Altec Lansing inMotion iMV712

The iPod-speaker market is more crowded than the DMV on a Friday, and it desperately needs differentiators. Given the iPod's status as a video platform, Altec Lansing made an obvious choice and went with an 8.5-inch widescreen LCD in its new inMotion IMV712. This digital mini-theater gives you beefy sound, and the screen looks reasonably good, but we still see some room for improvement.

 

A glossy black finish and curvy shell give the iMV712 a very hip look, despite its size (8.2 x 7.7 x 18.5 inches and about 8.5 pounds). Behind black cloth speaker grilles is a pair of three-inch full-range drivers and a four-inch side-firing subwoofer for a combined 40 watts (RMS) of power; the 16:9 screen is front and center, while the iPod dock is on top. The back sports RCA audio and video inputs, as well as an S-Video port, power jack, master power switch, and 1/8th-inch line input.
 
The accessory bundle includes iPod dock adapters for various iPod models and a 3.5mm-to-3.5-mm auxiliary line-in cable to play audio from non-dockable iPods and other sources. The iMV712 also comes with a small 17-button infrared remote with a sensible layout; if the master switch is on, you can turn power on and off with the remote.
 
The iMV712 is easy to set up right out of the box, though getting the correct aspect ratio to display proved to be a bit tricky. It's really just a matter of matching up the menu settings on the speaker's screen with those on the iPod, but we'd really prefer some type of automatic aspect-ratio detection.
 
The resolution and brightness of the 8.5-inch LCD were pleasing and much better than the iPod's 2.5-inch screen for viewing longer videos. During fast-motion scenes like the opening sequence of Austin Powers, however, we saw some slight smearing. Colors were also a bit washed out, and you don't get true blacks.
 
The iMV712 won't replace a midrange home stereo system, but we were impressed with the integrity of the sound. It's robust with strong bass and clear mids and highs, even at maximum volume. If you crank up the bass all the way (the remote has bass and treble tone controls), the sound gets muddy. Some system noise was audible, especially when the iPod isn't playing.
 
With a one-piece speaker, stereo imaging isn't really much of a factor, though Altec Lansing's SFX (Stereo Field Expander) mode succeeds in giving the illusion of a wider image. The effect was more subtle than with other speakers, but it did liven up the sound. The iMV712 has enough power to fill a large room in an apartment (or a midsized one in a house), and we got a range of about 40 feet from the IR remote.
 
While satisfying overall, the iMV712 could stand some improvement and isn't meant to be a full-fledged home theater system. Altec Lansing could have really impressed us by including iPod navigation features-or even album art-on the speaker's 8.5-inch LCD instead of simply leaving the company logo onscreen during audio playback. Also, we're not crazy about the fact that if you lose the tiny remote, you can't access features like tone controls, mute, and SFX. Battery operation, a clock (maybe with alarm), and an AM/FM radio would make this dock much more versatile.
 
At $349, the Altec Lansing iMV712 is an interesting but pricey alternative to other midrange iPod speakers-though we wonder whether it can find a practical place outside of dorm rooms. If you don't need the video features, we recommend the Altec Lansing 602 instead.

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