Review: Belkin TuneStage 2
by Magnus
Do you have an iPod? And do you also have a pretty good sound system? Then perhaps you want to take a look at the Belkin TuneStage 2 for iPod. Simply put it lets you play music from your iPod wirelessly through your sound system. You plug a small transmitter into the dock port of your iPod. Then you connect the base station to your sound system, and you’re ready to go. The base connects via a stereo minijack output or left/right RCA outputs, so you should be able to connect it to pretty much anything. Belkin are also nice enough to throw in the necessary cables, unlike Apple who ships the Apple TV, for example, without cables. The wireless transmission works over Bluetooth, so you won’t get interference with wireless phones, microwave, and similar devices. It limits the range to around 10m but we moved around in most of our apartment and it kept the signal. It was only in the areas furthest away from the base where it would cut out. The transmitter doesn’t have any power supply of its own so it takes power from the iPod. This seems to reduce the battery life of the iPod significantly. The audio quality was surprisingly good. Through our test system the music from the iPod sounded a bit hollow compared to what was played from CD or radio, but that’s to be expected I guess. I doubt the quality is good enough to satisfy real audiophiles, but for most customers it’s more than good enough. Belkin’s TuneStage is not a cheap accessory, but it does extend the use of your iPod and it does it really well.
Price: 799AED
From: Belkin
Distributor: Ashley LLC
Web:
IPod Accessories