Despite the iW1′s low(ish) cost of adoption, though, it’s full of a bevy of tantalizing features (including app support, capacitive controls and a chargeable battery), and an aesthetic appearance, besides. We put this contemporary-age boom box through its sound-reproducing paces for the past few weeks (much to our neighbors dismay). So, with a purpose to discover even if the iHome iW1 will pack a bang in your buck, hit that “read more” link below for our full review.
Hardware
Out of the box, there is a fair amount of stuff to sort through. We were welcomed by the iW1 itself, a charging platform with a detachable wall-wart, a 3-foot USB to 30-pin cable, iHome’s Rz10 remote and lastly, an Apple-esque manuals box. As we mentioned while introducing the iW1, it‘s a chic looking number. The vast majority of the unit is wrapped in black mesh, while nearer the base, there is a chrome strip to provide it a pinch of pizazz. It really could do equally in addition a focus piece or an incognito sound source — except for the iHome logo, the unit’s almost nondescript. Hidden behind front cloth, there’s also a multi-colored LED, which indicates whether the unit is out of battery or charging, and when a button at the remote is tapped.
While some AirPlay-endowed audio units leave it mostly to pumping out music, the iW1 serves up a healthy amount of extras and tricks — starting with an incredible touch-control panel on its top. From the left, you could find capacitive buttons for standby, wireless and direct-input modes, a strip of 16 dots within the center for displaying volume and battery levels and basic play / pause and forward / back controls. The touch panel is amazingly responsive and always registered finger taps or slides — too bad that it is a magnet for scratches and fingerprints. Notably, the panel was readable in direct sunlight, and while the unit is in sleep mode the standby light pulsates à la most recent Macs.
Flipping the unit around back reveals a lot of its auxiliary controls and inputs. You’ll notice a battery indicator button, main power slider, a three.5mm jack (no cable included), a USB connector for docking and iDevice charging (no power for iPads, though), a firmware LED-button and lastly, a WiFi status LED next to its network setup tab. We want the battery button was within easier reach, however it is smart that remainder of the controls are at the back — you’ll rarely use them after initial setups to new WiFi networks. The buttons and doodads don’t stop there, though!
See, that included remote isn’t something to misplace in case you AirPlay with iTunes; you can not access some potentially fundamental controls using a working laptop or computer. The Rz10 remote mimics the iW1′s top, nonetheless it adds other functions like mute, shuffle and repeat buttons. Here’s the genuine kicker, though: it has got a button to enable Bon Jovi 3 Bongiovi Acoustics DPS 3 for “improving” sound, and simpler than that, there also are the bass and treble controls.
If we did misplace the remote, iHome’s free Set app enables controlling the equalization functions from iThings — but only while docked via USB. To position it briefly, the geek in us welcomes all the tweaking options and input methods — it’s only a shame that the present implementation feels a piece fragmented. Hopefully, iHome will eventually make the Set app wire-free, a minimum of.
Moving onto greener pastures, in the event you check the iW1′s rear side again you’ll notice there is a carrying handle. This enables the six-pound system to be carried boombox-style to a different room (we promise, it isn’t that bad), and because of an internal 2,600 mAh Li-ion battery it may go cord-free for about a hours. Doing so was very simple because it merely sits at the charging base able to be lifted at a moments notice. Streaming wirelessly from iTunes with Bongiovi enabled and the amount just past 50 percent, the iW1 managed five and a half hours of playback before it needed a re-juice. It’s on no account shabby, but we’re told that it will last as long as ten hours at “moderate” volumes.
0 During our time with the iW1, it was always able to play from standby within seconds, but annoyingly its cold bootup times took as much as 45 seconds. Considering most of the devices we used ( 4 MacBook Air and iPad 2, 4 as an instance) tend to be up and crunching within a shorter period of time, it’s hard to be okay with a speaker rig that takes its sweet time to power on. That being the case, it’s obviously meant to remain in a standby like, say, a cable box or PS3. So, while the slow boot times are notable, it wasn’t something we suffered greater than a handful of times.
Installation, setup and AirPlay
1 Sure, we could’ve just plugged into the iW1 over USB like several ‘ol dock, but for sure you’re ideally ditching the audio cord by investing in an AirPlay-enabled system. The iW1 supports 802.11b/g WiFi networks but after all, before it’s going to rock there’s some setup involved. Thankfully (for iOS users, a minimum of), iHome’s got another free app, called Connect, to assist get the rig set up to local WiFi networks. After opening the app and plugging in an iDevice, it was a cinch to attach it to a network and rename the iW1, all within a number of painless seconds. Better yet, the app may even pull up the instruction guide if needed (pssst: In case you are on an iPad you may be stuck with an iPhone view, but iHome says an optimized variant is due out soon).
While the iOS hookup was smooth, we had no such luck with our MacBooks. Using a working laptop or computer for hook up requires an ad-hoc wireless connection to the iW1 — or the AirPlay IP setup shuffle, as we love to name it — corresponding to what we experienced with the Zeppelin Air. That said, whatever what number times we tried, getting the setup screen to pop up in a browser was troublesome. It took numerous attempts — and bouts of teeth gritting — until the iW1 was ready to sync up with our network. The excellent news is that (as with every AirPlay-equipped system) once the iW1 is hooked up it could receive audio streams from anything that could support the quality. Basically, getting things going was a breeze using an AirPlay-compatible iDevice and a hair-pulling session with computers. Incidentally, it’ll still work with computers attached via Ethernet right into a wireless router / modem (that’s how we do it), but WiFi is needed for setup.
2 In case you are not acquainted with the audio side of AirPlay, it’s fairly simple. Using iTunes or the iPod and supported apps on an iGadgets, a drop down menu becomes accessible for connecting to AirPlay-enabled speakers within the area. Selecting the iW1 usually put us in business after a couple of seconds, although there have been instances were it took multiple tries before any sound waves made it out of the drivers.
We’ve said this before with other AirPlay rigs and we’ll say it again: there’s totally some noticeable — and slightly annoying — latency between commands (excluding pauses for some reason). Whether we hit play or simply changed the quantity, it took a second or two for the actions to happen. That gripe aside, the signal cut out only occasionally, and for just a handful of seconds at most — our jams generally kept flowing as long as our devices were within our router’s range. We must always also note, if you’ll recall, that iHome also has 5 iW2 and iW3 5 extension speakers within the works and combine and match combos are possible for multi-room setups.
Sound
3 So, you’ve made it this far — the part about how the iW1 performs on an auditory level! Maybe a query as such is lingering to your mind, “how does AirPlay perform compared to docking into the iW1?” You’re wondering what affect, if any, counting on AirPlay has on sound quality versus plugging in, the old-fashioned way.
As far as our ears were concerned, the sound was identical. After all, it’s the same digital file being transferred over for playback. The only difference, which we touched upon earlier, is that the wireless signal does have the tendency to occasionally cut out for a few seconds. That aside, let’s talk about how our tunes fared through this rig.
Upon initially firing up the system, Bongiovi DPS will be enabled by default, while the bass and treble levels will be flat. Putting it simply (according to iHome), B DPS continuously analyzes the music playing in real time, and aims to have the levels better match up to where the vocals are within the mix. To our ears, it translated into an overall volume boost along with a bigger and fuller kick than the iW1 itself could pull off. Without it enabled, the iW1 sounds lifeless really; thin like a small, drab AM / FM bedside radio. Suffice it to say, the Bongiovi DPS is a welcome — and needed — addition to the driver’s natural voicing. We did notice, however, that in the last few clicks of volume there was distortion and crackling. From this point forward we’ll be referring to the quality with B DPS enabled.
4 Running our usual playlists from rock to pop and more, we were generally happy with how the iW1 could fill our medium-sized living room with respectable audio quality. As we’d expect with something this size, though, any sense of spacial separation is lost unless you’re pretty much right up against the thing. For the spec-heads, it’s packing two three-inch woofers and a duo of one-inch tweeters rated for total of 13 x 2 watts of power. Surprisingly, this little rig managed to reproduce the extra-low bass in any dubstep thrown at it, whereas similarly sized docks tend to fall flat.
Still, those deep notes tended to be on the anemic side even with it near a wall. Putting it bluntly, this rig’s low-end handling gets the job done, but bassheads need not apply. Kicking the bass up in the EQ some notches gave a rounder sound with electric bass guitars, but not much within the way of that thumpy thump. To further elaborate using rock tunes, kick drum hits had clear initial attack, but seemed to lack fullness and decayed abruptly.
Set flat, the highs appeared slightly veiled, but thankfully, a boost of one or two clicks let cymbals and the like breathe some and feel much less trapped. The drivers do a great job in the mid-range — vocals were full, guitar licks had discernible clarity and bass lines were pleasingly present in the mix. Overall, the iW1 performs adequately for this size of speaker dock, but it’s obvious you’re paying more of a premium for wire-free luxury than exceptional sound quality
Wrap-up
5 As you’ve probably figured out by now, the iHome iW1 is a really nice AirPlay-enabled speaker system, but it’s got some design jitters and AirPlay itself can be finicky. Setup for folks using a computer can be frustrating, some of the control methods are scattered and then, of course, there’s that pestiferous latency issue. On more positive notes, this is a feature-loaded AirPlay rig at a relatively low starting price, that’ll give you a wire-free music experience and keep your wallet on the chubby side (not to mention it can make multi-room audio more than a pipe dream). When the iW1′s up and running, we can’t deny that it operates soundly. Plus, iHome’s Connect app should make setup a breeze for folks who may not be so techy-savvy. Of course, AirPlay isn’t for everyone, but thankfully there are other viable options like the 6 Sonos Play:3 6 .
But let’s say that your heart’s set on adopting Apple’s wireless streaming standard. If that’s you, the iW1 should be worth a go — just keep in mind that during the coming months more selections from iHome 7 and 7 8 others 8 must be available. iHome’s iW1 AirPlay wireless speakers blends a tempting balance of features, portability and audio quality — just don’t expect a very seamless experience.
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