Altec Lansing inMotion iM600 Portable Audio System for iPod

I picked up the Altec Lansing inMotion iM600 Portable Audio System for iPod which is a small iPod stereo with a long name. I’d been wanting to be able to listen to music in my living room, where there was no stereo. At this point, my music is all digital and my CD player is gathering dust under the TV.

I’d looked at several other options before settling on the Altec Lansing. The Bose SoundDock is great, but expensive at $300 for something I only use from time to time. The Apple iPod Hi-Fi is still more expensive, bigger, and ugly. Strange to say for an Apple product, but it reminds me of something that escaped the 1970s shag-carpet era. And while I dream of having a Sonos setup, the day of dropping over $1000 on it hasn’t arrived. So after reading some positive reviews of the Altec Lansing I ordered one from Amazon for around $100 bucks. Impressions from a couple weeks of use:

  • Like the small size at 11in. wide, and design overall. We have it in a bookshelf and it fits easily. While I like blue LEDs, they aren't always very readable.
  • It can easily fill our room with sound. The bass could be deeper and richer, but it isn't bad for something that size. You can connect an optional subwoofer to it as well.
  • The remote can play/pause, advance tracks, change volume and has 4 presets for radio stations. I wish it could control which playlist was chosen on the iPod, which would save me getting up from the couch and walking 4 whole feet to the iPod.
  • It can run off an internal battery as well as A/C power, which is handy for bringing it outside for backyard BBQs or as a retro-boombox to carry around. They claim the battery can run for 7 hours.
  • It will charge a connected iPod, and fits my different size iPods. Don't be an idiot like me and put in one of the plastic seats for the Nano (which my wife has), as they don't come out easily. </ul>