Customer Reviews

JBL On Stage IIIP Portable Speaker Dock for iPod and iPhone (Black)

5 star:		(108)
4 star:		(60)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I've had previous versions of this product and find this one much improved.
- It does work with my iPhone 3G, including the charging.
- Improved sound quality.
- Battery powered (optional)

The only downgrade with respect to past versions is the remote control:
- Less intuitive buttons. Difficult to operate in the dark
- Dependent on Infrared, instead of the old RF. This means you need direct line of sight to the unit for it to work.

I don't normally write reviews. I use them all the time but I don't like to take the time to write one. I am writing because I think this is a very good product. Perfect, almost. The sound quality is very good. We purchased it because we wanted something small that we could pack for vacations that had good sounds. This is relatively small with a great sound that fills a room with clear sounds. My only complaint about is it has a very nice small remote control. This is great and works good BUT it is very small and easy to loose. They could of used just a little engineering logic and put a small place in the base that it could be stored so it would be harder to get seperated from the base. Other then that, I highly recommend this if you are looking for a relatively small unit with great sound. I take it out by our pool and it really projects and we have a noisy road behind my house.

I've owned older versions of the JBL On Stage line and this one has been the best experience yet. The sound produced from this model is great and gets loud enough without distortion to use in any environment. When you first dock an iPod or iPhone with it and begin playing, it starts out on a low volume setting so you have to turn it up each time you dock it but it keeps you from being blasted out like the older models did. I haven't bothered to use this one running on the 6 AA batteries since I've always been somewhere with AC power for it. I've only used this with the original iPhone. There are some changes Apple made to how the 3G iPhones charge that although they will play music through older devices, they'll display an error message when you first connect them. With the original iPhone this speaker worked perfectly, though.

90% of portable iPod speakers are garbage. I listened to many of them. I also listened to the Bose and similar "portable" speakers that run upwards of $200 and more. They sound good but are really not very portable. And >$150 for an iPod speaker doesn't make sense to me. Skip the cheaper ones unless you think the iPhone's internal speaker sounds great because that's the sound you get from the cheap ones - a tinny distorted mid-high sound. I spend a lot of time and effort on my home systems. I have two full systems in my home. One is a full analog system with a turntable and tube amplifier. The other is a full solid-state system with digital transport and separate digital/analog converter. I take good sound seriously. However, I'm not one of those asshats that spends $20,000 on a stereo system. That being said. This speaker is outstanding at what it is designed to do. This little thing sounds great. It is worth the $100. I have played my iPhone 3GS through it with NO PROBLEMS. The people who hear it are all impressed with the sound. It has good bass, which is the toughest thing for something this size to do. I highly recommend it. JBL deserves credit for a good product at a good price.

I just purchased this speaker dock for my new iPhone 3GS, and I love it. It works perfectly. The sound is great; there's no need for a special adapter (like another user said there was); there is ZERO feedback/interference heard (which is huge for me and the reason I returned a different product by a different manufacturer); it's compact/portable; and it charges your phone for you while you listen to music! What more can you ask for??

Well, the one thing I would ask for is a lower price. In fact, having to pay $133.99 for this unit was the only reason I gave it four stars instead of five. I'd actually rate the unit itself as a five star unit and the price a one star. It's just too expensive. But unfortunately, I couldn't find another (cheaper) product that has all the features that I wanted like this one does. And this one sure did live up to it's promises.

Ultimately, I'd buy it again.

******* UPDATE 9/14/11 *******
Well, two years later I can see that the price did come down. My original unit is still working great, so I just bought a second one. Now I have one for the house and one for work. I still think this is a great product. With the lower price, I'd give it 5 stars.

I got this speaker dock during a Gold Box deal, so it was a great deal.
Sound:
The sound quality is good, better than many small speaker docks with speakers around this size. It does fill a smaller room with sound quite well, and get get surprisingly loud without distortion. I use it in the bathroom as my source of morning music, and have brought it out on the lanai to listen to music in the pool where it works well but doesn't quite fill an outdoor space (but this is expected given the small size).

Remote:
I only really use the remote for ff-rew & volume up/down, because it's simply easier for me to walk over and quickly find a playlist directly on my iPhone.

Use with iPhone 4:
This dock does work perfectly with the iPhone 4. The only quirk I experienced was the initial time I used it. When I turned on my Sky.fm app the speaker icon came up on the iPhone and wouldn't go away. I rebooted the phone and that took care of it.

What you need to do to best utilize your iPhone 4 with this dock is the following...
1) plug in the iPhone into the dock with the dock off. You'll hear the phone make the charging noise & it will charge.
2) Turn on the dock from the back
3) Find whatever music source you want to play and go from there!

That seems to work best and would alleviate any issues. I have turned on the dock prior to docking the phone and it still worked fine.

I didn't see many reviews with this dock in regards to its use with an iPhone so I thought I'd share :-)

I hesitated to purchase this product after reading other reviews so I was pleasantly surprised with the sound quality it provides for my Ipod Touch 2nd gen. I listen to classical music and find the sound very acceptable. The portability it provides with the battery backup is an excellent bonus.

A small, compact portable speaker dock for the iPod/iPhone. Sound is refreshingly crisp, strong, and room filling. (But) the remote is almost useless.

The positives:
- The (surprisingly) small size and weight make it quite portable. If you attach the 6 AA batteries it requires for use as a portable speaker dock, you can carry it anywhere. It's most recommended that you use rechargeable (NiMH) batteries.
- Snapping an iPod Touch, Nano, Mini, or iPhone is a snap.
- The sound really is sharp, clear, and strong. It will very easily fill a small or even larger room with sharp, clear sound, with enough bass to make the dock appear a lot bigger than it is.
- Auxiliary cable input means you are not restricted to using this dock with only iPods. Just about any device, even your computer can be connected to this device.
- The volume controls are prominently placed, and in my opinion, very well-designed, and pretty too!
- The dock charges your iPod while it is connected to and playing music. Neat.

Negatives:
- The remote. It is not well designed, at all. The buttons are much too hard to figure out. The labels are very muted, with hardly any contrast, with the result that you often have to stare long and hard at the remote to figure out what each button does. Disappointing.
- It is a huge challenge to get in the six AA batteries into the compartment at the bottom.
- It is an even bigger challenge to get these six batteries out of the compartment. They fit too tightly into the compartment. Makes you fear that you may just crack the compartment or do damage trying to get the batteries out.
- It would have been useful to allow a way to unlock the connected iPod via the remote. If you have configured your iPod so that it requires a password to unlock, then you need to step over to the dock and enter the passcode to unlock the iPod. You cannot do that from the remote. Not a big deal, but a slight irritant nonetheless.

Overall, an excellent choice, and very attractively priced. Highly recommended.

I am a Bose fan, and most speakers pale in comparison. I am now a JBL fan as well. The sound is simply fantastic. It goes out in all directions, and can easily fill a large room. It is very portable, and works just as well on batteries as it does with the cord. I can't believe how much I use this product, I reach for it before some of my built in speakers, and even Bose Wave Radio in the bedroom, this just sounds so good.

The sound is clear and crisp, with great range. Works wonderful with my iPhone, and as a speaker for any of my laptops. It is surprisingly small for the quality of sound it produces, and because it pushes sound out in every direction, the sound fills the area/room very nicely.

I have heard and played with many other portable speakers for iPods/iPhones, and I find most to be very tinny sounding, and quit a bit of distortion. Plus they push sound out in only one direction, which causes more distortion at louder volumes and larger rooms or outside. This is simply the best speakers I have heard, I think I even prefer them to the Bose sound dock! I would definitely buy these before a Bose Sound Dock. The size, portability, and quality is absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend purchasing these speakers, you will not be disappointed.

I am just baffled at how JBL manages to pull so much sound out of such a small device.

Pros:
* Incredible sound in a small package
* Easy to use remote and controls on the surface of the unit
* Works with my 3G without the annoying buzzing sound other speakers put off when the phone syncs with the carrier - no need for airplane mode.
* Sleek and attractive. If I had a more powerful fan in the room, I'd say aerodynamic as well.
* This wasn't on the box but was a concern when I bought it: It does in fact work as an alarm clock speaker. As someone that could sleep through artillery, I needed a speaker that would blast me out of bed... woah! It sure does.


Cons:
* Multiple adapters support many iDevices but the adapters are poorly labeled. Would be nice if the model was just printed on the packages.
* Way too much plastic wrapping for my environmentally concerned mind.
* Sideways power bring takes a lot of space on my surge strip.



Better if:
* There was an indentation to post the remote control - there's just no where to put it when you are done other than just laying it on top.