9 February 2011

Conran Audio Speaker Dock for iPods and iPhones

To dock or not to dock – that is the question.

Great design is difficult to define, but when you see it, you instinctively know something is just right. This new speaker dock is just such a product.

A creation of Studio Conran, the internationally renowned design studio, its appearance achieves the seemingly conflicting goals of both harmonising with any décor whilst simultaneously projecting an individual design flair that makes you smile every time it catches your eye. Even better, it combines this elegant design aesthetic with a stunning audio performance engineered by the award-winning Q Acoustics team.

Describing the new model, Sir Terence Conran, a leading figure in international design for more than fifty years, stated: "It is a dedicated 100% pure music player, that works with docked iPhones and iPods or wirelessly with Bluetooth enabled devices such as the iPad, allowing you to select songs from the comfort of an armchair or, if it's your thing, while dancing around the room.” Sir Terence concluded: “We hope we have created a contemporary design classic.”

Sound quality

Q Acoustics’ influence is obvious from the first musical note. The Dock’s outstanding clarity, dynamic range and naturalness of sound being the hallmarks of Q Acoustics’ many award winning models. This performance is achieved by incorporating a powerful 30 Watt stereo amplifier driving a low distortion, long throw, 75mm bass/mid range unit and 25mm wide dispersion soft dome tweeter for each channel.

Ready for ‘apt-X’ quality Bluetooth Stereo

In addition to its ability to play “wired audio” from physically docked iPods and iPhones, the Conran Audio speaker dock can also play ‘wireless audio’ streamed remotely from Bluetooth Stereo (A2DP) enabled portable media players, tablet computers, smart phones and laptops. Furthermore, the Conran dock’s in-built Bluetooth receiver chip is compatible with 'apt-X', the high-performance audio coding technology from CSR which transmits CD-quality full-bandwidth stereo over Bluetooth connections. ‘apt-X’ is fast becoming the next ‘must have’ technology feature in high-end consumer audio devices with pre-installed or dongle-enabled Bluetooth Stereo capability.

To enable users to view menus as they wish, the dock assembly rotates, allowing iPhones and iPod Touches to be docked in either vertical or horizontal mode. Additionally, the dock boasts six preset audio equalisation settings to optimise its performance for different musical genres. These are user selectable via the elegant remote control.

Naturally other music sources can also be enjoyed via the dock’s audio inputs. An illuminated ring around the volume control changes colour to indicate which input has been selected.

From Europe to Australia

The Conran Audio speaker dock was launched in Europe last September 2010, with press launches held in London and Paris.   The dock received universal acclaim from the journalists who were present. The press were very enthusiastic about both its styling and sonic performance in normal use, and were extremely impressed by a demonstration of the wonderful sound achieved by the dock when receiving streamed music via apt-X Bluetooth from an Apple Macbook.

Price, availability and finish

The new Speaker Dock, which will be available in both white and black finishes, is available in Australia March 2011, priced at $549 including GST.