The Gadget: JBL’s On Stage IIIP, which plays nicely with your iPhoneThe Price: $299
The Verdict: For such a tiny speaker, the JBL OnStage IIIP certainly gives out some good quality sound. Cranking this thing up to the maximum volume doesn’t distort the music in any way, which tends to happen a lot in my experience.
Sound quality itself is fairly rich – you get a fair amount of bass and the higher end doesn’t wash out either. The dock charges your iPhone while it’s plugged in, and even though we couldn’t find any mention of GSM shielding in the JBL’s press release, we didn’t get any interference from the phone either.
The bundled remote control works well, although you need to unlock your iPhone manually to get things started. Once you’re up and running though, you’ll have your collection of Van Halen tracks blasting out to everyone in your immediate vicinity. And that can be anywhere, seeing as how the OnStage IIIP takes a heap of AA batteries for music on the go.
But the biggest question with this speaker dock is whether or not it’s worth the $299 pricetag. Well, that all depends if you’re the kind of person likely to drop $299 on an iPod dock of any description – if you are, then this is a really good start. If not, then you should probably stick with that no-name Chinese brand you picked up from Go-Lo.