Earphones off, hands on
The iMainGo, distributed in the UK by AM Micro, differs in one significant way from most portable speakers – the iPod fits inside.
iPods of different sizes can be used – and made to fit snugly and safely within one half of the unit thanks to a series of customised cradles and foam inserts. The other half is occupied by an amplifier, four AAA batteries and stereo loudspeakers.
To get going, plug the 3.5mm jack into the headphone socket of the iPod, switch on the amp and zip the unit back up again.
A soft plastic window lets you view the iPod's screen while it's safely within and work the controls normally.
With a 30GB iPod tucked snugly
inside (click for larger image)The business end of the iMainGo isn't much bigger than a couple of packs of playing cards, so we weren't expecting much in terms of sound quality or volume but ended up being pleasantly surprised on both counts.
What's produced is a rich and detailed sound with considerably more bass than we'd have thought possible.
There's also enough volume to make the iMainGo usable in any room in an average house and - if you want to - annoy others in a public place.
Volume is controlled directly from the iPod - the iMainGo has no up/down controls - so the gadget's power-consumption remains the same whatever level of sound it's producing.
Rather pleasingly, we also discovered that the better the source, the better the sound – CDs did give noticeably better sound quality than iPod recordings made at iTunes' default quality.
What that means is that iMainGo has not been built down to the lowest-common denominator, so iPod users who opt for higher-quality/lower-compression settings when ripping CDs won't end up feeling disappointed.
The iMainGo has a quoted audio output of 2 x 2.5W and frequency response of 66Hz-18kHz. It can work with any portable audio device carrying a 3.5mm headphone socket - though don't bother with radio. Any unit that offers radio reception by using an earphone cable as an aerial won't work, simply because no such cable will be plugged in.
Also, if you use anything apart from an iPod, you won't get the custom-made fit that you do from the supplied cradles and foam inserts.
We tried iMainGo with a 30GB iPod, a CD player and a Walkman cassette player - and listened to just about every musical genre, except rap, without ever feeling that the unit was out of its depth.
It's not tiny but it's not huge,
either (click for larger image)This is the first portable speaker system we've tested, so we don't have any directly-comparable point of reference. However, a stereo radio of similar size and price sounded extremely thin and thoroughly weedy next to the iMainGo.
At 145(h) x 96(w) x 61(d)mm, an iMainGo isn't something you could slip unnoticed into a trouser pocket but it's definitely small enough to carry in a large coat or bung into a shoulder bag.
And, at 318g - with batteries but without iPod, foam inserts and cradles - you're hardly going to worry about the extra weight.
Battery life is said to be up to 30 hours - and our own testing confirms this is a pretty realistic claim. However, it would have been useful, when using iMainGo indoors, to have the option to save the batteries and run it from the mains but that's not possible without some sort of modding job since there is no power input.
Overall, though, not half bad. Move to page three - without passing iMainGo - for our final thoughts...
