Customer Reviews

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Mini Docking Speaker for iPod

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been looking forward to this product since its introduction more than a month ago. I loved the original Zeppelin, but was excited about the smaller form factor and a USB digital connection in the Zeppelin Mini. Call me naive, I was actually hoping that the sound quality would be quite comparable to that of the original Zeppelin. As the B&W's website says:

"With Zeppelin Mini, you get everything you love about Zeppelin - advanced acoustic technology, intelligent design, elegant connectivity - in a streamlined, compact sound dock package that's perfect for desktops and bedside tables. "

But I was let down; the two speakers produce completely different sound. Pop music (I tried out Rhianna and Britney Spears) sounded okay due to the typically louder treble and bass in the recording, although when played louder it sounded clearly distorted and hollow; classical symphonies (I tried out Brahms' Symphony #4 and Shostakovich's Cello Concerto #1) sounded disappointing - the entire bass section cannot be heard until the volume is cranked up really high!; classical solo and chamber music (I played Vivaldi's Four Season - Winter, 2.Largo) turned out to be surprisingly really good and in my opinion the best genre for this speaker. After turning on Bass enhancer on my iPod EQ setting (unlike the original Z, the Mini does not have an external bass/treble control), the bass can be heard more but is too obviously distorted - cracking sound can be heard at times.

The bass sounded more full when positioned closer to me. B&W claims that the introduction of a flowport (absent in the original Zeppelin) is designed to amplify the bass; I found the outcome to be nothing like that of the original Zeppelin. I also expect the bass to be thicker if the speaker is placed against a wall or a corner (instead of in the middle of a table at the Apple store)

With the addition of USB connectivity, I was originally very excited about the idea of directly syncing my iPod to iTunes, controlling iTunes using a remote, and most importantly, the capability of bypassing analog signal processing on a computer to the speaker. However, given the significantly compromised quality of sound (esp. lack of bass), the idea of producing better quality analog signal that would only be greatly sacrificed in bass production seems meaningless.

Nevertheless, I was impressed with the design of the Mini. The speaker is much smaller than I'd envisioned based on the gallery (and after checking out the sound quality was I wished it was bigger). The Mini is light but feels very solid when carried around. The design is much more classy than other iPod speakers: the chrome bowl mirror matches the back of the original iPod (if you still own one); when firmly attached to the docking arm, it can be elegantly turned 90 degrees for cover flow (isn't that the only reason to buy an iPod touch/iPhone?); controlling the iPod has never been easier with the inventive protruded docking arm design (same as the original Z). Most impressive to me, the enclosure of black cloth over the speaker (as opposed to the colder, more industrial wire mesh used in Bose and other iPod speakers) stands out among the crowd with exquisiteness.

If I were to choose a small iPod speaker based on what looks best for my apartment, I would definitely go with the Mini. As for sound quality, it sounded very impressive for classical chamber music, good enough for pop, but definitely not satisfying for classical symphonies. However, if you are certain that any larger speaker (e.g. the original Z) cannot be considered, it is quite a good choice. (And at this price I would choose it over Bose any day - there, I said it).

When I received this product in November I was instantly taken back with the quality. It would appear that it is just another AtHome type of appliance for your iPod or iPhone. The only thing that this unit has in common with those articles is the fact that it uses an iPod,iPhone. After that it all goes out the window. As I go into this review I will cover the aspects that work and some odd ones that dont.

Quality *****

This is B&W for goodness sake so it better be 5 stars and it is. I have owned kevlar B&W speakers for years and have pushed them far above what they should have and they keep performing. Taking this unit out of the box I was impressed with the overall quality of the craftsmanship. It has a heft to it and feels rock solid; a typical B&W attribute. The stalk feels solid and not flimsy. The chrome appears thick and the fabric used is top notch.

Installing iPod Touch. *****
I used an iPod Touch 32GB 2nd Gen for this review. When I opened the box I did not see the seperate adapters for the different iPods. So, initially I put the iPod on the connector and turned on the Zep. It came on and worked fairly well but when I changed orientation for cover flow vs portrait I had some issues. Once I found the adapter and installed it the iPod felt as if it was actually part of the Zep. It hovers above like you see in the iPhone commercials where they are showing you apps. Cover flow works amazingly. Its even better than holding it in your hand, in that this turns the zep into a video jukebox.

Sound *****
The sound is tight and has beautiful low, mid and highs. One thing I noted is that while other iPod type of players allow you to turn it all the way up, this box just screams at about 75% volume, which is more accurate of high end products. I did note some slight distortion at 90% but at that point it was too loud. The bass hits hard, amazingly so, for the size of this box.

Useability ****

I am not sure what happens, if it is my iPod or the Zep, but there are times the skip or RW buttons fail to go forward or ahead to a different song. Its not that often, but it happens enough to be slighty annoying.

Overall *****

This is a high end player for your iPod, iPhone, and even iPad which I tried out from a friend last week. It wasnt built to hold that, but it does work. Get this now if you are a fan of quality audio equipment.


Bonus:
Ok here is a cool bonus for you. Having a nice collection of music on your iPod is good, but not nearly as large as say Pandora. I use this almost excusively with Pandora now. Its like having an HD radio feature built in. This works on iPhone, iPod and iPad, in that you can download the app for free and enjoy all that music on this fantastic player.

Thanks for reading my review.

Lost Review:
I reviewed this 6 months ago and the review never posted. It had video and a very long writeup. After long searches by Amazon they can not find the original review. I wrote it on a friends machine and he did not have a backup. I guess thats impermanance for ya. This new review gets the gist with less fluff. - Thanks

I've had this for about a year (been a Bowers & Wilkins fan for about 12 years) and it's great for less critical listening sessions or just keeping the music pumping around the house.

A few things to note:
1. The room - as any true audio nut knows, the room is a huge part of the overall sound above very low level listening, a crappy room can sound bad with a $10,000 stereo, none the less a few hundred dollar gem like this. This works great in smaller rooms, say under 2,000 cu ft (or about 250 sq ft), ideally placed in a corner to enhance the bass or near the center of a wall to promote better stereo imaging. If the room is part of a open floor plan, expect less bass, that's just the way acoustics work.
2. Crap in = Crap out - This is an iPod dock, not a reference SACD player, proper vinyl setup, or the like. What you are feeding into is is typically very squashed, thin music, and it'll sound like that no matter where it's from. Re-rip your collection as Apple Lossless and you'll be much happier. Yes 800kbps on up takes up a lot more room, but the quality is night and day. If you can't hear the difference between your standard 128-192kbps downloads and CDs, you're probably not looking at this for anything but status or bragging rights anyway, in that case, go ahead and buy whatever looks cool. If you feed this thing decent audio and set it up in the proper way, you'll love it. I really enjoy mine even though I can go down to my sound room and listen to a proper B&W system in a room that was built from the ground up for pure audio quality.

All that said, I really do like the Zeppelin Mini and think it's a great deal for audio. However, if you've got the space, the full size Zeppelin does offer superb stereo imaging and better bass, but it's rather large for most people.

This is advertised and assumed to be one of the best Ipod docks out there although the "mini" edition of the Zeppelin does not quite garner the use of such a title. The mini's predecessor--the Zeppelin--is a worthy enough unit to be considered one of the elite and it can not be done justice going side to side with the mini. So you might say, "Well isn't that what the lower price tag is for?" Not Exactly. While listening to the mini and Zeppelin I found differences in the following:

1. The highs and mids in mini, although very crisp, are still underwhelming when comparing side by side to the Zeppelin. The mini really hits its stride with Jazz music but sort of tapers a bit with pop like tracks.
2. The bass does not, at all, come close to the Zeppelin. The Zeppelin can fill a room (a big room) with a slight boom while whelming it with orchestra like sound. The mini however meets its capacity for 'filling' in the space of maybe a small room. The bass that everyone seems to talk about the mini lacking is a complicated issue. It is not necessarily that the bass is not there, but that its construction seems to divert it through the back and its port hole. This was supposed to be a key feature and a new addition with the mini, however it just reverses what most people are used to. The port, which is located on the back of the mini, is basically a speaker for bass (instead of using a typical speaker it uses the airflow, from the subwoofer, to create the 'boom'). I assume, by some of the reviews, that people expect to hear and feel bass when facing the unit front-on. This is not how the unit is intended to be used hence my suggestion earlier of the construction being 'reversed'. To sum up the bass issue on this unit: In order to hear the bass you will have to turn it around. I believe it was meant to create a surround sound like presence in a room and contrary to what most people say on previous reviews about positioning the mini up against the wall--I would advise against, instead, position it towards the middle so that it can be at equal distance from all sides of the area. The mini still does not give quite the beat that the Zeppelin does in regards to bass, but it is there and somewhat nice and punchy, though not the deep rumbling most of us expect.
3. The construction, although high quality, does not have the same solid and heavy placement that the Zeppelin has.
4. The mechanism on the mini that allows the user to rotate the Ipod, seems to be somewhat flimsy in that with sustained use could stop working properly.

There you have the comparison with the Zeppelin. When comparing side by side with the Bose sound dock, I found the mini having somewhat of an edge, with cleaner highs and mids, and a little more bass.

Star Subtraction:

1/2 Star for price
1/2 Star for likely deterioration of the twisting mechanism
Possibly 1/2 star for bass construction, though I will leave that up to the buyer to decide because you have to "make room" for it.

This is a very good dock that is sleek, simple and comes complete with a nice compact (I would underline this if I could) quality of sound. The price makes this unit slightly less interesting, however if you are torn between the Bose and the mini, but simply cannot afford the Zeppelin, go for this one.

I spent about 6 months on and off researching iPod dock systems. I was willing to spend up to $300 to buy a device to play music stored on my iPhone 3G and iPd Nano, as I've transferred all music from CD's to iTunes on my MacBook, and our stereo speakers were old and needed replacement.
I checked Best Buy and was not happy with any of the products I could demo with my iPhone. They all seemed cheap and the sound ranged from tinny to too much bass. Interesting that the Bose display does not let you try your own music, only listen to a canned Bose music demo. Went to my local Apple store to see what they carried and listened to the Mini Zepp. Loved the sound quality, form factor and size so bought it from Amazon.
I couldn't be happier with this product. We put it on a table in our living room. It sounds great on low volume - I like to have it playing when reading. I can crank up the volume and hear it well in the kitchen and throughout our house. And of course, it looks awesome. It is perfect for us and fits our needs. I highly recommend.

Here's the short and sweet(!) review of this great speaker. The build quality of the Zeppelin Mini is terrific - black and stainless steel silver and very sleek. It looks like art piece on your bedside or living room table. It also sounds great, the best reproduction I've heard from a speaker this size for an MP3 player. It can fill a medium sized room very nicely,like a bedroom, but may be found lacking if you put it in a large living room. However, given the performance of the original Zeppelin which was much bigger, longer, and football shaped, this Mini version lacks the power. Some compromises were made to the speaker design to get it down to a smaller size, which diminished the punch the speaker puts out. Therefore, the price point seems little high to me given there are many systems which are just a notch below this sound at half the price.

I would still buy this Zeppelin Mini over the Bose Sound Dock which is at a similar price point. I do wish they had not compromised on the power in the new design.

I'm probably going to get slammed for this but I am having a hard time finding anything great to say about the mini Zeppelin. This is my first B&W product and I've heard nothing but great things about the company and their qaulity products so I was expecting to be blown away by the sound. when I received this a couple of months ago I quickly opened it and set it up in my living room. Not knowing where it should be set (thanks to no instructions) I put it in the center of the room to start. Fired up my Ipod and waited for the winderful sound to come out. Unfortunately, what came out was a tinny sound that was very directional (i.e. had to be standing in front of the speaker to hear it well).

I checked the speaker to look for adjustments but there aren't any. Made sure my Ipod's equalizer was set properly and it was. I decided maybe the center of the room was a bad idea so I found an area on my mantle to place this. Thought maybe it needed a wall behind it to bounce some bass so I could hear some deeper levels. Again, I was disappointed in what I heard.

Don't get me wrong, I know this is a small speaker and I am not going to be blown away from deep levels. And I understand that companies like BOSE tend to overdue the low levels which makes people believe it sounds good. However, the mini Zeppelin was just all around lacking and this was a 15x12 room. Not huge by any means. I brought my Logitech mini squeezebox to the room (its about half the size of the mini Zeppelin) and I was able to get better sound from that which is frankly confusing to me.

I am not a supprter of Bose products but I have had the luxury of listening to similar docking stations from the and I can say that they handle the low levels better and, more importantly, deal with directional sound much better than this B&W.

I held off on writing this review for a while as I wanted to give this unit a chance and maybe hope that there was a break in period or something that was required. After a couple of months listening to it, my opinion has not changed.

What I like about it:

1. It looks nice on my mantle

what I don't like about it:

1. Terrible low levels no matter how I adjust my IPOD settings
2. Sound is very directional. You need to place this at the back of a room to get full sound
3. Iphones will dock but do not get charged, at least my 3gs won't
4. remote is cute but has little function outside of volume control and skipping songs
5. There is no way to sort through songs or change artists when using this except directly on the Ipod. At this price point, that type of feature should be available through a remote, otherwise, you need to create very specific playlists or keep going to the speker to change the music.


Maybe I am missing some features and there are ways to compensate for the things that bother me about this docking station. However, lack of documentation makes it hard to figure out.

Think I will stock with my mini Squeezebox as my default portable home media player. More options, cheaper price and, suprisingly, better sound.

The makers of Zeppelin Mini are so confident in their product's user friendliness, they didn't even bother with a traditional manual. All you get for instructions is an 8x8" "quickstart" card, graphically detailing the 4 steps needed to get the Mini up and running with the iPod of your choice and what you need to do to make it work with your computer. Their confidence was justified. I had no trouble whatsoever and the 8x8" card was all that I needed.

I find the Mini to be a worthy, beautifully designed, well built, good quality sound, semi-portable iPod speaker system AND a spectacular amplified computer speaker. In either configuration, the Mini met my expectations and, in a couple of instances, it managed to actually surprise me with unexpected features and versatility.


CONTENTS, etc.

Off the box, you get the following:

- The Mini's body, showing the iPod dock in the front and the POWER, AUX and USB-B ports in the back.
- 4 dock adapters for the iPods that can't connect directly to the dock.
- An oval-shaped, small remote control with POWER, +, -, SKIP AHEAD, SKIP BACK and PLAY/PAUSE buttons.
- The AC adapter and its cable
- The Quickstart card
- A power cable to connect the AC adapter to the power source.
- A folded sheet with safety and warranty information in about 50 languages.

Conspicuously missing is a USB-A/USB-B cable required to connect the Mini to a computer. On a product THIS expensive I expected to see the cable included because this is a rather rare type of USB configuration and it's usually supplied by the manufacturer with their product. Amazon sells one as .... and it is supplied by many other vendors.

The English version of the warranty statement promises that the Mini will work for at least 2-years and it will be fixed if it doesn't unless... you drop it, it gets struck by lighting, you use it in some unusual ways, you abuse it, you allow someone else to try to fix it or you drop your sales receipt showing the date of purchase - so make sure you keep that. There's an 800 number you can dial in the US for warranty support.


SETUP AND OPERATION

The initial setup involves removing the plastic strip that prevents the remote's battery from draining while the product is being shipped and plugging the Mini into a power outlet. Once the iPod is connected to the dock, you can use the remote to play whatever you happen to have stored there, including movies. The dock's arm will rotate 90 degrees either to the right or left to allow for video watching.

The following iPods will plug directly into the dock: Classic, Nano 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation. With the supplied adapters you can attach the iPod Touch 1st and 2nd generations as well as the iPhone, iPhone 3G and 3GS.

Equally important is the Mini's ability to interface with a computer. When attached via the (not supplied) USB-A/USB-B cable, to my surprise and delight, the remote had the ability to PLAY/STOP and SKIP AHEAD/BACK, effectively controlling the Windows Media Player.


MY EVALUATION

I was impressed by the Mini's design, ease of setup and operation, its ability to support many iPod and iPhone devices and its ability to effectively act as the best computer speaker that I've owned so far.

While small in size, the Mini Zeppelin is heavy enough to stick to the desk's surface and avoid creating any unwanted vibrations. The sound is loud, clear and well balanced even though, my untrained ear is telling me that a little bit more bass would have helped. In most instances, taking advantage of your player's equalizer capabilities would get a sound nothing short of spectacular out such a small speaker package. The ability to control the Windows Media Player via the remote is a big plus for me because I expect to use the Mini as a computer speaker for at least 75% of the time.

A major positive is the Mini's ability to easily interface with a computer over the USB connection. Let's face it, a speaker set this good and this expensive just MIGHT outlast the current generation of iPods and it would be a shame if our investment's fate was completely tied to that of the an iPod which probably cost a fraction of what you paid for the Mini.

There is always room for improvement and a somewhat more authoritative bass range would bring the Mini closer to small speaker perfection. This may not be so easy to accomplish. However, throwing a USB cable into the box (they're cheap) should be easy and I do hope that Mr. Bowers and Wilkins, if they read this review, will consider doing so. Customers will love them more for it.

In the end, the shortcomings I mentioned are massively outweighed by the Mini's features, design and quality. I do love this product and Amazon's star rating for 'I love it' is 5 stars so that's what it gets.

I was among the early ones who pre-ordered this item to replace my aging Bose Dock(the docking section gets 'loose' after 3 years(bad design?) thus the sound is on and off sometimes).

I turned the Mini on and asked myself,"Where is the bass?" I thus went to my ipod touch's sound setting and manually turned on the bass; now I got some bass. Alas, it sounds awful; the speakers distorted. Also, several times I had to turn down the volume since suddenly the speaker started to get loud. One good note is every thing else about the mini is spectacular; design, treble, mid range and functions. I have B&W Surround Sound system for my home theaters for the past 13 years and they still sound extremely good. I am very puzzled and disappointed with this Z mini.

I gave it several more days to see if my ears can get use to this sound but finally decided to return the item for the original B&W Zeppelin.

***
The kinds of music I listen to are rock, acoustic, new age, jazz, and alternatives.

There are a lot of add-on speakers for iPods (and other MP3players) on the market. Most consist of tiny speakers that produce sound more akin to a 1960s transistor radio. A few have built in amplification that raises them to the level of the speakers that come with an inexpensive desktop computer. And a very few, liuke this unit, are really listenable.

I have long been a fan of B&W speakers- in fact, I have a pair of B&W D100s in my living room. B&W has for years made a wide range of speakers, from the fairly inexpensive up to real state of the art, like the $11,000 Nautilus 801s. While I didn't expect that sort of sound from this tiny tabletop unit, I assumed that it would certainly be better than the typical table radio. At the same time, how much volume and low bass can you expect from a box this size?

Quite a lot, as it turns out. B&W claims a low-end cutoff (6dB down) of 38Hz, which is pretty darn low- the low E of a double bass is 41Hz. The upper cutoff is 20KHz, more than sufficient to reproduce most of the highest harmonics in the orchestra. And the Zepplin Mini is able to play uncomfortably sound in my vaulted ceiling 14'x14' bedroom. So yes, there's bass and volume aplenty for home use. But what about the sound itself? Does it live up to the B&W reputation?

Again, I think the answer is a resounding yes. I listened to a range of pop, jazz, and classical music, and the Mini delivered on everything. True, you won't get the same slam of the bass drum in Stravinsky's Firebird out of these that you will from full-sized speakers, but the clarity and fidelity is first rate. Listening to a solo singer-guitarist or a small jazz ensemble you might be fooled into thinking you're listening to a good stereo with a pair of very good mini monitors. There's none of the harshness or "honkiness" you so often hear with iPod docking units. Just smooth, full spectrum reproduction.

One reason for this is that the Mini doesn't simply amplify the speaker output from the iPod, like most units. Instead, it starts with the digital stream from the iPod and converts this to an analog signal, using the Mini's own digital to analog converters. There's a lot more room in the Mini for D/A conversion circuitry than there is in an iPod. The conversion is done along with other processing to compensate for the audio characteristics of the Mini's speaker system, boosting and cutting where appropriate, and the result is sound significantly better than that of every other iPod docking station I've heard.

One tip, which is also applicable to most stereo speakers: Get the Mini away from a wall, or other hard surface that can reflect sound waves. Or if it has to sit near a wall, or on a large table surface, cover that surface with some sort of soft, sound absorbing material, like a felt wall hanging. This will really open up the sound and make it seem like it's coming from a larger source. This can make a surprisingly large difference. Try it.

The Mini rates pretty highly on functional design as well. Your iPod or iPhone simply plugs in to the dock on top which can be rotated 90 degrees to accommodate various iPods and phones. B&W supplies a half-dozen adapters that an be slipped on to fit the different physical forms of the various units, too. Smaller iPods, like the Nano and Shuffle, just clip on with no adapter needed.

Control is done via a tiny unit that nests in the palm of your hand, and to be honest, here I would have preferred to see something a bit larger, with larger control buttons. The buttons are only about 1/8" in diameter and the printing is tinny- certainly there was enough room to use larger symbols.

One particularly nice feature is the addition of the USB jack in the Mini, which allows it to function both as amplifier and docking station- something not seen in most iPod amplifiers. You can also stream audio directly from your computer to the Mini- great for playing music direct from your hard drive, or streaming radio broadcasts. I can see the Mini along with a laptop computer serving as a music center for a college student on a budget in a tiny dorm room or apartment.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with this box. Great sound, compact size, decent ergonomics, and easy to use. The only thing keeping me from awarding that fourth star is the price. Not that it's not worth it, but given that you can buy a fully functional netbook computer for the same price, it does seem a bit high. But given that there's nothing else I've heard at that price level that sounds even half as good, perhaps I'm being overly critical.