Altec Lansing inMotion iM3 Portable Audio System - Articles / Reviews

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Altec Lansing inMotion iM3 Portable Audio System

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Bradford Day
Kurtis
Altec Lansing
Dec. 8, 2004

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Testing

Music

Set-up is relatively easy with the iM3. Just make sure you pick the appropriate power adapter plug for the country in which you are using the unit. One other adapter you will want to pay attention to is the cradle adapter. My iM3 came ready to accept a 30 or 40 GB iPod. However, for this test I am using a 15GB iPod, so I had to swap out the little clip... easy enough. You will also need to install the included watch battery into the little white sliver of a remote control. Now you are ready to drop in your iPod.

The iM3 cradle houses a standard iPod input connection just like the one found on your iPod power and data cord. My iPod fit snugly into the port. Plug the AC adapter in and turn on the main power switch. I say main power switch, as there is also a standby switch on the front of the unit. With everything powered up, you are ready to go.

I loaded up my standard run of music I typically use for audio testing. Songs ranging from Punk to Country, Classical to Rock, Techno to Jazz. As you know, you can store just about any and all of your music files on an iPod and cycling through it all with the little touch wheel can take time. This leads me to the first problem I encountered with the iM3. Once you've loaded the thing up with your precious iPod, it is pretty difficult to cycle through music folders unless you are sitting right next to it.

No matter, let's hear how this thing sounds. I fired up my favorite Rancid album and sat back. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this minute little unit. But, when the tunes started, I was a little on the impressed side...more than a little in fact. The sound that flowed from the tiny 28mm drivers was actually pretty rich and deep. It was hard to believe that this little white wedge could produce such sound. I've used little powered desktop speakers on my desktop and they have never produced comparable sound. Ok, so I'm impressed... time to put them through their paces.

THX bass demo... it might seem a bit extreme to use this track to test four 28mm drivers, but hey, I'm X-treme! I like to push the limits...of... umm... speaker technology. Anyway, the bass demo wasn't so pretty. I think I found the limit of these little puppies straight away. Of course it isn't realistic to expect these dinky speakers to handle a full on low-end bass assault and distortion and crackling did result... although not to the extent that I had expected. On to more reasonable testing.

Rock, Punk, Folk and Country all sounded quite nice on this system. The Bloodhound Gang, Creedence, the White Stripes and music in that vein sounded very nice. I would equate the quality of sound to one of those small boom box type of systems or possibly a decent stock car audio system. Not the loudest system, but certainly not the weakest. The music was plenty loud for my 12' x 10' computer room. So, I would expect it to fill a dorm room or office with suitable tunes. Really pump the volume and you start to push the limits of the drivers and increase distortion.

Rap and Techno sounded slightly less impressive on the iM3. The heavy bass hits just punish the little speakers at higher volume and detract from the overall quality of the music. The bass that the iM3 does produce is quite impressive nonetheless; it just doesn't like really loud volumes and heavy bass. Highs and mid-range frequencies are well represented and help to produce that room filling sound.

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Page 1: Introduction & First Looks
Page 2: Testing
Page 3: Testing, Cont'd...
Page 4: Conclusion

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4 User Comments

1 - Posted by Kurtis on December 19, 2004 - 2:56 pm

"White plastic is everywhere! Seriously, you can't toss a dead video card out your window anymore without hitting someone with an iPod strapped to his or her hip. Apple's ubiquitous hard-drive-based personal music player is now intricately woven into the fabric of pop culture. And this fact has, of course, spawned a wave of aftermarket add-ons and clip-ons... in oceans of pristine bone-white PVC.

Altec Lansing has not excluded themselves from jumping on the bandwagon with the likes of Belkin and Bose. Should you find yourself in need of a set of external speakers for your precious palm-topped musical gigabytes, take a gander at Altec's inMotion iM3 portable audio system. But is it worthy of wearing the white?"

http://www.thetechlounge.com/reviews/altec_lansing... (http://www.thetechlounge.com/review.php?directory=...)
http://www.thetechlounge.com/review.php?directory=...

2 - Posted by Guest on April 22, 2005 - 9:37 am

I absolutely love!! these speakers. I just can't believe that they can so great when they are so small and compact. I love the way they look, work and sound. Everyone who hears them is impressed and can't believe that they are so small. They are great on the go as they are so compact, light and easy to set up. It is very good to have the choice of battery or power. I have found the volume levels to be very satisfactory considering that if I wanted speakers to fill a huge space I would buy speakers to suit that application. If you are looking for compact, portable yet great sounding speakers then these certainly do the job.

3 - Posted by jamielockhartgiles on April 24, 2005 - 8:23 am

Is this compatible with the 60GB ipod Photo?

thanks!

4 - Posted by Guest on August 20, 2005 - 1:17 am

battery life is relevant. ppl want it to last longer than the ipod battery as it indicates the cost to run the speakers without dc power.

there are lots of situations where this would be relevant. when backpacking you might not want to lug rechargeable batteries and charger and prefer to just use regular batteries. you might be charging your ipod during car travel and be reliant on non-rechargeables for the speakers.

i'd certainly prefer 24 hrs from a set of batteries compared to 6 hrs.

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