iPod dock is true to its SoMa namesake: sleek, dark, and very, very loud
Your iPod excels at serving up music for one, but using it to entertain a crowd is problematic. Speaker docks are an option, but most are anemic at best, more suited to background music in your cubicle than serious listening. Audyssey’s South of Market dock changes all that. Taking inspiration from San Francisco’s famous party ‘hood—SoMa to the locals—known for bars and nightclubs that go bump in the night (and well into the next morning), Audyssey’s first consumer device delivers amazing sound and comes packed with some stellar features.
Audyssey makes sound-processing technologies baked into audio products you already own—Onkyo, Denon, NAD, and many other manufacturers use Audyssey’s secret sauce in their components. All that experience clearly shows. SoMa features a lengthy list of Audyssey’s stock-and-trade audio technologies. BassXT gooses bass performance from small drivers, while Dynamic EQ keeps the vocals up front, even at low volumes. But that’s just the beginning. A companion iOS app lets tinkering types tweak settings and create custom EQ profiles.
Big sound, small footprint.
Thankfully, you don’t need to know what’s going on under the hood to enjoy the clean sound from your iPod, iPhone, or other audio device. There’s a 30-pin dock connector for your Apple gear, as well as a 1/8-inch audio input (cable included) for using your Audyssey with practically anything else that makes sound. A rear-mounted USB port lets you connect to your Mac for charging and syncing with iTunes. Best of all, the SoMa features Bluetooth, so you can wirelessly transmit audio from any device that supports A2DP streaming—including a MacBook. We had no trouble pairing several different computers, iPhones, and iPod touches to the device. There’s even a microphone so you can use the SoMa as a Bluetooth speakerphone for your iPhone, or a VoIP speakerphone when connected to your Mac.
But all those bells and whistles don’t mean much if Audyssey’s dock can’t deliver in the sound department. We tested the SoMa with a variety of audio that ranged from high-bit-rate, lossless copies of classic Zeppelin to iTunes downloads of the latest Deadmau5 singles. In all cases, we were pleased with the exceptionally clear audio. And for such a small unit—5x9x9 inches—the SoMa offers a remarkably wide sound stage. Behind the black metal grills are two side-firing, 4-inch woofers and a pair of 3/4-inch tweeters. The four speakers delivered powerful, clean sound that didn’t distort, even at volume levels that were higher than we were comfortable with.
All things considered, the SoMa is nearly perfect. Its only shortcomings are small details: a remote that doesn’t offer the tactile feedback crucial for no-look operation, a missing manual that we had to go several pages deep into the Audyssey website to find, and a companion app that offers interesting, if not terribly crucial, options for tweaking the device’s settings. But those shortcomings are easy to overlook while listening to The Cure’s Disintegration at full tilt.
The bottom line. The South of Market Edition Dock offers sound big enough to fill a room—with desk-friendly extra features and a small footprint that will earn it a spot alongside your Mac.
South of Market Edition Audio Dock
Audyssey
$399.99
iPod, iPhone, or other audio device
Deep bass at all volumes. Can charge iPods and iPhones, and sync with iTunes on a Mac. Buttons on the dock for volume control and Play/Pause.
No printed documentation, leading to several rounds of “What does this light mean?” Companion app offers sound tweaks, but it’s more flashy than useful. Included remote is hard to navigate by feel.
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