Altec Lansing IM500 review

There's rarely a day goes past when an iPod speaker dock doesn't turn up in the MacUser postbag.

The quality of their output is as varied as the appeal of their aesthetics, but over the last year, one manufacturer has consistently come up with the goods on both counts: Altec Lansing.

With the IM500, the company has turned its attention to the iPod nano and has done so with all the style and panache it put into its full-sized iPod speaker systems.

It would be easy to trot out a smaller version of an existing system and bill it as a 'must-have' nano accessory, but with the IM500, Altec Lansing has not only mimicked the nano's reduced height and width, but also its most appealing feature, its wafer-thin depth.

Take the IM500 out of its box and it does an excellent impression of a thin paperback book-sized slab of black plastic with a speaker grill covering most of one side. On the rear are two battery compartments, each of which takes three AAA cells. Flip it over and a careful look inside the nano-sized recess in the speaker grill reveals a finger-tip sized button. Push it and out pops an iPod dock with power switch and volume controls on the front. A flap on the back reveals a mini USB port, power socket and an input jack to allow you to connect a different audio source.

Our expectations of audio fidelity from the IM500 were somewhat low. And perhaps it was because of this that we were pleasantly surprised when we listened to the speakers for the first time. Or perhaps it was because the sound quality was really rather good.

The IM500 is small enough to fit easily in a bag and as it will run off AAA batteries, it can be used just about anywhere. If you have a nano and sharing your music via its earphones isn't for you, the Altec Lansing IM500 provides an elegant way to let friends and family hear your latest playlists.