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Apr. 12th, 2007 10:01 pm( Today's song: Fire Snakes by Laura Veirs )
I was thinking about my song list yesterday and wanting to revise it and/or add to it. A lot of my friends have access to iTunes and I was thinking that I could list some of my favorite songs and possibly give people new ideas for stuff to check out and maybe download (we're assuming you need more ideas of what to download from iTunes). But instead of listing a bunch of songs, I decided to write about single song, something I really liked and what I liked about it. Maybe I can do a different song every day... or at least as often as I post to LJ.
My latest iWant is This, a Tivoli Audio iPal "Portable Audio Laboratory". Actually B at work bought a Magnavox iWake at Walmart, and the sound quality was pretty good. Suddenly I wanted one. I have a bunch of songs on my iPod that I've downloaded from iTunes, and I can't play them in the daytime at work because I can't be wearing headphones (one of my duties is to answer the phone a lot and give rate quotes). In the evening it's different, nobody calls and I'm mostly rating the evening bills, I can put my headphones on then. But I was very jealous of my coworker's iWake and had practically convinced myself to drive straight to Walmart and get one for myself, when I decided to do some actual research first.
Reading through the comments on a place like Amazon can be pretty helpful in these situations, because people that are angry or upset about a product are going to post what they don't like about it. In the case of the iWake, there were three main problems. One, the clock display is too bright for some people. Two, while you can set the alarm to play music from your iPod and set it to begin with a specific song... it turns on at a pretty good volume and then increases to maximum volume rather quickly. No, you can't change this -- that's how the alarm works. This "feature" really pissed off some people, and I can understand why... I don't need a radio that increases to maximum volume to help me get up. I awake to a clock radio in my bathroom set to NPR, which doesn't even come in clearly some days, but it's always more than enough to wake me up, and even if I lie in bed for an extra 5-10 minutes (as I sometimes do), I never drift back off to sleep.
The biggest problem is that the product is simply cheap, and this means that more than one person complained that it stopped working or broke after only a few months. It's only under warranty for the first three months, and things as small as a static electricity shock were enough to break it in more than one instance.
So... I did more research. As it turned out, nearly every type of docking station had its detractors, until I came across the Tivoli iPal. Mind you, this is not an alarm clock -- just a portable speaker for your iPod, with a built-in radio. But! It is referred to by many sources as the very best sounding portable docking station you can get for your iPod. Despite its small size and single speaker, it is built to superior specifications with a large speaker magnet and thus the sound quality outshines so-called "stereo" systems with two speakers (face it, two speakers that close together don't really achieve much of a stereo effect anyway do they?). The radio is also very high quality and according to what I read will probably pick up stations more clearly than anything I currently own. In fact, I can plug it into my stereo system (nifty) and it should recieve better than my stereo reciever does.
Add in the really nifty retro design and a radio dial designed for pinpoint precision tuning... and basically, the only negative thing I read about it was someone who said that, due to the price ($149.99), he couldn't afford to buy more than one to place in different locations in his house.
So I must own one of these. ^_^ Luckily for me, in about three weeks I will have my bonus check from work, and I can afford to get one... that is, if I can't find one sooner for a cheaper price.
I was thinking about my song list yesterday and wanting to revise it and/or add to it. A lot of my friends have access to iTunes and I was thinking that I could list some of my favorite songs and possibly give people new ideas for stuff to check out and maybe download (we're assuming you need more ideas of what to download from iTunes). But instead of listing a bunch of songs, I decided to write about single song, something I really liked and what I liked about it. Maybe I can do a different song every day... or at least as often as I post to LJ.
My latest iWant is This, a Tivoli Audio iPal "Portable Audio Laboratory". Actually B at work bought a Magnavox iWake at Walmart, and the sound quality was pretty good. Suddenly I wanted one. I have a bunch of songs on my iPod that I've downloaded from iTunes, and I can't play them in the daytime at work because I can't be wearing headphones (one of my duties is to answer the phone a lot and give rate quotes). In the evening it's different, nobody calls and I'm mostly rating the evening bills, I can put my headphones on then. But I was very jealous of my coworker's iWake and had practically convinced myself to drive straight to Walmart and get one for myself, when I decided to do some actual research first.
Reading through the comments on a place like Amazon can be pretty helpful in these situations, because people that are angry or upset about a product are going to post what they don't like about it. In the case of the iWake, there were three main problems. One, the clock display is too bright for some people. Two, while you can set the alarm to play music from your iPod and set it to begin with a specific song... it turns on at a pretty good volume and then increases to maximum volume rather quickly. No, you can't change this -- that's how the alarm works. This "feature" really pissed off some people, and I can understand why... I don't need a radio that increases to maximum volume to help me get up. I awake to a clock radio in my bathroom set to NPR, which doesn't even come in clearly some days, but it's always more than enough to wake me up, and even if I lie in bed for an extra 5-10 minutes (as I sometimes do), I never drift back off to sleep.
The biggest problem is that the product is simply cheap, and this means that more than one person complained that it stopped working or broke after only a few months. It's only under warranty for the first three months, and things as small as a static electricity shock were enough to break it in more than one instance.
So... I did more research. As it turned out, nearly every type of docking station had its detractors, until I came across the Tivoli iPal. Mind you, this is not an alarm clock -- just a portable speaker for your iPod, with a built-in radio. But! It is referred to by many sources as the very best sounding portable docking station you can get for your iPod. Despite its small size and single speaker, it is built to superior specifications with a large speaker magnet and thus the sound quality outshines so-called "stereo" systems with two speakers (face it, two speakers that close together don't really achieve much of a stereo effect anyway do they?). The radio is also very high quality and according to what I read will probably pick up stations more clearly than anything I currently own. In fact, I can plug it into my stereo system (nifty) and it should recieve better than my stereo reciever does.
Add in the really nifty retro design and a radio dial designed for pinpoint precision tuning... and basically, the only negative thing I read about it was someone who said that, due to the price ($149.99), he couldn't afford to buy more than one to place in different locations in his house.
So I must own one of these. ^_^ Luckily for me, in about three weeks I will have my bonus check from work, and I can afford to get one... that is, if I can't find one sooner for a cheaper price.
