Scandyna Micropod SE iPod speakers and the Dock
Reviewed by Jason Kessel

Being an audiophile, I know what to look for in speakers. I've reviewed my fair share of iPod speakers too. My overall first impression of these speakers was "wow". They are really heavy with a very unique design. They are very solid, with some impressive looking drivers. I was also impressed with their claimed specs of 50 watts with 4 ohm impedance for each speaker. The dock, while less impressive looking, was also heavy and included a full function IR remote control with the usual power on/off, mute, volume up/down, skip forward/back, play/pause and repeat. The dock connects to the speakers with heavy gauge speaker wire. Both the dock and the speakers come with metal twist terminal speaker connections normally found on high-end speakers. I was a little disappointed that there was no way to connect an external sound source such as a computer or other audio devise to the dock. The dock can only be used with an iPod. However, a unique feature of the Dock is you can connect any kind of speakers to it. The Micropod speakers can also be used with any sound source.

Now, let's talk about how they sound. Unfortunately, the sound quality of these speakers did not live up to my first impression of "wow". Don't get me wrong, when it came to overall volume, they cranked up pretty loud with minimal distortion. However, they are very lacking in bass*. The little 3 inch drivers were moving a lot, but the lower bass just wasn't really there. The mid-range was pretty good and the highs sounded crisp. Using different EQ settings on the iPod only seemed to make things worse. To be fair though, I've never really liked the iPod's EQ setting anyway. But for the cost and looks of these speakers, I was expecting them to sound much better than they actually did. I've reviewed other iPod speakers in this price range that sounded much more rich and had better bass. Granted, these don't sound "terrible" by any means. So, if you are on the market for something unique looking that can crank pretty loud, these speakers might be up your alley.

*Update: If you need better bass, Scandyna offers a unit called a miniBass. We did not get our hands on one of those for this review. We are hoping to get ahold of one to give a more positive review. Also, we've discovered that if you use the speakers without the three metal legs attached so that the speakers sit on a flat surface, you can get a little more bass out of them. While they don't look as cool without the legs, they definitely sound better.

Micropod SE Speakers MSRP: $199 pr
The Dock MSRP: $219
Website: http://www.scandyna-speakers.com