Altec Lansing M202 Dual-Charging iPod Dock

• Dual docking/charging speaker system
• Fits neatly in tight spaces like corners and kitchen counters
• Full-feature remote
• Built-in USB port lets you charge a third device
• Listen without interference, shielded for mobile phones

The Altec Lansing M202 is a neat, convenient little speaker dock, with surprisingly okay sound for a very small unit. Its strong points are its size -much tinier than you'd think from the photos, easy to tuck into a corner of a bedside table or a shelf -and the dual docks, allowing it to be home base for a couple's iPhones or one person's phone and iPod. The unit is straightforward and simple to operate, even without the free custom app (which is a nice touch). But the quality of its construction is surprisingly cheap considering the price; it's a flimsy, lightweight plastic speaker enclosure, with unattractive, cheap cloth permanently fixed over the speakers, and there are some obvious assembly problems like misaligned seams. (Also note that, though the unit does work with the iPhone 4, it only includes plastic dock shims for the 3G/3Gs and the iPod Touch; other iPod and iPhone models can only be docked loosely. It's a weird oversight considering the near-zero cost of these plastics.)

The sound quality is fine, even good for such a small unit, but not miraculous. Given that the unit is built around two very, very small (approx. 2.5") drivers stuck in a lightweight ported plastic enclosure, the sound it puts out is, unsurprisingly, very light on bass and tends to be almost painfully bright on some music. I found this a particular problem listening to jazz -Miles Davis's trumpet was so bright, almost tinny, that it completely overpowered the rest of his band -while guitar-based rock came out much better, sounding almost as well-rounded as it would on a larger stereo system. Podcasts and vocals are a good fit for this unit, but I wouldn't even want to try listening to hip-hop on something this bass-deficient.

So, this is a nice enough product just on its merits, but its price is a problem. The M202 is stuck in no-man's-land at this price point. Despite the convenience of its dual docks, this speaker dock is caught between, on the one hand, much cheaper units that are about as good as it, and on the other, only slightly more expensive ones that are much, much better. If you want a speaker dock primarily in order to listen to music, there are many others to consider first: units such as the SpeckTone Retro or the Yamaha PDX-30 are competitively priced, better-constructed, and produce far better sound. For light vocal listening and bedside convenience, you can get any of a hundred products of similar flimsy-plastic construction quality, for much less than the price of this unit, that still won't sound too much worse. Unless you have a specific need for the dual iPhone/iPod docks, the M202 is probably not the best value for your money, even though it's a perfectly nice, compact, convenient unit.

[Update: I'm revising my rating down to 2 stars after living with the unit for several more months. Despite the manufacturer's claim that the unit is shielded, loud, pulsing cellular interference has been a recurrent problem with an iPhone docked in the M202. And the endless reminders to install the dock-specific app every time the phone is re-docked are a real annoyance.]

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The Altec Lansing "M202 Dual Charging iPod Dock" is a clever idea but it's not really for audiophiles. I had high hopes for this since we have several versions of the Touch and a Nano in the house at any given time.

This dock does allow two iPods to be connected and it is indeed convenient to have a charger that it can handle all of them, as well as play from any of the connected devices, but the sound quality isn't really all that good and the required app for the iTouch\iPhone to mix the played music is of limited value for us since I don't really want any of my kid's playlist on at the same time as mine (significant difference in music tastes).

Setup of the unit was fairly straight forward and required the use of the standard iPod seating adapters (we used the Nano and Touch bases). The remote is very basic and worked well.

What I really didn't like was the quality of the music for my classical and jazz music since it comes out somewhat "tinny", but classic rock is fairly good.

After several months of use, we have relegated this for use as a charging station.

CFH

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I am very impressed with this product. For something so relatively inexpensive the depth and range of the sound coming out of it rivals more expensive systems from Bose and other top end manufacturers. The speaker system works with just about any iPod, iPod Touch, and iPhone made over the last nine years. And as most of us now have more than one of these i devices, it supports charging (and playback) of two devices simultaneously.

Altec Lansing also has two apps in the iTunes store that are compatible with the system. The first is an alarm clock app that will trigger playback through the speaker system at a specified time. It's a nice looking app, but as with all third party applications if the app isn't running in the foreground the alarm won't go off. Definitely not for mission critical wake-up calls!

The second app, called "music mix," streams music from both players that are plugged into the speaker system. A simple interface allows for distributing playback from one device over the other i.e. it can be set to play music 70% of the time from one iPod, 30% from the other. It also provides feedback as to the charging status of both. My only gripe is that if the mix app is not installed, your iPhone or iPod Touch will continually demand that it be installed for proper operation. Given that that the speaker system works just fine without the app, I don't see why they are so insistent on it being installed.

That gripe aside, this is an impressive low cost speaker system that delivers great sound. A great gift idea!

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I bought this a couple of days ago to use with the Ipod touch 4G. I was concerned that this dock/speaker wouldn't work with the 4th gen Itouch since the 4th gen is not listed as compatible on the speaker box. But it seems to work fine. I like the small footprint and the fact that it can charge two Ipods simultaneously. The remote fits nicely at the back of the dock and is easily accessible when needed.

It can fill a medium sized room with sound quite easily. The only "negative" from my perspective is the inability to control bass/treble independently on the speakers.

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I own three iPods but had no speakers for them until I ordered this product. I didn't necessarily think I needed something to charge two of them at once (and three using the USB port), but I did want the speakers since there are places in the house with only minimal setups for music.

Because I listen to music on my computer while I'm in my office and have a full-fledged stereo in the living room, I placed the dock in my bedroom, where I had had no way of listening to the iPods other than through headphones. That placement gave me a good opportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the unit.

First the pluses. I don't pretend to be an audiophile, but I do like good speakers for my computer, so any old cheapies won't do, and the speakers in this unit seem pretty good--certainly far better than the ones in my older Sony clock radio with CD player, though nowhere near as good as my Klipsch computer speakers or my old stereo speakers. But for music in the bedroom at fairly low volume, they're fine. The footprint is also reasonable, though with space at a premium on my cluttered nightstand, an even smaller footprint would have worked better for me. I found the remote handier than I originally thought I would because it not only operates the unit but operates the iPods, and with the dock more than an arm's length from the bed (the only place I had room for it), it allows me to navigate the menus and playlists without having to disturb the cats. :) It is very small and light, however, and I fear it may be easy to lose or become a cat toy. Apparently, the designers thought of that too because it has a magnetic storage compartment at the back of the unit.

That said, because I have it next to the bed, I'd have much preferred a unit that included a radio. I have a 6th generation Nano, which comes with FM radio capabilities, but that feature only works when the headphones are plugged in and is useless when the Nano is in the dock. Also, I'd have preferred to have an integrated clock, which would have allowed me to retire my clock radio. The clocks in the iPods are too small, and while I haven't actually tried using the iPod clocks as alarm clocks, but the whole thing struck me as more cumbersome than simply having a clock with continuous readout, which is what I want when I wake up in the middle of the night. I realize that the clock and alarm features probably would be far better in an iPhone or Touch, but since I don't have either one, I have to work with what I have, and in the iPods, they're too small to see halfway across the nightstand at night, so it's a lack that I notice. In addition, the unit doesn't come with a real manual, only basic pictorial instructions printed on the flaps of the box. I commend Altec Lansing for not wanting to contribute any more to landfills than necessary, but it took me a couple of weeks to discover that there was a second remote stashed in the compartment at the back.

Basically this is a nice enough unit for what it is and I've been using it several times a week--I like being able to launch a playlist before I fall asleep. It will probably solve some problems for many users, but I've deducted one star for its lack of radio and clock, which may be more of an issue for me than for others.