Thanks to Kevin Hunt | Special to the Chicago Tribune
Too many things can go wrong when a manufacturer bundles a clock radio, speaker system and iPod dock into something called a tabletop music system.
You never know what until you take it home. Sometimes, setting the alarm clock is like decoding the inner workings of Windows Vista. Almost always, the AM-FM radio stinks. The speaker system isn't much better. And the iPod dock, a barely functional hood ornament, only lures buyers.
At least it tells time.
If only they all could be like Boston Acoustics' Horizon Duo-i, a dual-alarm clock with a superb AM-FM tuner, speakers that sound like actual speakers and the obligatory iPod dock for $200. It's more sensible than Chestnut Hill's extravagant ($499) George Music System and flat-out better than XtremeMac's Luna (now the Luna X2, but still a relative bargain at $120) — two other clock-docks I've auditioned.
Boston Acoustics spends much of its time at company headquarters in Peabody, Mass., dreaming up new speaker models, but in recent years expanded into smartly designed table radios. The Duo-i is its first with an iPod dock. For the lone person in the United States without an iPod, the $150 Duo (the same radio, without a dock) is just for you.
Aside from everything it does right, the Duo-i keeps it simple. Among the controls, just below the digital display, are knobs for power-volume, mode (to select AM, FM, iPod or whatever else you might connect to the Duo-i) and manually tuning into a radio station or finding a song on your iPod. Five tiny push buttons offer 10 FM and five AM presets. Two more push buttons, flanking the volume knob, activate the alarm settings. (A supplied remote control also operates the Duo-i.)
The snooze bar is unlike any I've seen: It's the entire stretch of touch-sensitive aluminum trim that borders the Duo-i's face. You'll never miss this snooze bar, even in the earliest, groggiest stage of your awake cycle. And the Duo-i keeps the time and its settings during a power outage for up to two days.
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