OK, I am not a hardcore Sony fan. I have bought quite a few ipod docks over the past years and all of them equally good - Loud!
REcently I bought Logic-3 Jivebox Ipod dock, which is a cube made of each side equal to a small notebook. Its too small and the sound it produces is praiseworthy. But the volume was not high enough for me, although BASS was sufficiently high.
I came accross the Sony Mini HIFI in a retail shop and brought it home to check it out. It cost me exactly howmuch I paid for Jivebox. I would say the sound output is splendid! Good Bass, good overall volume. Can connect to a computer/Laptop/Mp3 player with a stereo 3.5" cable.
Only drawback is that it is huge in size, unnecassarily. There are no backlit in any of the buttons. The small LCD is sufficient enough.