iLuv iMM747 Audio Cube for iPad/iPhone
Not in the least bit cubic, but providing a 10watt dock connector for juicing up your iPad, the iLuv iMM747 is a compact little speaker dock for your kitchen audio needs. Its punchy enough to take on other roles, too, but if you’re anything like me, you need some music to motivate you during the seemingly endless kitchen minutiae.
The iMM747 is compatible with your usual plethora of “i” devices, sporting a flexible dock connector and padded support to ensure that your iPad, in particular, doesn’t rest solely on the dock connector itself. This works well, although it can sometimes be a little tricky to get an iPad seated properly on the dock.
Once docked, you can rock anything from Spotify to Apple’s own music apps, or any other sound source. The volume controls adjust the levels directly on your device, and the play/pause and prev/next buttons behave as expected. A remote would be nice, but I don’t particularly miss it. Ultimately it really depends on your situation, in a kitchen for example its generally easier just to use the controls directly on your iPad. But in a living room or bedroom, you’ll likely miss the remote.
On your desk, alongside a desktop computer or a laptop, the iLuv Audio Cube comes in doubly handy as a dock, with sync capability. A mini-USB to USB cable gets it set up as such, making it a useful fixture for your desk. The 3.5mm audio input rounds this off nicely, providing a decent alternative for tinny laptop speakers.
As far as sound is concerned I found the Audio Cube to be a little on the bassy side, but you can drive it up to full volume for some party tunes without any distortion. It’s great for kicking out some Spotify tunes, and even proved handy for a bit of ambient office music. It’s not brilliant and it’s not poor, but unless you’re welling to spend several times more then you’ll likely find brilliant sound remains elusive.
Overall it can’t be faulted as a quick and easy way to get sound out of your iPad or iPhone and at £60 it’s definitely seated on the low-end of the market and doesn’t particularly punch above its weight, but it’s affordable and gets the job done. The biggest shortfall is the lack of remote, which limits the rooms it can be used effectively in. However, if you actually use playlists (unlike me) then you may not see this as a problem.