pretty much to show which CD track number you're playing and play mode (shuffle, repeat, etc). However, as most will use this to listen to music from their iPods/iPhones, then an additional display isn't really necessary anyway.

The CD Player too is as easy as it gets, just lift the CD cover and pop your disk in. The packaging notes that this can handle a wide variety of CD formats, so if you have any music burned to disk, you won't have to worry over whether you'll be able to play the disks or not - that's usually not an issue these days with most players accepting CD-R and CD-RW formats. There's 3.5mm input too in case you have audio from any other source you wish to play, though there are no card readers or USB ports to connect any external storage (something which has become a common feature with modern media players).

The FM/MW radio tuner is manual rather than digital, it was a throwback to the past having to slowly turn the tuning knob to get Radio 4, and as it's manual - there's no information on the display to say what station you've got - you have to rely on the guide printed on the unit around the knob.

The DBB (Dynamic Bass Boost) button is a gimmicky yet neat feature which does make a noticeable difference. It manages to bring forward sounds which languish in the background without saturating the overall sound with Bass too much. I've had Bass boosting players in the past and the result was an awful hollow sound, so it's refreshing to hear a system which kind of works! Whether you'll want it on or not is a matter of personal taste. I found that some tracks sounded better with it, but overall I preferred it switched off.

In a nutshell: It's great being able to listen to music and then when finished put my fully charged iPod in my pocket! This system isn't best sounding one out there, and it's not the most fully featured either - it's fairly average but still better than a lot of the ultra-thin cheaper players. If you simply want an iPod dock which will play music (and CDs) and sound okay then you can't go far wrong with this. It's perfect for those who want a simple solution without the bells and whistles you find on some others devices. I wouldn't consider it as a replacement for a HiFi system.

To be honest, I mainly use my iPod for listening to audio books rather than music. I already have an iPod docking station but I didn't have a CD player which is why I went for this model. It's perfect for me as I can listen to my books on either iPod or CD and as it's portable it comes round the house with me (and will come on holiday too).

Having read some of the other reviews, there seems to be some issues with sound quality which are fair and valid if you want to listen to something loud and perhaps is not the best model for music.

That said, for the job I want it to do and the price it is, it's pretty perfect.