Customer Reviews

Satechi iCraft Dock Station Stereo Round Speaker Made for iPhone 4S, 4, 3GS, 3G, iPod Touch 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Gen, Nano 6th Gen, Classic with Remote Control

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

THE PRODUCT - I was looking for a middle of the road iPod speaker because I wasn't interested in paying $200 for a BOSE iPod speaker. I wanted something small, simple and reasonably priced. THIS IS IT! Don't expect BOSE quality sound, but it is more than adequate for a desktop speaker in an office or to make your 1st gen iPod touch a great alarm clock (which it has inside it, but no built in external speakers to make it useful) Also, this dock is a great way to charge the touch, which does not come with a wall charging adapter.

THE CUSTOMER SERVICE - The only glitch in my experience was that the speaker/dock did not come with a universal iPod touch adapter. Your iPod will still attach to the speaker and work fine, and for the most part sit on the dock solidly. But the adapter makes it much more solid. I e-mailed Satechi and asked for an adapter. They CALLED me back, that's right CALLED me back, and offered to send one out free of charge. THAT'S an A+ in my book.

I think this unit provides an excellent combination of quality, value and price. I highly recommend it. I should also note that I am using the dock with a new 160 Gb iPod Classic that I bought two weeks ago. It also works fine with my 2-year old 80 Gb iPod Classic. A little background follows that I hope you'll find interesting, then a review of the unit itself.

Fact is, I was so pleased with this dock that I tried to purchase another unit this morning (12/3/09). I was disappointed to discover that Amazon indicated the unit was no longer available. In fact, it was flagged with the message "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." Insert sad frowny face here.

By an amazing coincidence, I received an unexpected e-mail from Satechi Customer Service this afternoon, asking if I had received my [original order] "in a timely manner". I was surprised and pleased at this level of attention. I responded that I had, indeed, received my unit in the expected time frame (I placed original order on Nov. 19th, and received on Nov. 30th, precisely as promised). I lamented the fact that it was no longer available. (As an aside, this appeared to NOT be an "Amazon" availability issue - Googling around showed that everyone seemed to be "out-of-stock").

I then received a follow up e-mail, saying "Thanks for your feedback, the unit will be available in 7-10 days". Suffice it to say that I feel really good about their Customer Service. I will definitely order another as soon as it is available.

Now, as to the unit's features/construction:

First, a note about the sound: I found it very "bright"... NOT "tinny" or objectionable. At no point did I experience distortion. However, even after running through all of the iPod's EQ settings, I have to say that the dock's speakers really lack bass. With that caveat, overall I found the sound quality very good.

The dock is solidly made, and has a green LED `status light' that blinks rapidly whenever the remote is used. The instructions state that the remote should be within 10 feet of the dock, and I think that is a fair statement. My experience has been that you have to point the remote directly at the dock for consistent results. It has not been an annoyance.

The remote seems well made. I am particularly pleased that the bottom half exactly replicates the "click wheel" layout. Very intuitive and a nice touch. The top half of the remote has 6 buttons: Power, Repeat [current song], Vol+, Vol-, and up/down arrows to scroll within a list.

It comes with an AC adapter. NOTE: The unit can be powered by battery OR the AC Adapter. Although this is not stated in the "manual" [a single letter sized page, folded in half], the battery cover is CLEARLY labeled:

"When using the unit with AA batteries, DO NOT use the A/C adapter. When using the A/C adapter: Empty battery compartment of unit. REMOVE BATTERIES!".

Can't be much clearer than that.

This is my first review, and it's about twice as long as recommended. Oops, my bad. I must confess that one of the first things I do when evaluating a purchase, is to filter by number of reviewer stars or otherwise take advantage of reviewer feedback. Since I rely so heavily on Amazon reviews in making MY purchase decisions, I felt that it was way past time for me to start contributing. I hope you found this review helpful.

I purchased this item to be able to charge my Touch and play music through it. I am pleased, it does what it says it will do and the sound quality is very good. The remote is a little tricky to figure out, but it works fine once I did. I would buy this product again, for the money, it is a good value.

Update - Over three years later and this Dock is still functioning. I don't use it daily, but I think I've gotten my moneys worth out of it. Good longevity, Good Sound.

I purchased Satechi Speaker two months ago. It had charging problems so I contacted the customer service. They sent me a new one right away. Actually, they redesigned the packaging and also changed the remote control. I can say this new speaker is just awesome. The sound quality is great if not perfect, there are no charging issues anymore and the remote control is much better than the old one. I strongly recommend this speaker; with the new design it puts Jbl to shame.

After trying the JBL On Stage Micro, JBL On Stage 3, Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere, iLive IC2807 etc, etc, finally there's a compact speaker-dock that has a battery option, decent sound and a remote that works with the iPod Touch.

Portability - weighs 13oz (without batteries or iPod), and the 110/220 power supply adds another 5oz, so definitely something you can chuck in a ziploc and take wherever.
Sound quality - not bad all things considered, IMO it beats the On Stage Micro hands down & is similar to the On Stage 3, probably not as good as the JBL to a purist but for some reason I just preferred the Satechi's sound, maybe it was the not spending the extra $90 that was music to my ears. The Pure-Fi does have better sound quality & power but it's remote doesn't work with the Touch so why bother calling it compatible Logitech?
Makes a slight fizzing sound at low volume, but nothing like as bad as the On Stage 3, definitely liveable with, the JBL's fizz pop rules out playing anything with actual quiet bits.

Remote - Feels kinda cheap, but then it is kinda cheap - $40! No worse than you get with the other products I tried, once you get used to pressing the buttons all the way in it works fine. As stated in other reviews the remote is a bit odd to use, but I think some of that comes from how the Touch's menus/navigation sort of don't lend themselves to a simple remote. Keeping the up/down arrow buttons pressed works, ie you dont have to press a button multiple times to move down a list. Range is good, 15 ft +, with a decent angle too. The only bug with mine (so far) is if you use the Power button to turn off and then back on again it briefly come to life then shuts down again, but if you turn it back on using the Play button instead it does stay on. Also, if the album/playlist ends and the Touch shuts itself down you'll need to actually leave your sofa to do the thumbswipe(!), whereas if you Power Off before this happens then it will come back to life without needing a thumbswipe.

Ordering/Delivery - Ordered mine here and Satechi shipped the next day so you get it just as fast as the little brown truck can get to you from San Diego. The box also says iCraft on it, not sure if that's an alternate product name or a new line of i-Accessories.

All in all, if you want something for travelling etc you can't go wrong with this one.

This docking station far exceeded my expectations, especially considering the price point. The sound is clear and the volume range is impressive. Make sure you use the little plastic docking tray to seat your iPod though because you risk damaging the unit, especially with a full size iPod or Iphone because of the weight. We ordered two of them. One worked perfectly and one had a technical issue in that we had to rock the Ipod back and forth for the connection to catch, but Satechi has EXCELLENT customer service and replaced it very quickly! I would buy another Satechi product solely on the level of customer service they offer! NOTE: You cannot put batteries in this unit AND use the power plug at the same time - you can only do one or the other. We've used both ways and the quality is good with either choice (and it is especially nice to be able to pick it up and carry from kitchen to office without having to unplug). Defintely a good buy, a great price, and very excellent customer service!!! *****

The sound on this little speaker unit is very nice, and powerful enough to fill a room without having to turn the volume way up. As other reviews have stated, figuring out the controls is not as easy or intuitive as it could be, but it's not rocket science either. I am very pleased with my purchase.

works fine with iPod touch. for the price, sound is acceptable. volume adjustment requires touching two buttons simultaneously and is not intuitive. remote control does not work well. decent product for the price, but not great.

This is the best docking station I have ever owned. The round speaker has great sound and the remote is great because you do not have to use the touch screen on your Ipod, which save pressure on the docking part. Also the price is good and it was delivered in a timely manner.

I loved the size of it and it was easy to operate. The sound was good and what I expected from such a small device. I really liked it except for the fact that it didn't charge the iPod.

When I hooked it up, the iPod battery blinked (like it was charging) for the first 5 minutes, then it would stop. I left it docked for over 10hrs and still it didn't charge.

Satechi replaced it for me and the 2nd one they sent had the same issue. I sent it back and they refunded my money.

If you don't need it to charge your iPod, I'd highly recommend it.