In this price bracket you have to lower your expectations slightly, you are not going to get room filling sound or top notch build quality, but we still want a good sound and something that isn't going to fall apart on its first outing. Cracking the Intempo IDS-01 system from its box reveals a rather standard looking black speaker system (its also available in ice white), first impressions are that it is indeed built to a price and the plastics do feel at the cheaper end of the production scale. That said nothing fell off or even felt like it was going to.

The design is similar to many of the other iPod docks on the market although the silver colouring of the speaker units does make it stand out a little more, other than that its a fairly predictable affair with a the little blue power LED and silvered controls. The iPod sits centrally between the speakers in a purpose built dock, it clicks in and feels fairly secure once in place. The system is supplied with a number of dock mouldings that allow a range of iPod's to fit into the IDS-01, it can accommodate the iPod, iPod Photo, Mini and Nano but not the shuffle.

The Intempo measures 230 x 120 x 92mm and it keeps the iPod fully topped up in the battery department plus it also has a USB connection allowing you to hook your MP3 player directly to a PC or Mac to synchronise your MP3 collection.

When it comes to audio quality and reproduction we were hopeful that the 6 watts per channel of the IDS-01 would produce a worthy sound for such a small unit. Initial tests looked good with various pop music tracks like Kylie and Robbie Williams even up to 2/3 volume. However a switch to tracks with more bass started to show the rough underbelly of the IDS01, it didn't take much beyond 50% volume to create some serious distortion. On really bassy tracks the whole unit seems to resonate and the plastic shell joins in adding a level of rattle to the sound, its far from perfect and really destroys the idea of having the 2 x 6 watt channels.

On the more POP orientated tracks the vocals do sound OK and the mid range is present and not too bad for a cheap unit, however we just can't cope with any hint of bass on the IDS-01's it really does ruin the product. It's not as though all cheap speakers are like this either, the Logic3 iStation unit seems to cope much better although its volume does not go quite as high. There are some plus points like being able to charge your iPod while in the dock and the ability to connect other portable devices like CD players or DAB radios through the auxiliary connection.

However we have to recommend you save to £30 the Intempo IDS-01 will cost and add another tenner to purchase the more rounded and better sounding Logic 3 iStation.

Published - 06/01/2005

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