Pros: Powerful, clear sound, range from high treble to low bass, controls iPods and iPhones.
Cons: Large footprint, pricey, no radio tuner.
The Bottom Line: This speaker unit has enough power to give really good sound with good volume before it gets to its limits. Not for apartment/ condo living. Has a large footprint.
Pirich's Full Review: Kicker IK500 Powered iPod Speaker System (08IK500...
I have been intrigued by possible getting a set of iPod speakers for years, but the uniformly poor output has always stopped me from getting some. The Kicker iK500 powered speakers are less a work-around for the iPod than a stereo needing nothing more than a sound source to make music in large scale. The Kicker iK500 is designed to be the most powerful MP3 speakers there are, and it has a dock for any of the iPod series players to plug into it, and it even works with an iPhone.
Background
The first experience I had with powered speakers was with a set of battery powered speakers for Walkman type players way back when. As it turned out, there were real limits to that approach compared to an actual stereo, back when portable stereos ruled the earth. I sort of forgot about this requirement in engineering schools as I was more interested in the portable stereo itself for studying away from my dorm room. And even in work since then, I have used headphones at my desk.
But there is that little dead zone where I realized I wasn't listening to music at home, and neither was my family. But the reason it hadn't happened was hard to put a finger on, but largely came from not having the freedom to listen to anything we had the way we could with iPods. So when we got a Sony bookshelf stereo, it ended up installed with the television and mostly getting used as a home theater.
I had listened to many small iPod speaker systems since I still liked the idea of having a sort of jukebox. However, the sound quality has invariably been poor, with sound taking on a tinny quality at any distance, and definitely lacking the power for use over distances greater than a few feet as the output became painfully distorted at higher volume settings.
The Kicker iK500 is more of an answer to the "What if?" of hooking up something with some real power to the large library on an iPod.
Description
The Kicker iK500 comes in a box big enough for a mid-sized portable stereo. But from the top, it looks like most of the space must be empty, except for the power cable, the thin remote, and a 1/8" double ended headphone plug for connecting any small sound source.
The back on the top of the unit has a molded in handle which makes it easy to get the foam and speakers to come out of the box. It is here the reason for the large size of the package becomes apparent as the narrow top ramps out both in front and behind the unit to a much wider base.
The front of the unit doesn't have the bold and extreme look one might expect from Kicker, but is simply a gently curving black-on-black set of curving shells which break up a monolithic appearance and blend in the speaker grills on each side, where a mid range speaker and tweeter are located. There is just a bit of a dark metallic accent around the speaker grills, leaving an effect which looks more refined than a teenager's toy. Using human sound processing knowledge, the tweeters, the source of the most directional sound, are at he outermost extremity to improve the stereo effect.
The back of the unit has two large guard bars going over a large square subwoofer. The color match is so close to the rest of the unit, I thought this might be a molded in detail, but the diaphragm moved at a light touch, and I was now wondering what this might sound like.
The only control on the front of the unit is a single knob surrounded by a blue-lit bezel. The lighting isn't uniform, so from a distance, there an illusion of a triangle. Above this is a back-lit LCD function display.
Low in the center on the front is the iPod dock, which, unlike dedicated Apple accessories, is sized to accept the whole range of iPods, including the iPhone. In the back of the dock is a soft rubber disk to serve as a non-vibrating back rest. The dock also comes with a stack of flexible plastic inserts which are designed to slide down over the dock connector and present a custom fit with whichever player you happen to have. However, I quickly found there are two major problems with doing this: First, iPods with silicone rubber jackets will not fit if you have the exact shoe in place. The other problem is it also sacrifices one of this speaker system's strong points: it accepts anything with an iPod dock connector by making it impossible to install other models with the custom shoe in place. Since the players do not weigh much, and leaving the shoe out ensures they will stay plugged in, I have left these parts set aside. Without the plates in place, an iPhone with the Incase protector or the large 60GB color photo iPod with silicone jacket fit with a bit of margin around them (thanks to the wide form factor of the 5G video ipods).
The iK500 is the sole owner of the footprint where it is set down because of its shape. The sloping walls and slanted top mean nothing will get set on it, since it will just slide off. This is good for the back of the buffet or the top of a low bookshelf, but it means mono-tasking of space wherever it goes, otherwise. As time goes on, I have become a fairly strong critic of appliances which need a piece of table space to be turned over to them; there is no more valuable commodity in the home. With a width of 19.2" and a depth and height of 8.5", this appliance requires a space almost exactly the size of a bread box (if your bread box opens from the front, then you may be in business.
The back of the unit has the line in and out connections at the bottom corners on the sides. The rear panel slopes out at over 30 degrees; much more than the front, apparently to set up a sound reflection for the powerful rear mounted subwoofer. On the right is a set of RCA jacks and on the left is the power in and the jack for the 1/8" input from other sound sources. There is no input other than the full size iPod connector port on the front. This may be an oversight for functionality, but seems to be driven by a desire to make the design more Apple-like.
The power cord comes in two segments, the first is a transformer block about 3.5" long with the 22 V DC connector needed for the speakers, and from this a short 120V cord goes to the wall. The transformer is the auto-switching type, so it can be used directly overseas with a plug adapter.
The remote is a thin card about the size of the Video Nano iPod, but in black. The battery is a CR2032 Lithium watch battery, which leads to its thin form factor (like an auto remote). The buttons are molded into the front membrane and take the form of domed bubbles. It is basically a car-type remote. The biggest problem with the remote is the form factor of the speaker unit makes it impossible to set the remote on top, since anything set on it slides off. The remote can fit into the iPod dock and lean in place when no iPod is mounted, or precariously rest on top of a mounted iPod.
Usage
The iK500 switches on and off and is completely contollable from the single knob/button on the front. I personally found the elegance and simplicity of the interface refreshing since there are no menus to cycle through or other unnecessary complexity. Press the knob once and the stereo turns on with the default moderate volume level. Turning the indexed knob produces a tactile click as it moves past each click of volume control. Pressing the knob again gives Treble adjustment, with positive and negative feedback available, the next moves to Bass with the same adjustment, and a third allows the auxiliary 1/8" plug input to be turned on or off. The fourth click returns to the volume display, and clicking and holding will turn the speakers off. And that's it.
The Remote only gives access to the volume control from the speakers, and is mostly set up to control an iPod. The remote has the iPod's Forward, Play/Pause, and Reverse as the top row, a Scroll Up/Scroll down button is the second row, and the bottom row has a Menu button and Enter on the bottom row.
Use with iPod
Using these controls on a conventional iPod such as the 1G-6G units means you have the iPod's complete control system set up through the remote, and any function it has will come up just like using the click wheel. The size of the display means I have ended up using it in two modes:
The first is if I have a playlist selected and running, about the only controls needed will be the power or the volume, and perhaps forwarding to the next song. The remote works in line of sight from distances of at least 40 feet, and maybe more, so this is a good reason to keep the small remote with you.
The second is from only a few feet away where the iPod screen is readable. As I mentioned, all of the iPod features can be reached through the remote, and it is even possible to play Solitaire, though this is impractical. Selecting music or a playlist is therefore totally driven by the iPod's interface, which is just being repeated on the remote. So, whatever albums, playlists, or artists you have function identically to using the iPod alone. For photo and video iPods, these functions work the same way as well, and the iPod will run off of ground power through the dock as it does a slide show, for example. Video iPods can play movies with the sound routed through the speakers (though this is fairly close to the absurd, considering the small screen). This feature DOES NOT work this way on an iPhone (see my iPhone section). Instead, the sound track from a video will play, but only the front screen title display will show, since iPhone only plays video in portrait mode. I expect an iPod Touch would behave the same way, but I did not have one to try it with.
Kicker recommends shutting off the iPod's internal equalizer since they claim theirs is better, and they also tell you to switch off the volume controlling Sound Check control. In practice, I quickly concluded they are right- the sound from an iPod's internal Equalizer and Sound check make the tone sound flat and dead compared to having the iPod run as a simple audio source. As an additional note, files ripped from CDs in the Apple Lossless format sound dramatically better than straight MP3 files. My conclusion is a lot of the iPod's circuitry for sound manipulation was optimized for what would sound OK through mini-headphones. The large difference in output quality through the iK500 makes the full range from the original recording available.
The good news is Apple players let you turn these features off so you can play the master recording. So, for example, using the Bass Boost setting on an iPod is noticably inferior in sound quality compared to turning off the automatic features and turning up the Bass a few clicks in the iK500.
iPod Retirement Home
Since the iK500 powers the iPod it is using, it can be a good place to retire an iPod to. For example, my 60GB 4G iPod became rarely used after I got an iPhone, simply because I wasn't going to carry them at the same time. And yet, its massive storage holds every note of music I own with room to spare. And, in this mode, the iK500 becomes a dedicated jukebox.
If an older iPod is having battery life issues, that problem goes away when it is powered while it mounted on the speaker system. Personally, I find the end of competition for something I want to be able to carry with me to be a major improvement. I also like being able to use an older iPod for something useful instead of turning it into something to be disposed of. One side benefit not having to change settings continuously, since an iPod in use with the iK500 gives better results with its settings changed to turn the Equalizer and Sound Check off. Since I use these features when using headphones, dedicating an older unit to the dock means not having to change this.
Use with iPhone
The iPhone is a much more complicated device than any iPod, and I wasn't sure if it would be compatible. I expect much of this behavior would be similar on an iPod Touch, but I do not have one of these to experiment on (drop me a line if you get a chance to try that). When the iPhone is plugged into the dock on the speakers, it immediately does one of two things depending on if the speakers are plugged in. If the speakers are plugged in, the iPhone first reacts as though it has been plugged into its charger and gives the plug-in chime and shows the green battery indicator. A moment later a dialog box comes up saying it is connected to a device which was not designed for iPhone, and gives the option of turning off all of the wireless features by going to Airplane Mode to avoid interference. If the speakers are unplugged, the iPhone still recognizes they are there, and goes straight to asking if you want to go to Airplane Mode.
Pressing the Menu button on the iPhone acts just like normal usage. The main changes are what happens if you attempt to navigate through the remote interface from the speakers. The following items must be done using the iPhone's screen for the speakers to be able to control it normally:
Selecting iPod mode, or moving to other modes: There is no selection capable of moving in and out of this mode on the remote. Once inside iPod mode, the remote can now surf up and down the album and artist menus.
Selecting Playlist mode: Because the playlist function is NOT listed in the main iPod listing the way it is on conventional iPods [let's get with it here, Apple], but on the horizontal listing on the bottom, you have to press it on the screen to select it.
Selecting iPod Controls: The iPod controls on an iPhone are under the General Settings menu on the main screen, and the iK500 remote cannot go this high in the hierarchy on an iPhone.
Unlock/ Code: The iPhone requires a finger sweep to unlock it after it gets a signal to wake up, and if you have a security code, this must be entered by hand.
Once inside iPod mode, or when using the playlists, an iPhone behaves similarly to a regular iPod, and will let you go through menus and scroll up and down to play selections the same way. I personally don't have a problem with the fact the iPhone needs you to touch the screen to set it up, since the display is so small, you have to be within arm's length to read it, anyway.
The iPhone sound quality versus Equalizer settings and Sound Check behave the same way as conventional iPods. Since the iPhone has no drive to spool up, response to a command to start playing is slightly faster than on a hard disk based iPod. The main limitation to an iPhone is the limited storage space compared to the larger space on most of the full size iPods from the past few years.
A second limitation of the iPod interface on the iPhone is its sensitivity to phone orientation to be able to play videos. Literally, in order to see a video, the iPhone must be on its side in landscape mode. If it is in the iK500 dock, the iPhone stays in Portrait only mode and the display while playing a video is the title graphic with the sound audible. With that said, the small screen on the iPhone makes this a questionable use of the iK500, though this mode does work with regular video iPods.
The most interesting feature is what happens if a phone call comes in. If the phone has been put into Airplane Mode (as the iPhone suggests), it is deaf to the world and you won't be able to get calls or anything else when it is on this setting. In practice, I haven't been able to find any signs of interference or sound quality reduction from leaving it in its normal wi-fi and phone mode. If left in its normal awake mode, the phone will automatically stop playing music on the iPod section and ring. It is possible to use it as a speakerphone while it is connected, since it doesn't drive sound through the speakers (so there is no danger of loud screeching feedback). So, while the iPhone claims the iK500 wasn't designed for it, its behavior is graceful enough that is might as well have been.
General Use
The first thing to understand about the Kicker iK500 is it comes across as large and powerful. Its solid and well damped construction let it effortlessly drive out sound to levels easily able to fill our four bedroom home. This is definitely not a speaker system to get if you live in an apartment, since the powerful subwoofer is easily audible through even a brick wall, and the eviction notice will be one warning away. The ability to push as much volume as I please is a major departure from other speakers designed for use with iPods, which invariably have been as limited as inexpensive computer speakers when it came to listening from more than a few feet away.
One very nice feature is now typical sound levels are nowhere near the iK500's full potential. I must confess I have lost my nerve before following it all the way up. I have 98th percentile hearing and want to keep it. In any case, I am part of the camp which likes to have very good sound over very loud sound. The iK500 is capable of very smooth and pleasant sound production, which I fear is easily overlooked since the packaging only call attention to the power output. In a way, I feel like Kicker has been sold a bit short thanks to their adoption by scores of boom-car builders.
From listening to music on my iPod via the little earbuds for years, the iK500 is a welcome departure with the ability to turn an iPod into a powerful standalone stereo.
Issues
The iK500 has with a lot right with it, but I still have found some problems:
Size of the footprint/ form factor: The iK500 doesn't have a radio, so it really isn't a full stereo. And yet, that is how much space it takes up. The unit appears to need open space around it, especially above it, so an ideal spot for it is somewhere like a counter or the top of a low bookcase, which are both scarce prime real estate in any home.
No Radio/ Clock/ other functions: For what it costs and how large it is, the iK500 could make a lot of sense in a bedroom as an alarm clock/ stereo. The iPod has some of these functions, so you can sort of get the iK500 to do this through the iPod's onboard alarm clock. However, this function goes away if the iPod is elsewhere, and you still can't have NPR news come on in the morning.
Proprietary power cord/ transformer block: I've become weary of these things piling up all over the house and quietly sucking on electricity. As large as this unit is, I really don't see why it needs to have a power adapter to take up still more space.
Conclusion
How I would rank the iK500 has come down to weighing its performance as an iPod speaker system against its cost and impact on space in the home. As an iPod interface, it works perfectly, and when used with an iPhone it still works extremely well. The sound quality is great, and the amount of power available makes for a very satisfactory music system. And if it had half the footprint, I would give it 5 stars. But the need for counter space is so large, this unit is competing for space with other household appliances. The lack of other functions combined with a form factor which actually denies space to everything else is a serious shortcoming of the iK500, and so I have given it four stars.
Disclosure
This product was provided to me by SCC Grossman, a public relations firm, in exchange for providing a complete and fair review.
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