Out of the box with the Intempo Digital iDS-01

By on 19 July 2005, 11:53am

You come in from a hot, sweaty commute, bopping to the Rachmaninov on your iPod, frug your way into the bathroom, strip off and then what? Risk jumping into the bath clutching iPod in one hand and hoping that you can keep your Sennheisers from getting wet? I think not, mon ami. You want to get yourself some of those iPod speakers.

Crave loves iPod accessories, but sadly many of the smaller standalone speaker systems we've heard are very disappointing. It's tragic to hear that faux-hi-fi iPod sound come burbling out of a white plastic accessory that sounds like an old tranny.

We've been hurt before, but at Crave we want to believe that a small arrangement of white plastic that costs less than £50 can make beautiful music. So let's take the Intempo Digital iDS-01 out of the box.

It's a cardboard box whose text and imagery works those 'minimal' whitepod memes that are now staggering around on their last, spindly designer legs. Apparently, the Intempo iDigital is going to 'Free' our iTunes and help Crave 'Turn it on'. Judging by the photography, it will also help Crave to dance in our socks with our cute significant other, so now we're getting giddy with excitement.

Inside the box is a sealed user guide and a clear plastic tray containing the main Intempo speaker unit, a USB connector, a mains adaptor and an audio cable with two mini-jacks, and some baffling plastic widgets which Crave is guessing are what are technically known as 'feet'.

Spurning the user guide (Crave doesn't do user guides), we lift out the unit to discover that it's very, very light indeed. It feels like one of those plastic desk tidies you use to keep pens in. It does have a nice, antiseptic smell, though. There are two small silver plus or minus buttons at the front, (we're guessing volume controls) and two shining owl-eye speakers. Around the back are inputs for audio, USB and a power button.

We plug in the mains and turn on the power and the power switch lights up in an amusing pale blue. We like pale blue lights. Respect.

Crave now realises that the feet are actually small plastic units used to pad out the docking station depending on the size of your iPod. Two are labelled 'mini' and '10GB/20GB'. The third seems to be a cover that protects the docking unit when not in use. We've got a 40GB iPod Photo, which is way too fat to need any extra padding, so we reckon our big boy will slide right in.

One slap on the wrist for Intempo: the cover packaging says that the unit supports the Shuffle, but if Crave bought a docking-speaker system for our Shuffle, we'd want it to, well, dock. In fact you have to plug the speaker cable into the headphone socket on the shuffle, and then plug that cable in to the Aux input on the back. It works, but it doesn't hold your Shuffle neatly to attention, and that feels shabby.

However, our iPod photo mates neatly with the docking station and fits snugly in place. We hit play and crank up the volume by pressing the right-hand Plus button. And how does it sound?

To our surprise, it's really pretty good. Of course, it's still a mini-system, but there's some low-end, which is the big challenge for something with all the weight and majesty of a clock radio. The sound is clear and bright, and even grunty stuff like Nirvana doesn't sound ridiculous. For a kitchen, bedroom or bathroom, or for a holiday apartment, it should do the trick. It costs about £40 and is available online and on the high street. -MP