Product Reviews

The world may be awash with iPod speaker docks, but that hasn't stopped Creative and Hercules adding to the flood with these two models. The docks are aimed at slightly different markets, with Creative targeting those who want a speaker kit to take on their travels, and Hercules gunning for folk who prefer to listen to music at home.

As it's designed for use on the go, the TravelSound i can run on four AA batteries. These will give it enough puff to pump out tunes for around 25 hours, after which you'll need the supplied mains adaptor.

The dock is around the same size as a woman's clutch bag and is decked out in a black-and-silver colour scheme. It has minimal controls on the top, so most people will rely on the small remote. As well as volume and track skip controls, this has extra buttons that let you move through your iPod's menus - a handy feature that isn't available on many docks.

On the rear, you'll find a good range of ports including a mini USB socket for synching your iPod with your Mac, an AV output for connecting it to your TV and a line-in socket for hooking up an external device such as a CD player. Creative has also added a subwoofer output, but it seems pretty unlikely that you'll use one with a speaker kit this small.

Creative has built a kick stand into the rear of the dock to hold it upright while in use. Unfortunately, this feels quite flimsy, and we'd be worried about it breaking off if it got some abuse. However, the inserts that hold your iPod in place are even worse than this. Instead of supplying traditional inserts that support your iPod at the sides and the back, Creative simply provides rubber squares that slot into the back of the dock and provide only rear support. The result is that your

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iPod never feels very secure while docked.

When it comes to sound quality, this kit is a below-average performer. The weedy speakers kick out just four watts of music, and the lack of a subwoofer means it never troubles your ears with important stuff such as basslines and kick drums. Furthermore, as the speakers are so close together, you're forced to keep the Wide Stereo effect turned on all the time to prevent the dock sounding as if it is reproducing your tunes in mono.

Unlike Creative's offering, the Hercules i-XPS 250 is designed for use at home rather than while you're on the move. There's no battery slot, so the mains adaptor is its sole power source. The dock is shaped like a jumbo bow tie and is finished in a mixture of glossy piano-black and shiny sliver. The speakers are not covered by a protective grille, so if you have young kids, you'll want to make sure they don't poke them with sticky, jammy fingers.

Apart from the power input socket on the rear, the only other port is a line-in minijack that lets you use the speakers with an external device such as a portable CD player. The lack of a USB port or AV-out socket means you can't synch tunes to your iPod or connect it to a TV while it's in the dock.

There are only four buttons on the front of the speakers, so you're more likely to control it with the tiny remote. This has the usual power, volume and track skip buttons, as well as a button to turn on and off the 3D stereo effect, which adds significantly to the stereo width of the dock's sound output. Unlike the Creative speaker kit, there are no controls for navigating your iPod's menus.

The Hercules uses two five-watt speakers, plus a 15-watt subwoofer that's bolted to the rear. The larger speakers mean you can easily push the volume loud enough to fill a medium-sized room without the sound distorting. It also means your tracks sound pretty meaty, with the subwoofer adding plenty of bass.

Of the two docks, the Hercules i-XPS 250 is definitely the superior. It may not exactly be beautiful, but the sound quality is decent enough. The TravelSound i suffers because we think it's a tad too large to be a convenient travel companion and the sound quality isn't good enough for a home speaker kit. In truth, though, we wouldn't describe either of these docks as truly best in class.