Audyssey Audio Dock Air

The past year brought us the first AirPlay speaker systems?speaker docks that stream audio wirelessly from Apple iOS products and some computers via a Wi-Fi signal. After the Editors' Choice Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air ($599.95, 4 stars) debuted Apple's integrated streaming audio technology, only a few offerings have actually been released. Joining the Zeppelin Air and the significantly less successful JBL On Air Wireless ($349.95, 2.5 stars) is the Audyssey Audio Dock Air, at $399.99. Deep bass lovers will enjoy the exaggerated low-end response of the Audyssey Dock; audiophiles will want to steer clear. Unfortunately, the dock suffers from some stream interruption issues that no one will enjoy, and this knocks its rating down a bit. However, an update to iOS will reportedly contain a fix for the streaming issue, so we will revisit this review when and if that occurs.

Design
Measuring 8.3 by 4.8 by 8.5 inches (HWD), the Audyssey Audio Dock resembles an upright square. Like most AirPlay docks, it has very few buttons and uses black felt to cover its drivers. It's almost as if Apple has specific design rules for AirPlay docks, so that they will all resemble a family of Apple-esque products. (If you detect sarcasm, it's because, in all likelihood, Apple is very much involved in the streamlined designs of all of these docks). The unadorned black felt speaker panels face in opposite directions, spreading the reach of the audio, for sure, but not necessarily increasing the width of the stereo field much, since both left and right channels originate from essentially the same spot once you're a foot or so away. That said, the opposite directions of the speakers can benefit from reflections off of walls in your room, and that can certainly have an effect on your perception of the stereo image, although it may not be one audio engineers will be pleased with?more on that in a bit. A matte black plastic band separates the two speaker panels. On the back end of the band, there's a connection for the included power supply, as well as a Pairing button (for initial setup) and a 3.5mm Aux input. The band's front side has a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the top panel houses a Volume control dial and two LEDs that indicate when the unit is powered up and when it is connected for AirPlay. The system ships with a 3.5mm audio cable for connecting devices to the Aux input.

Performance
Setting up the Audio Dock Air is not difficult, as the instructions are simple and laid out explicitly in the included manual. You will need a Wi-Fi connection, however, and a bit of patience, as the pairing process between devices, and the connection process to the Wi-Fi signal itself, can take a few minutes. Once complete, you are able to stream from any PC or Mac with a recent version of iTunes (beyond 10.1), and any iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch).

AirPlay's sound quality is actually pretty impressive, with strong bass performance. The Audio Air Dock only adds to the bass experience; Even at low-to-moderate volumes, one might say it sounds "thunderous." As you boost the volume louder and louder, however, the bass signal becomes more and more compressed. Why does Audyssey do this? Well, first off, it's a process often referred to as Digital Signal Processing (DSP), and Audyssey is not alone in employing it. Bowers & Wilkins has utilized some signal processing on its consumer line as well. The basic goal is to eliminate any distortion or possibility of blowing a speaker. Deep bass frequencies at high volumes are usually the culprit when speakers distort, so the signal processing basically limits the volume of the bass as you raise the system's overall volume. At maximum volume on Bowers & Wilkins' PC speaker set, the MM-1 ($499.95, 4 stars), this ends up sounding like some serious dynamic compression, where the range of transient sounds like drum hits are squashed lower to be roughly the same volume as everything else in the mix. You've heard this before when a loud song comes on the radio and suddenly the overall volume of the song seems to dip as the heavily distorted guitars kick in.

On the Audio Dock Air speakers, however, this processing is quite noticeable, primarily because at lower-to-mid volume settings, the bass is already so boosted, that when you raise the volume high, it sounds like you're listening to a different speaker system because the bass frequencies have been so dramatically cut to prevent distortion. The good news is, this system sounds excellent?for bass enthusiasts, at least?at moderate volumes. Even when it's not really that loud, it feels loud. The bad news is, when you blast it, the signal processing steals some of the bass thunder and squashes the overall signal pretty intensely. Simply put, if you're into deep bass and listening at moderate levels, this system won't disappoint you sonically. It never really distorts, even on deep bass tracks at maximum volume, but the processing is intense enough that it can sound as if it's about to distort?a common characteristic of signal limiting at its most extreme.

Because of the placement of the speakers at opposite sides of the dock, projecting in opposite directions, the stereo image is altered a bit in a way that casual listening may not suffer from, but one channel will often appear louder than the other. Simply put, it definitely helps fill the room with sound, but this is not how records are mixed.

Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I actually like the audio performance enough that it would have had a higher rating. Not every system needs to be made for audiophiles craving flat response?there's room enough in the world for those of you who really dig thumping bass. The Audio Dock Air is made with these listeners in mind, and it brings an extra bottom end to everything from hip hop and rock to even classical music, making the lower strings in John Adams' "The Chairman Dances" sound downright ominous and intense. But we have a different issue to deal with.

Tested on a home Wi-Fi network that regularly streams audio, via AirPlay, from a iPhone and a laptop to a stereo receiver with an AirPort express connected to it, the Audio Dock Air fared differently than the aforementioned setup. This is possibly because the AirPort Express uses 802.11n wireless signal, while Apple's AirPlay and the docks that have it built-in use 802.11g. Where the AirPort Express only seems to stutter when its sound source gets out of range?say, you take your iPhone too far into the kitchen, away from the router?the Audio Dock Air stutters more often, even, at times, in close proximity to the router and the sound source. Often, the stuttering seems to occur when the Wi-Fi network performs routine tasks at the same time?say, sending an email or loading a webpage while streaming music. Occasionally, the stream would halt altogether, and the system would need to be rebooted or the phone disconnected and reconnected to the network in order to re-pair the device with the speakers. The recent Klipsch Gallery G-17 Air($549.99, 3.5 stars), another AirPlay speaker dock, also suffers from the same streaming issues.

Given that Airplay is still in its infancy, some hiccups are to be expected. When you plug your device into the aux input directly, the Audyssey system offers up a bass lover's dream, but as a streaming system, it's got some issues to iron out. For you bass fiends out there waiting for a wireless system, let's hope this is an issue updates can solve and not a permanent limitation of the system or AirPlay's abilities. If you'd rather go the Bluetooth route, check out the fantastic JBL OnBeat Xtreme ($499.95, 4.5 stars), which appears as an AirPlay device on iOS devices despite using Bluetooth, and the portable Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker ($299.95, 4 stars), Both of them recent Editors' Choice winners for wireless speaker systems.

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