Philips DS3020/05 Portable Docking Speaker for iPod/iPhone - White

I purchased this unit after reading a good independent reviews elsewhere. I am very pleased with the sound quality, which for its size and power is very good.
I am using it with an iPod Touch 4th gen and downloaded a good clock app. I may be wrong but the alarm did not wake me using this unit this morning. Although the Touch was on it had not switched
the Philips on and therefore no sound!! I'm hoping this is just me not setting it up correctly because I don't see the point in leaving the Philips on all night wasting electric and also needlesly charging the iPod
just to wake me up! Not a fault with the Philips maybe but annoying as this is what I would like to use it for! I will post more if/when I find out for you.

As for the negative reviews on here especially the one regarding sending it back because they thought the sound was mono and not good!? I would imagine there will be many ignorant people out there who have no idea how there iPhone/iPods work. Most iPods/iPhones have setting to enhance the music (tone adjustments for one). These are the equaliser settings and can make a huge difference to the overall sound quality so please experiment with all your Apple settings before giving anything a bad review! My girlfriend wanted to try my dock after hearing my iTouch and used her iPhone in it. It sounded very tinny/too much treble! I checker her settings and under the equalisation her phone was set to treble booster (settings/music/EQ)! I changed it to EQ off and that made all the difference. As I said earlier these setting are purely fixed tone setting that alter bass and treble accordingly and are maybe worth experimenting with but always remember to set it off after just in case you listen to some music that is already bass or treble heavy which can then cause distortion. Also it was said that it sounded mono etc... Obviously you cannot get true stereo separation on any player with speakers so close together hence the need for speakers being set around 6 feet apart in a true stereo hi-fi system. This Philips does a great disguising where the sound comes from giving an spacial feel to the music. I think some early surround sound amplifier manufacturers used to call that effect pseudo surround.
I hope this helps someone.

I have had this item for all of 2 hours and had to write the review straight away.

I am very very impressed with this, the postman delivered it and it was straight out the box.

It was very easy to unpack, just popped the lid open, 1st thing you take out is the plug which is in a seperate box in the top of the packet, along with the usb and headphone jack cables.

The dock itself is just flimsily wrapped in that translucent paper stuff im not sure what its called but it was completely secure in the cardboard inserts, i unwrapped it and lifted it out.

1st thing i noticed was how tiny it was, its all of 8.5" wide and 6.5" tall. It has a very rounded back and i estimate this to be about 4"deep.

The power socket is on the right hand side and i plugged in my ipod and selected a whole different bunch of songs to put it through the ringer.

I am seriously impressed, the stand out thing for me was the vocals, no matter what song i played and i will list them in a minute, the vocals were pin sharp crystal clear, i turned up the volume to almost max and there was absolutely no distortion of any kind, i have no idea how they did that. Normally a bass will take over and drown out the sound, even on my big sony stereo which has its own ipod dock, Sony MHCEC79I.CEK Mini System with Direct iPod Dock the vocals become distorted after you turn it up past a certain point.

One of the coolest things with this system that i can see is that it is also battery compatible. You can just pop in 4 AA batteries and you get 8 hours of play, how brilliant is that, you can take it to the park, on picnics, too festivals if your going this year, out in the garden, i think that's cool and ill certainly be taking mine out and about when i take my nieces and nephews places.

It is compatible with all ipod models, i have an ipod classic, but it is been made specifically for the iphone and the ipod touch. They are able to access a whole host of features that i cannot.

You can download an app via the itunes app store called Fidelio+, its free, and on this you have the dynamic bass boost function as well as a host of other cool stuff, like the ability to access over 7000 radio stations, the alarm functions, as well as the ability to see how much battery you have left if your using it with batteries instead of AC.

Now this may sound a bit nerdy but the absolute best thing that impressed me was the fact that i could have it loud without any bass ripping open my floorboards and driving my neighbours crazy. I live in an apartment you see.

I placed a glass of water right next to this, literally as close as i could get to it without touching and played a whole bunch of songs of various genres and that water never moved, not a single ripple, nothing and that for me makes it worth the money.

I am so impressed actually that i am gonna buy one for my 14yr old niece for her birthday.

I played these songs to test it out.

Rolling In The Deep

Closer To The Edge

S&M

Beautiful Monster

Get It Right (Glee Cast Version)

Vivaldi The 4 Seasons (Spring) I. Allegro

The Flood

Sandstorm

My Medicine

If i had to list any negatives i can honestly think of only 2.

1. No remote control, but then i dont think its necessary.

2. No handle, now whilst it would spoil the aesthetically pleasing look, it would certainly be handy for when taking places.

However these 2 negatives dont take away from the fact that this product has made me super happy, i think it will be on all day.

Thanks Amazon and thanks Philips..

After reading plenty of reviews for an i-pod docking station, I decided to buy the Philips DS3020/05 Fidelio and have been impressed by the clarity and depth of the sound it generates. It's easy to use and looks good as well.