Games And Technology: Phiaton MS 600

TypeiPod# of channels2Separate subwooferNoControllerWirelessPower rating front satellite25 watts RMS per channelMore

Some audio manufacturers operate under the correct assumption that a majority of people will happily confuse striking visual design with top-notch audio performance. It's not that, say, Tivoli makes poor audio products—some of them are quite good—but the majority of its offerings are, first and foremost, design pieces. While Phiaton has made excellent-sounding headphones in the past, the $299 (list) MS 600, the company's first foray into iPod speaker docks, is definitely a design piece. Its audio performance lacks low-end response and its controls—both on the remote and on the dock itself—leave much to be desired. But just look at this thing!

Design
The MS 600 looks a bit like a spaceship. Its 5 by 14 by 7.5 inch, 4.8 pound frame balances on four metallic legs and would blend well with the furniture in 2001: A Space Odyssey or A Clockwork Orange. Two speaker cylinders flank the docking area, with black (or red) cloth circular grilles hiding slightly-upward angled drivers. The controls are lined up in front of the docking area. Five metallic buttons recessed in black glossy plastic include Track Backward, Play/Pause, Track Forward, Volume Down, and Volume Up. Behind the dock area, a Power button is situated to the right and glows blue when the system is powered on. Connectivity is about as minimal as the design: all you get is a connector for the AC power adapter and a 3.5mm audio input. There's no video out, so you can't send movies to your TV and use this system for audio. There's also no subwoofer out—a sad situation considering the serious lack of bass response here.

The MS 600 comes with four different tray adapters for various iPod models. Surprisingly, this dock only carries the "Made for iPod" certification from Apple. Since it lacks "Works with iPhone" certification, you will likely encounter GSM interference at times if you choose to dock your iPhone. These days, it's inexcusable for an iPod dock not to include iPhone certification. And for a $300 dock, it's ridiculous.

The remote control is also visually striking—red buttons arranged to form a large circle offer playback and track navigation, while a smaller Power button sits in the middle of the black plastic body. Not to bring up the price again, but a $300 iPod dock should include a remote that offers full iPod menu navigation. This one doesn't. But Phiaton isn't the only company guilty of this sin. B&W's pricey Zeppelin Mini ($399.95 list, 3.5/5 stars) notably lacks a useful remote control as well. Also, the range is weak—sometimes a button press registers, sometimes it doesn't. This makes the remote even more annoying.

Audio Performance
In the current era of booming bass, manufacturers often apply dynamic compression algorithms to audio output—this is a fancy way of saying they sculpt the dynamics of the music so that as you raise the volume, the bass is squashed to avoid distortion. When there's too much compression, everyone can hear it—if you've ever heard the volume dip on a song after a heavy kick drum or a loud vocal, then you're hearing compression in full effect. The Phiaton MS 600 remains pure, with no compression added to its signal at all. Ostensibly, this is an audiophile's dream, but the MS 600 doesn't need any compression for the simple reason that it doesn't produce enough low-end to distort. At least, you'd think it wouldn't distort because it has such weak bass response, but it does anyway.

At moderate listening levels, you will hear a very crisp, defined sound in the mids and highs, but there is nearly no low end presence. Kick drums sound like pencils tapping desktops, electric basses are clearly playing bass lines but sound more like detuned guitars. You needn't be a bass addict to be annoyed by this—if you even appreciate a smidge of bass, it isn't here. So, on a song you know has heavy bass, like the Knife's "Silent Shout", if you turn the volume up to see if you can tease a bit of low-end of the double-barreled speaker system, you will be disappointed with the results. To be fair, many systems suffer from distortion when playing "Silent Shout," but most of them do so while offering some semblance of low-end. This is not the case with the MS 600.

It's hard to compare the Phiaton MS 600 to anything I've reviewed—it looks great, costs as much as some top-notch iPod docks, but sounds like a sub-$100 product. If it's bass without distortion you seek, check out the identically priced Harman Kardon Go+ Play Micro ($299 list, 4/5 stars), which can deliver clean low-end at high volumes, but not in an overpowering way. For subwoofer-level bass, check out our Editors' Choice, the same-priced Altec Lansing Mix iMT800 ($299.99 direct, 4/5 stars). In the luxury iPod dock realm, most of the systems are more balanced and offer more subtle low end, like B&W's Zeppelin Mini. If you're willing to spend $300, do yourself a favor and check some of the aforementioned alternatives—all of them provide a better listening experience.