Summary: 9 on design, 7 features, 6.5 on performance
I just got the Tivoli iYiYi but also have had a JBL On Stage ipod speaker for about a year, so ...
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Summary: 9 on design, 7 features, 6.5 on performance
I just got the Tivoli iYiYi but also have had a JBL On Stage ipod speaker for about a year, so that's my benchmark for comparison. The iYiYi looks great, but takes up a relatively large amount of space on your desk. For such a large unit, its bass response wasn't that great, especially compared to the On Stage, which costs about half as much. At the loudest setting, it's not that loud, so consider that if you're getting this to fill up a large room. However, the sound is a lot fuller than the JBL On Stage. At the loudest setting, the unit had no distortion across a wide range of music types.
The unit does look sharp. Controls have crisp response and are clearly laid out. Setting time and alarm is intuitive. The ultra-thin (~1/2")remote works like a charm and you can interact with the ipod through the remote. This integration with the ipod is pretty cool if you don't want to walk up to the unit everytime you want to skip a song. Radio has RDS. It takes auxiliary inputs through the back, so that's a nice feature even if I don't use it currently. Internal FM antenna works well for me, but unit also can be hooked up to an external antenna if you want.
User interface is awesome, but for the moolah, this unit should have a better sound. Also, 5 FM presets is pretty chintzy. I need at least 10! If you're a sound freak, $300 is steep, but I'm not sure if there's anything better out there in this price range with this feature set. Maybe in 2 years....
Updated
I enjoyed the unit more as time went on, but then the unit froze and I was never able to get it to operate again. The clock stayed frozen and the unit didn't take any radio or ipod input. So I returned it and will get something else. For $300 for what amounts to a radio speaker setup with ipod input, I would have expected infallible quality. I don't know if this is indicative of Tivoli quality in general, which is a shame because otherwise, it's a great product.
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