The latest to do this so Monitor Audio with their i-Deck which is an iPod speaker system, slowly these systems are evolving into small but powerful HiFi systems lead by Bose who have made an early entry to the MP3 speaker market with their SoundDock. Monitor Audio's i-Deck is clearly set to try and win some market share from Bose pushing their quality approach to audio systems combined with a nifty iPod docking system.

The 5 different bezels allow the full range of iPod's to sit into the i-Deck, from the smallest iPod mini right they way up to the beefier 60gb iPod photo, the only one not catered for is the Shuffle which could be connected to the 3.5mm line in port as could any audio device.

The iPod slides neatly into the Monitor Audio i-Deck and is a remarkably snug fit inspiring a good amount of confidence in build quality and engineering, it's not a small speaker system by any measure, when the whole system is pushed next to each other it's still 440mm wide.

But with the size comes the sound that is so often missing from the smaller MP3 speaker systems, this does qualify as a room filler with 2 18 watt channels available giving the i-Deck plenty of power. But power isn't everything and Monitor Audio's HiFi knowledge comes into it's own in producing a well balanced sound with a subtle hint at having enough power to do the job.

The 4" inch bass and midrange drivers manage to cope with most styles of music approaching the limits of the i-Decks capabilities only at the top end of the volume scale did the bass start to distort out of the 145 x 190mm speaker units. The sound is not up to the standard of the top end Bose system in our opinion and this is probably down to power, the monitor audio system has quality but just lacks that last bit of oomph to really convince like the SoundDock does.

That said it is a dream to use, inserting your iPod fires up the i-Deck and the blue light above the logo start to glow, all control is via the thin remote control which uses RF to manage volume and track selection, of course you can still access your iPod directly and you may need to do so to select exact albums or play lists. Docking you Pod means that it start being charged and providing you have connected the 30 pin connectors on the i-Deck to your PC or Mac it can also sync with iTunes.

Overall this is a good compact system for those who want to use an iPod in a purpose made system where a HiFi connection isn't available and where one of the more portable system just won't fill the room. At £249 the Monitor Audio i-Deck doesn't come cheap and is squarely pitched at the Bose system, for our money we'd go with Bose which is just a little more convincing an perhaps a bit more stylish to look at. Of course you could really save cash and by a 3.5mm to RCA lead and plug into a HiFi leaving you £242 to spend on something else?

Published - 09/08/2005

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