Kensington SX 3000R Flat Panel iPod Speakers

Reviews: Multimedia

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
Kensington
Apr. 4, 2007

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Introduction

iPod here, iPod there, iPod iPod everywhere! Unless you live in a cave (how are you reading this?) or you've just come out of a coma (congratulations), you've certainly witnessed the veritable onslaught of iPod accessories at your favorite electro-geekery store.

Today I'll be looking at one such iPod accessory from Kensington: the SX 3000R flat panel iPod speakers with FM radio. The SX 3000R is designed around NXT's patented Distributed Mode Loudspeaker (DML, commonly referred to as flat panel speakers), which promises to offer room-filling sound while requiring less space than traditional cone drivers. We'll see just how good NXT's DML really is and whether Kensington has done a good job of designing a viable product around it.

First Impressions

The Kensington SX 3000R packaging looks nice and does a good job of showcasing the product's features. Upon opening the package you will find the speaker unit with a trailing FM antenna, wireless remote, A/C power supply, and a user's guide.

My very first thought when I saw the SX 3000R was that this thing is much bigger than I had expected with dimensions of approximately 16x4x7.5" (WxHxD). Due to it's larger size, I couldn't imagine too many people placing it on their computer desk, but you've probably got iTunes and some desktop speakers anyways and this product is more geared towards placement in other rooms such as the bedroom or kitchen.

The speakers are a glossy black plastic with very minimalist styling. The majority of the speakers' face is taken up by (you'll never guess!) NXT's flat panel loudspeaker which is covered with a find honeycomb mesh. In the bottom right you'll see a power status LED, an IR sensor, and buttons for volume down / up. Distinctly lacking is the power button for some reason, which the user's guide states should be where the IR sensor is, with the IR sensor just above and to the right of it. The iPod dock is on the top of the unit, behind the buttons and is compatible with all docking iPods, though they decided not to include any dock adapters. On the backside you'll see the power-in, auxiliary input (for compatibility with non-docking iPods and other MP3 players), and the trailing FM antenna.

The wireless remote control has a few more buttons than the actual speaker unit. At the top there are buttons to play the iPod, the radio, and to turn on bass boost. Below that are the actual iPod controls: volume up, volume down, seek/skip left, seek/skip right, and play/pause/power.

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Page 1: Introduction & First Impressions
Page 2: General Usage
Page 3: Sound Quality
Page 4: Conclusion

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