The arrival of the Intempo IFI01at the offices caused a real stir, sadly it took a wee while to get it all assembled as in the best MFI tradition it was a but like a flat pack Pod system. We don't mean this in a derogatory way but you should know there is some effort required to get your iPod tower ready to rock. The main tube like section that contains the subwoofer is all in one piece but the 2 main speakers need to be carefully attached before the whole thing is stood upright.

And there you finally have it, a monolith of an iPod speaker system, possibly the most disproportionate set-up since Mr Ant brought home a full size canoe to the family home. The iPod dock sit on top of the central subwoofer and comes ready with a blanking plat to protect the connector. Prise this off and you can then insert one of the four supplied iPod cradles to enabled it to be used with either the iPod Nano, 5G, Video or Mini. Your iPod will sit snugly in the cradle so you needn't worry about it falling from its lofty perch.

We started our road test by slotting our 5G iPod into the cradle and attaching the USB cable to our PC. The first lesson here is that you may want to invest in a long USB lead in order to keep the cable concealed behind the long legs of the IFI-01. Otherwise you'll end up with a rather unsightly cable stretched out sideways from the unit. This isn't absolutely necessary as the unit can be powered from the neatly cabled AC supply which is tucked away in the base of the legs.

Once your iPod is sat in the cradle and you power up the IFI01 it should start to charge, the power indicator on the speaker system shows amber and you can then use the standby switch to fully power up and turn the amplifier on. The majority of controls are replicated on the control deck and on the RF remote control. These are limited to basic play / pause, skip forward / back and volume control and any real browsing of tracks and play list selection requires you to use the iPod interface as normal.

We had high expectations of the audio performance of the IFI01 mostly from the look of the un it rather than the specs, a 30 watt subwoofer with 2 x 2" midrange drivers and 2 x 1" tweeters was hardly going to light up any room. Although in iPod speaker terms it is by no means low powered when so many make do with puny 5 watt units. The two side speakers can be rotated through 45 degrees leading Intempo to claim surround sound, well hardly chaps but nice try.

In reality the Intempo IFI01 sounded ok, volume was surprisingly loud and the bass was possible over rich with the subwoofer dominating everything. At 5.25 inches the sub is probably the most powerful element of the system and rather overtakes any subtlety the tweeters and mid range are trying to provide. Therefore we found that the Intempo was best suited to R&B and dance tracks as opposed to anything more subtle with it making a real warm muddy mess of jazz and classic music.

Control is sufficient and the small and cheap feeling remote worked quite well from the other side of the office, sadly you keep having to get up whenever you want to change album or play list. We were pleasantly surprised by the build quality which seemed very robust compared to previous Intempo products and the materials chosen lifted the package and made us feel like it was worth more than the actual audio performance would have convinced us to part with.

We should be explaining that for between £50 - £85 you could pick up a speaker system that provider better quality sound reproduction than the near £190 Intempo IFI01. However if you have locked onto the Intempo then the rest of the circa £95 difference is going on the impressive looks and sheer size of the unit.

£190 is a lot for an iPod speaker system and you could buy the award winning IM7 for less but for sheer statement value we can see why you may opt for the Intempo IFI01.

Published - 03/01/2007

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