FRED MANTEGHIAN BLOG

Do you find that others in your home don't bond with electronics as well as you do? Do you get calls at work that start with "how do I . . ." and end with "your [optional expletive deletive] [brand and function of your last electronic purchase]?

You're not alone. We, dear readers, are the hard-core. Everyone else, is not.

I bought Gina an iPod last year for Christmas. She loves it. She went out and bought a dock with speakers and thought it would be nice to bring to the office. It was cheap. How did it sound? Cheap too. She returned it. Even for the office, it wasn't going to cut it.

That's the problem with little docks. No matter what they promise, they can't break the laws of physics without (and I'm thinking of the $3,000 Ferrari red Meridian F80) also breaking the bank.

mStation thinks big. Walk right up and plug your iPod into their Stereo 2.1 Tower without bending over. The mStation has 100 watts of power in a five channel amplifier. The most powerful of the amps drives the 5-1/4" woofer in the large center tube. Each of the smaller tubes contains two 2" midrange drivers and a 1" tweeter. The brunt of the power, 30 watts, goes to power the woofer. Then the two midranges drivers and single tweeter get 15 watts each, per side. I know, it doesn't quite add up to 100 watts, but who's counting.

Bass is specified down to a very useful 50 hz (-5 Hz). There's a remote control that's about the size of an iPod, but a fraction of its weight. Play, pause, bass, treble, volume, next and previous tracks and power. That's all you need. Want to pick another artist, initiate shuffle play, things like that? Rub the magic iPod.

Each of the units three tubes are extruded aluminum. The 2.1 Stereo Tower weights 21 lbs, stands 43" tall and everyone that saw it said the same thing. "Cool!"

Assembly was minimal and easy. Just screw in the small midrange/tweeter towers and plug it in. mStation provides a USB connection and a line input as well, for hooking up computers and other portable music players without docking, respectively.

You can angle the midrange/tweeter sections horizontally up to 45 degrees from straight ahead. I faced them out and put the 2.1 Stereo Tower pretty close to a corner in the dining section of a very large kitchen. The bass was more than ample, in fact, I had to turn it down more than once. This is no fainting violet of a speaker.

Mating substantial bass to the rest of a system can be problematic, but the 2.1 Stereo Tower is extremely well balanced. While low notes are powerful, the midrange and upper frequencies are still open and very inviting. In fact, I'd use the word "crystalline" to describe the sound. There is no bass overhang into the midrange, no chesty sound to male vocals. I listened to hours and hours of music, turning off the TV in the kitchen every chance I got to fire up the iPod. Al Stewart never sounded so good!

The quality of the drivers is surprisingly good. No ringing, no fatigue from extended listening. The system never, ever sounded cheap. In fact, I find it amazing that mStation can build and sell the 2.1 Stereo Tower for only $300. Its nearest competitor, at nearly twice the price, would be Bose. But the last piece of Bose gear I liked were a pair of 501 speakers my house-mate Ted had in college. Now those sounded good. Since then? Not so impressed really. Besides, the Bose and just about anything else will chew up the better part of an end table, where as the mStation 2.1 Stereo Tower can stand on it's own two feet!

If you're looking for a really great addition to your home electronics arsenal, one that is simple enough for your grandmother to use, loud enough that she can hear it, and good enough that you'll love it too, I can't recommend the mStation 2.1 Stereo Tower more highly.