Customer Reviews

Altec Lansing inMotion iM414 Portable Audio System for Zune

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

For the many folks who have had issues with the IM414 not having an adapter for your 80gb Zune, I contacted Altec Lansing directly yesterday and was told that they do in fact now have this adapter and will ship it to you free of charge. I contacted the company at alteclansing@custhelp.com and they were very quick to reply with a solution. Knowing this, I've now decided to purchase the item because the reviews of the sound are great, and this adapter will resolve the only negative aspect I've seen about this product. Hope this helps you folks!

We have a Zune 4 and a Zune 30 and this system doesn't work well with either. First off, one has to jam the unit down hard and wiggle it to get the units to connect to the dock. You can see the charging indicator come on when it is finally connected. It comes with an adapter for the Zune 4/8 but not the 30 or 80. They say in the instruction manual that the adapter comes with the Zune, but that isn't true. So expect a wobbly fit with the Zune 30 or 80. I imagine that that will eventually damage the connector on the unit or the Zune.

Second, the unit doesn't play unless the unit is playing while it is being connected. If the unit is sitting connected in the dock and you press play on the remote or the unit, nothing happens. You can see the song playing on the Zune, but no sound. The Zune is connected because I can see it is charging, but nothing. I can wiggle, turn it on/off, use the buttons on the remote, on the unit itself, and on the Zune and still no sound. If I take the unit out, then start playing, then push it in hard, it will start playing. If I then turn of the im414 and turn it back on (with no other action), the Zune, once again, will not play. I have to take it out, turn it on, and put it back.

Both units have the latest software (I checked and both Zunes are showing as being up to date).

The unit, when playing, sounds great. It just doesn't work well and seems poorly made. I haven't able to get in touch with customer service because of their limit hours.

This audio system is small in size, but the sound is actually pretty impressive. Decent bass and volume, big enough to fill my bedroom in sound.

My 8gb Zune fits in the dock fine. I don't even need any adapter or anything.

I bought my iM414 from Target on the off chance that I would need to return it. Boy am I glad I did. Out of the box everything seemed great. However, upon plugging my 30GB Zune, I could hear nothing. The radio worked fine and the Zune was charging but I could not hear it. After reading the (very tiny and pretty much useless) guide that came with the unit, I called Altec. They advised me that the 30GB zune rarely worked with the unit due to a pin issue and advised me to return it to wherever I bought it. So I would not advised purchasing the unit for a 30GB Zune.

Bought this item for my Zune 80. The Zune 80 fits onto the dock, but isn't too stable, so it wobbles around a bit and that messes with the connectivity. It seems as though it has to be perfectly balanced on the connector for it to work. Also, the Zune itself seems to pause for no reason when trying to change songs. Aside from that, when the Zune actually is connected, the sound is really nice from such a small, relatively inexpensive device. Also, the weight is low which makes for great portability, given that it is not only easy to carry, but can sit on top of pretty much anything. I would recommend this to anyone looking for nice set of speakers for their Zune for a reasonable price.

At first I was a little skeptical that such an inexpensive device could actually provide good sound quality. I thought I would take the gamble though since I really wanted a little freedom from always having to wear headphones. Well, I think my gamble paid off. The sound is quite good, although I would only recommend the device be used in smaller rooms. If the volume has to be cranked up too much to fill a larger room there is some distortion, and buzzing through the speakers. However, in my bedroom I get good clean sound without having to turn up the volume too much. Sometimes it is a little tricky to get my 80 gig Zune to properly interface with the dock, and it takes a little fiddling with it to properly establish the link between the two devices. However, I don't find it too difficult to correct that problem when it comes up. I also like the fact that this speaker dock is such a compact space-saver. Generally I have been quite satisfied with this unit.

I recently bought this product for my husband for his birthday. We've been taking a makeshift Walkman CD player connected to a couple of old computer speakers for our trips. This takes the place....and then some. Now instead of 20 or 30 packed CDs to choose from we now have close to 500, when connected to his Zune. It has a random setting that will play a song, then automatically switch to another and so on. It's wonderful. The only small drawback is at full volume it won't compete with a room full of people but traveling and normal home listening, it's plenty loud enough. A great investment.

Really knocked out by the sound! This product is great. Called the company to get the converter (plastic piece) so the zune fits in more snugly, otherwise it is a loose connection! Really like the speakers - I ordered two! One for my daughter!

I received this on Christmas 08. I have had no problems getting it to "connect", it fits right in, the charge light comes on, and it will start to play. That's where the machine goes haywire. It "skips" like an old record. It will start to play a song, then start the song over again. And over again. And over again. If it actually makes it through the song, then the next song will "skip," and "skip," and skip." If I hold the Zune exactly upright and press down really hard, it won't skip. Kind of defeats the purpose of the dang thing. I will say that the sound bytes I get to hear sound terrific.

I have contacted Altec via their customer support site and received an answer about a player I do not have, so I will wait until tomorrow (1/2/09)to call the 800 number.

I haven't found any links regarding this particular issue about the iM414, most all of the problems seem to pertain to not getting the Zune to dock at all, so maybe this is just a faulty player I have, but maybe not.

Wow, what a mistake this purchase was...in every way. I read the reviews so I knew it wasn't built for the 120, but I heard they would send an adapter. Their tech support said there wasn't one.

Now, I could live with that. The main purpose was to take this camping so I could just hook it into the AUX port. That worked fine. The sound was good, not great. But then 5 hours later it stopped playing. The batteries died. Luckily I brought a lot of batteries because every 5 hours they needed to be replaced....5 HOURS?!?

I had brought along a back up speaker system. It was a much smaller Creative Labs portable system I bought a few years ago for $25. I plugged them in and the sound was just as good if not better. Then I proceeded to use them for the next 2 days (maybe 20 hours of play time) on 1 set of batteries. 1/3 the price, 1/4 the size, better sound, and 5x better battery life.

I've bought a lot of stuff on Amazon over the years, this was my first major disappointment. I should have listened to the reviews. Do not purchase this product.