Logitech AudioStation High-PerDocking Station formance Stereo System for Apple iPod - 970217-0403
- UPC: 097855040244
- Brand: Logitech
- Compatible Devices: Apple iPod
- Type: Docking Station
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Wonderful Product - Released Too Early
Pros
Excellent sound, charges iPod, AM/FM tuner, looks good, RC-video and S-video output capabilities, sleep timer
Cons
Logitech released bad products, no alarm clock, controls limited/sometimes confusing, documentation lacking, one color available
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
This product is great for the iPod user; excellent sound, attractive. It just needs more time for Logitech to perfect it. A little expensive at $299.99, though.
I purchased the Logitech Audiostation for the purpose of wanting to have a convenient way to play my iPod while I did work around the house without having to carry it on my hip or arm. Overall, I have to say I am pleased with this product. Although it does carry a hefty price at $299.99 US dollars, especially considering that the product, at this point, is full of glitches.
Unfortunately, right now, the unit only comes in black. It is an attractive looking product, but only if it matches your decor with it's current color. I have not read anywhere where Logitech has plans to release the unit in white, but I'm certain it's a consideration. They may be waiting to evaluate the success of the product before doing so.
The unit consists of two 1" ventilated soft-dome tweeters and two 4" reinforced long-throw polypropylene woofers on either side of the center console. Logitech provides fabric speaker grills, which can be removed if desired. The tweeters are amplified using two ultra-linear class AB amplifiers, and the woofers using two high-efficiency class D amplifiers. Additional sound performance enhancements provided with this unit are digital electronic crossover; DSP-controlled, dynamic digital EQ and filtering; and adjustable sound fields (bass, treble, 3D stereo). For folks not well versed in sound production, I can sum it up by saying that is a lot of sound enhancement packed into a small unit. The sound it produces is excellent. You are capable of turning the 3D stereo effects on and off, but I highly recommend you leave it on to get the most out of this unit. 3D stereo is a feature which makes the sounds seem much wider rather than coming from a single focal point.
As far as volume is concerned, it can produce 110 dB while standing approximately one meter away from the unit, and has a frequency response ranging from 36 Hz to 23 KHz. As I have said, the sound from this unit will be excellent, however it is still going to be limited by the sound quality of music you have stored on your iPod, as would be the case with any devices designed to play iPod stored music.
The center console of this unit consists of a polished faceplate with backlighting for the controls themselves as well as the LCD display. The controls are touch sensitive, there are no actual buttons on the unit itself. Provided on the main console are volume up and down controls, source selection button, a select button that has various uses depending on what you are playing (iPod, tuner, video, aux), two up and down selection buttons that also has various uses depending on the source, and the power on/off control. The buttons are illuminated with a soft white backlighting, which I feel is rather attractive. The LCD screen is illuminated in the same fashion. Above this console is where your iPod is docked.
The LCD screen provides information depending on what source you are playing music from. While playing the iPod it will display either the clock, or an animated spectrum analyzer. Unfortunately, the spectrum analyzer is very choppy in it's movements, and really serves no other purpose other than something else to view instead of the clock, as there is no way to adjust individual equalizer channels. Another thing I found to be lacking was that the LCD screen will not display the song title and artist information as is usually the case in other iPod players.
If you are in tuner mode, the LCD screen will display either the clock, radio frequency, spectrum analyzer, or RDS information (if your selected radio station provides it).
While the unit is powered off, the LCD screen will display the clock in large format. This can be turned off from within the menu settings while the unit is powered on. You can adjust the backlight intensity for when the unit is on, as well as off, or even turn the backlighting off completely if you wish. The only limitation here is that the power control on the unit will always be lit, even when the unit is off. There is also no way to adjust the brightness of it, and believe me, it's bright. All other backlighting for all other controls remain off when the power is off.
On the back of the unit you will find the permanently connected power cable, as well as the auxiliary device jack, RC-Video and S-Video jacks, FM antenna jack, and AM antenna jack. The auxiliary jack is a 1/8" female input which allows you to play other devices through the system, such as portable CD players.
The video out jacks allow you to output video from your video capable iPod to a TV or other video handling device. This, in my opinion, is a wonderful feature. Having said that, I was disappointed to see that the S-Video jack is actually recessed into the unit. This limits the types of S-Video cables you can plug into the unit. The reason being is because if the cable is built with an excessively large plug, it will not fit in this jack because it cannot advance past the outer wall of the unit.
The FM antenna is provided, and in my opinion, gives quite clear reception. Adjustment to different locations may change this, however. The unit comes with an internal AM antenna, but if this antenna is not sufficient enough, Logitech also provides an external AM loop antenna with this unit that you can use instead.
Logitech provides a large selection of fitting adaptors to be used for various types and sizes of iPods to ensure the perfect fit into the unit. They also provide a chart within the documentation so that you know which fitting to use for your specific iPod. The iPod is also charged while it sits in the docking station, whether or not the unit is powered on.
The unit comes with a remote as well. It has all of the same buttons as the console, with a few additional. The remote provides a mute button, as well as the means for easily turning on and off the 3D stereo feature. Additionally, the control features the button for adjusting the sleep timer, as well as track jumping, pause and play for the ipod. The iPod controls, however, are severely limited. You can only pause and play, skip tracks in a playlist, and choose different playlists. There is no way to go through your music library using the remote and select specific artists from the remote control. In fact, there is no way to do this on the unit itself. You have to go directly to the iPod to do this while it sits in the docking station.
Also, oddly, the only way to access the menu settings for the unit is from the menu button the remote control. Logitech provides no way of doing this from the unit itself.
The documentation provided with the unit is quite small; a folding chart for initial installation, and a small booklet with various system controls vaguely explained. It comes in three languages, English, French, and Spanish. The troubleshooting guide leaves a lot to be desired. In general, the entire user's manual leaves a lot to be desired. Some features and controls are not even explained in the documentation. One example is how to set the clock. When you first power on the unit, it prompts you to set your language, and then set the clock. After this, if you ever have to set the clock again, the documentation provides no explanation on how to do this. However, in the interest of helping folks, I will tell you that to do it, you need to press the menu button on the remote control while the unit is powered off to do it. Just make sure you don't have your power-off backlighting set to off.
Now here comes the real negative part. Logitech apparently wanted to release the product just before the holidays, for obvious reasons. However, in doing so, they ended up releasing several bad batches of products due to the lack of final checks and testing that should have gone on. Entire store stocks were faulty. The first two units I had were bad. There have been reported problems ranging from no response on the touch screen, to all the controls turning the volume down. Some units wouldn't even power on. While Logitech did not issue a recall, as they should have, they did release a statement on their website clarifying that they did, indeed, release a bad batch of products. Their suggested solutions were to take the unit back to the store, and if the store did not have any properly working products, then send it directly to Logitech. The turnaround on the second option usually took ten days, and a consumer had to do a little arguing with Logitech to get them to actually pay the shipping fees for their own faulty product.
My advice would be to wait a few months before purchasing one of these units in an effort to allow Logitech to correct their error and start producing products that work as intended. I would also recommend that when you purchase one of these, save your store receipt and test EVERY aspect of the unit to ensure that everything is in working order.
All in all, this is a great product for iPod users, just a little expensive based on it's current status.
Unfortunately, right now, the unit only comes in black. It is an attractive looking product, but only if it matches your decor with it's current color. I have not read anywhere where Logitech has plans to release the unit in white, but I'm certain it's a consideration. They may be waiting to evaluate the success of the product before doing so.
The unit consists of two 1" ventilated soft-dome tweeters and two 4" reinforced long-throw polypropylene woofers on either side of the center console. Logitech provides fabric speaker grills, which can be removed if desired. The tweeters are amplified using two ultra-linear class AB amplifiers, and the woofers using two high-efficiency class D amplifiers. Additional sound performance enhancements provided with this unit are digital electronic crossover; DSP-controlled, dynamic digital EQ and filtering; and adjustable sound fields (bass, treble, 3D stereo). For folks not well versed in sound production, I can sum it up by saying that is a lot of sound enhancement packed into a small unit. The sound it produces is excellent. You are capable of turning the 3D stereo effects on and off, but I highly recommend you leave it on to get the most out of this unit. 3D stereo is a feature which makes the sounds seem much wider rather than coming from a single focal point.
As far as volume is concerned, it can produce 110 dB while standing approximately one meter away from the unit, and has a frequency response ranging from 36 Hz to 23 KHz. As I have said, the sound from this unit will be excellent, however it is still going to be limited by the sound quality of music you have stored on your iPod, as would be the case with any devices designed to play iPod stored music.
The center console of this unit consists of a polished faceplate with backlighting for the controls themselves as well as the LCD display. The controls are touch sensitive, there are no actual buttons on the unit itself. Provided on the main console are volume up and down controls, source selection button, a select button that has various uses depending on what you are playing (iPod, tuner, video, aux), two up and down selection buttons that also has various uses depending on the source, and the power on/off control. The buttons are illuminated with a soft white backlighting, which I feel is rather attractive. The LCD screen is illuminated in the same fashion. Above this console is where your iPod is docked.
The LCD screen provides information depending on what source you are playing music from. While playing the iPod it will display either the clock, or an animated spectrum analyzer. Unfortunately, the spectrum analyzer is very choppy in it's movements, and really serves no other purpose other than something else to view instead of the clock, as there is no way to adjust individual equalizer channels. Another thing I found to be lacking was that the LCD screen will not display the song title and artist information as is usually the case in other iPod players.
If you are in tuner mode, the LCD screen will display either the clock, radio frequency, spectrum analyzer, or RDS information (if your selected radio station provides it).
While the unit is powered off, the LCD screen will display the clock in large format. This can be turned off from within the menu settings while the unit is powered on. You can adjust the backlight intensity for when the unit is on, as well as off, or even turn the backlighting off completely if you wish. The only limitation here is that the power control on the unit will always be lit, even when the unit is off. There is also no way to adjust the brightness of it, and believe me, it's bright. All other backlighting for all other controls remain off when the power is off.
On the back of the unit you will find the permanently connected power cable, as well as the auxiliary device jack, RC-Video and S-Video jacks, FM antenna jack, and AM antenna jack. The auxiliary jack is a 1/8" female input which allows you to play other devices through the system, such as portable CD players.
The video out jacks allow you to output video from your video capable iPod to a TV or other video handling device. This, in my opinion, is a wonderful feature. Having said that, I was disappointed to see that the S-Video jack is actually recessed into the unit. This limits the types of S-Video cables you can plug into the unit. The reason being is because if the cable is built with an excessively large plug, it will not fit in this jack because it cannot advance past the outer wall of the unit.
The FM antenna is provided, and in my opinion, gives quite clear reception. Adjustment to different locations may change this, however. The unit comes with an internal AM antenna, but if this antenna is not sufficient enough, Logitech also provides an external AM loop antenna with this unit that you can use instead.
Logitech provides a large selection of fitting adaptors to be used for various types and sizes of iPods to ensure the perfect fit into the unit. They also provide a chart within the documentation so that you know which fitting to use for your specific iPod. The iPod is also charged while it sits in the docking station, whether or not the unit is powered on.
The unit comes with a remote as well. It has all of the same buttons as the console, with a few additional. The remote provides a mute button, as well as the means for easily turning on and off the 3D stereo feature. Additionally, the control features the button for adjusting the sleep timer, as well as track jumping, pause and play for the ipod. The iPod controls, however, are severely limited. You can only pause and play, skip tracks in a playlist, and choose different playlists. There is no way to go through your music library using the remote and select specific artists from the remote control. In fact, there is no way to do this on the unit itself. You have to go directly to the iPod to do this while it sits in the docking station.
Also, oddly, the only way to access the menu settings for the unit is from the menu button the remote control. Logitech provides no way of doing this from the unit itself.
The documentation provided with the unit is quite small; a folding chart for initial installation, and a small booklet with various system controls vaguely explained. It comes in three languages, English, French, and Spanish. The troubleshooting guide leaves a lot to be desired. In general, the entire user's manual leaves a lot to be desired. Some features and controls are not even explained in the documentation. One example is how to set the clock. When you first power on the unit, it prompts you to set your language, and then set the clock. After this, if you ever have to set the clock again, the documentation provides no explanation on how to do this. However, in the interest of helping folks, I will tell you that to do it, you need to press the menu button on the remote control while the unit is powered off to do it. Just make sure you don't have your power-off backlighting set to off.
Now here comes the real negative part. Logitech apparently wanted to release the product just before the holidays, for obvious reasons. However, in doing so, they ended up releasing several bad batches of products due to the lack of final checks and testing that should have gone on. Entire store stocks were faulty. The first two units I had were bad. There have been reported problems ranging from no response on the touch screen, to all the controls turning the volume down. Some units wouldn't even power on. While Logitech did not issue a recall, as they should have, they did release a statement on their website clarifying that they did, indeed, release a bad batch of products. Their suggested solutions were to take the unit back to the store, and if the store did not have any properly working products, then send it directly to Logitech. The turnaround on the second option usually took ten days, and a consumer had to do a little arguing with Logitech to get them to actually pay the shipping fees for their own faulty product.
My advice would be to wait a few months before purchasing one of these units in an effort to allow Logitech to correct their error and start producing products that work as intended. I would also recommend that when you purchase one of these, save your store receipt and test EVERY aspect of the unit to ensure that everything is in working order.
All in all, this is a great product for iPod users, just a little expensive based on it's current status.
