Altec Lansing inMotion iM7 BLK, a Speaker System for iPod from Apple

One of the factors that have managed to push Apple to the place it occupies right now on the CE market in general and that of portable entertainment products in particular is the huge success that its iPod player has recorded over the years, the various incarnations of this product becoming somewhat of an icon of portable music for the entire world.

Given this situation, it was to be expected for other big names in the industry to come up with an assortment of peripherals and devices to accompany the iPod and enhance some of its various functions, the most common type of such third-party accessories being represented by either earphones or speaker systems.

And a set of speakers is exactly the product we'll talk about as follows, namely the inMotion iM7 BLK from Altec Lansing, which was actually a very pleasant surprise, due to the high quality of the sound it generates, its looks, and some of its other features on the side.

The inMotion iM7 and its all-black version, the iM7 BLK, are not exactly new products, since they've been around for quite some time now. However, they manage to provide some features a lot of users will certainly find interesting, whether we're talking about the design, the level of mobility they provide, or, last, but certainly not least, they are now quite affordable, compared with some of the newer models to arrive on the market.

We won't go into specific details regarding the design, the power or the level of versatility Altec Lansing's iPod-dedicated speaker can provide, because we'll detail each of these issues in the forthcoming chapters. We'll just say that this thing should really appeal to anyone, especially if we're talking about iPod owners who can't afford one high-end, latest-gen speaker system, at the same time looking for clear and powerful sound, good bass and a high level of portability.

Overall design features

Without a doubt, Altec Lansing's iM7-BLK speaker system is one attractive product, starting from the form factor itself and ending with the quality of the finishing. Hence, the speaker system has a very rounded shape, looking like one large tube equipped with an iPod universal connector and a couple of control options right in the middle. However, this unusual rounded shape is a lot more attractive than the “squarer” form factors displayed by most other similar devices.

Color-wise, as you've guessed right from the name itself, the iM7-BLK is an all-black device, which, grants it certain elegance (further enhanced by the form factor). Pretty much every component of the speaker system is painted in black, the only exception being the Composite interface on the back and the white writing on the front (including here the lines that point out the position of the control buttons).

The quality of the plastic is also very impressive, the device feeling great to the touch and looking even better, especially when in the right lighting. To make a long story short, this thing looks a lot better than we would expect, given the price point.

Size and portability

Theoretically, the iM7-BLK from Altec Lansing is a portable system, but the truth of the matter is that a lot of users might have some problems carrying this thing around. And that's because the gadget measures a good 16.75 inches (42.5 cm) in length and about 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) in diameter, at a weight of around 10 pounds (4.53 kilos) with no batteries installed.

In other words, it's a pretty big thing, which will certainly occupy a fairly large amount of space anywhere you might place it, and it's not really ideal for taking along when going on a trip where luggage space is limited.

Button and slot placement

It's quite interesting to note that the designers and engineers from Altec Lansing have placed a fairly small amount of buttons on the speaker system itself, leaving most of the control options for the remote control.

So, practically, the only buttons we can encounter on the top side of the iM7-BLK are the power switch and the volume adjustment buttons, the latter providing a fairly good level of sensitivity when pressed. In the immediate vicinity of the power switch, there's also a blue activity LED, which informs the user whether the device is powered or not.

One relatively bothering thing was the fact that you can't really “feel” or “hear” the subtle differences of adjusting the volume, since there are no “clicking” sounds. Guess that you'll just have to keep pressing the buttons until the audio level reaches a comfortable level, since there are no visual indicators of the values you're adjusting.

The device sports two “slots,” if we can call them that, which have the purpose of housing the 8 D-size batteries used for powering the iM7-BLK when not connected to the mains. Both slots are placed on the rear side, on the left and right extremities, respectively.

Connectivity options

As expected, the most important interface of the iM7-BLK is represented by the iPod universal connector, which is placed right on the front side, in the center of the speaker system. However, the gadget from Altec Lansing delivers other connectivity options, all of which are placed on the rear side, underneath the rubber grip used for carrying the speaker system around.

So, users can also make good us of the Composite and S-Video interfaces in order to hook up the system to a TV set, while the Line-in audio interface is very useful for connecting an audio player/MP3 player/PMP to the system (other than the iPod, of course).

Remote control


As mentioned above, the remote control offers a lot more options than the main body of the speaker system. So, besides a secondary set of Power and Volume controls, the remote can control the specific amounts of Bass and Treble the speaker system outputs, as well as certain playback options, including Play/Pause, Fast Forward and Rewind.

Unfortunately, the remote has two major flaws. First of all, despite being quite slim and thin, it's also rather ugly, not really fitting the attractive external design of the iM7-BLK. Second, its functioning range is absolutely appalling, namely just around 10 feet (or 3 meters), which is far from being of any use, especially if you've installed the audio system in a larger room.

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