JBL makes two nearly identical speakers, with names that highlight their key difference: the $200 SoundFly Air lets you stream audio to the speaker using Apple’s AirPlay technology, while the $180 SoundFly BT uses Bluetooth, instead.

With the exception of that core, but outwardly invisible, difference, the two SoundFly speakers are nearly identical. Each is small and white with a fabric grille (lighter gray on the BT, darker gray on the Air), and each is designed to plug directly into a wall outlet. In other words, the speaker is its power cord and power brick: You plug the whole shebang into the wall. The speakers are designed to throw their sound upward, so they should work even with outlets positioned closer to the floor.

Each SoundFly ships with the appropriate plug adapters for your country—in the U.S., you get both two- and three-prong plugs—and each measures 7.5 inches wide, 2.8 inches tall, and 3.6 inches deep and weighs slightly less than one pound.

Both SoundFly models have a pair of touch-capacitive buttons. The first is actually integrated into the JBL logo in the center of the speaker grille and acts as a power button. On the SoundFly BT, the button simply toggles power on and off. On the SoundFly Air, pressing the power button briefly puts the speaker to sleep; you can wake it by either pressing the button again or by sending AirPlay audio to it. Pressing and holding the Air’s power button for three seconds puts the unit into Eco-Standby mode, from which you must manually wake it up by pressing the button again. Both SoundFly models automatically go to sleep after ten minutes of inactivity.

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Bowers & Wilkins’s $400 Z2 is the apparent successor to the company’s Zeppelin Mini, but instead of a 30-pin dock connector, the Z2 features a Lightning-connector dock and AirPlay wireless streaming. Supporting the latest iPhone, iPod touch, and iPod nano models, the Z2 is available in black or white glass-filled ABS. (The black model is available now; the white model won’t ship until June.)

Like the earlier Zeppelin mini, the Z2 measures 7.1 inches tall, 12.6 inches wide, and 3.9 inches deep; it weighs 5.7 pounds. The speaker looks cool, with a distinctively angled round top, and a pleasantly curved recessed area surrounding the Lightning dock itself. On the bottom right of the speaker sits a single LED, which glows red when the unit is asleep, glows pinkish when it’s connected to Wi-Fi, and indicates other statuses during setup and troubleshooting.

In front of the Lightning dock sit two tiny, slightly raised, capacitative buttons for controlling the system’s volume. These buttons are some of the first touch-sensitive speaker buttons I haven’t hated: Because you can see and feel them, there’s never any doubt that you’re pushing in the right spot, and the buttons themselves are responsive.

On the back of the Z2, you’ll find an ethernet port, a reset button, a 1/8-inch (3.5mm) auxiliary-input jack (for connecting a wired audio source), and a connector for the Z2’s power adapter.

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Bose’s $350 SoundLink Air Digital Music System, an AirPlay version of the company’s venerable SoundDock speaker docks, is a somewhat portable speaker system. I say “somewhat” because though it can be powered by a battery, the SoundLink Air doesn’t include one—Bose’s rechargeable lithium-ion battery is a $90 option. My review unit didn’t include the battery, so I couldn’t test the SoundLink’s portable features.

The all-black SoundLink Air measures 12.1 inches wide, 6.8 inches tall, and 4.0 inches deep; it weighs 4.7 pounds. I rarely comment on power bricks in my speaker reviews, but the SoundLink Air’s is worth mention (sadly, not to praise it): Though I appreciate the integrated cable-storage groove, the wall-wart style power brick is massive: 3 inches tall, 3 inches wide, and 2 inches tall. That width is the biggest problem, since it blocked at least two—and often three—outlets on the power strips I tried it with; it also blocks both outlets in a standard two-outlet wall plate.

On the front of the SoundLink Air, near the top, sits its single LED, which indicates whether the speaker is successfully connected to a Wi-Fi network. When I first started testing the system, I thought there were no buttons save for the Reset button on the base of the unit. In fact, though, a pair of nearly invisible volume buttons sit on the right-hand side of the unit. You use either your AirPlay audio source or the included thin, plastic remote (4.3 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide) to control playback. The remote includes power, mute, volume, auxiliary-input, play/pause, previous, and next buttons.

If you’re paying close attention, you’ll note that this means that there is no power button on the speaker itself. Unless you want to unplug and later plug in the Sound Link Air to turn it off and on, you’ll need to use the power button on the remote.

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When the Remote app first launched in 2008, it could control your Mac and Apple TV’s music from afar—but that was about it. The program has come a long way in four years: Version 3.0, which launched alongside iTunes 11, gives the whole app a good polish along with a new iPad interface and a few new features that tie in nicely with Apple’s latest desktop media manager.

Feature-rific

The Remote app retains most of the features you might know and love from version 2.4: You can connect to your iTunes or Apple TV libraries via Home Sharing, control content playback, create and edit playlists, tap into other shared music libraries, trigger the visualizer remotely, and create Genius playlists.

Version 3.0 takes all of those features, adds a few tricks, and incorporates iTunes 11 improvements. From the start, the icons in the Remote library have been updated to reflect iTunes' new silver icon; you’ll also spot colored icons in the iPad version of the app.

The Remote app’s biggest new feature is support for Up Next, iTunes 11’s live playlist/jukebox. Once you start playing a song from the app (or connect the app to a library already playing music), iTunes generates an Up Next list of songs. You can add to the list or edit it at any time by tapping the Up Next icon and choosing the Add or Edit button, respectively. The Up Next icon also holds a button for viewing your listening history, in case you want to hear a certain song again.

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Pioneer’s $399 A3 XW-SMA3-K, known to its friends—OK, referred to by me—as simply the A3, is an impressive AirPlay speaker system. The all-black, rounded-rectangular prism is 12.6 inches wide, 7.1 inches tall, and 5.8 inches deep, and it weighs 7 pounds, 11 ounces.

On the front base of the unit are, on the left, several status LEDs, with a strip of touch-sensitive controls to the right. It’s a bit silly that the LEDs for On, Input, Network, and battery level sit on the left, while the buttons to toggle some of those those statuses (Standby/On and Input) sit on the opposite side. Why not put each of those LEDs next to the corresponding button? The only other touch controls, which sit next to Standby/On and Input, are Volume Up and Down.

The A3 includes a tiny, wireless remote control. The remote includes a Standby/On button, along with play/pause, previous, next, and volume buttons.

The rear of the A3 sports a built-in handle for toting the speaker around. There’s also a rotatable Wi-Fi antenna, a USB port, an ethernet port, and a 1/8-inch (3.5mm) auxiliary input. Those ports are covered with stiff, rubber flaps, because the A3 is water-resistant. Specifically, it’s IPX2 rated, which means that it can sustain vertically dripping water when tilted up to 15-degrees; Pioneer warns you not to place the unit in water, splash it, expose it to rain, or use it in a humid environment (like a bathroom). So it can get wet, in theory, but it probably shouldn’t.

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Libratone's Zipp is another entry in the continually expanding market of colorful and unusually shaped wireless, portable speakers. However, while most of those speakers use Bluetooth, the Zipp uses Apple's AirPlay technology; and instead of being a short, wide speaker system, the Zipp is a tall cylinder.

That cylinder is 10.2 inches tall, 4.8 inches across, weighs four pounds, and is covered in...wool. In fact, the Zipp surely gets its name from the colorful, zippered, wool covers you can dress it in. The $400 version of the Zipp includes one wool cover (either gray or red), while a $450 version includes three covers: either red, blue, and dark gray; or yellow, pink, and dark gray. (Other colors are available separately from Libratone.) These covers work fine, and they’re easy to put on and take off. In theory, they’re fun and offer easy-to-replace protection and personalization, though I'd likely just pick my color when I purchase the speaker and never swap it out.

The white round top of the Zipp remains exposed even when the speaker system is zipped up in its cover. On that white surface sits a button with Libratone’s singing-bird logo. You press the main button once to wake up the speaker or, if it's already awake, to mute the AirPlay volume level on the source device. Press and hold the button to turn the Zipp off.

Surrounding that button is a circle hosting volume controls and a LED status indicator. The light pulses when the Zipp is asleep, shines solid when the Zipp is playing music, pulses yellow when the Zipp is booting, and pulses red when the Zipp is in trouble—either due to Wi-Fi issues or because the battery level is very low.

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I’m not an audio purist. My desire is that whatever I’m listening to should sound good, where “good” is defined somewhat subjectively as “pleasing to my ears.”

SRS Labs is a part of the increasingly popular consumer audio-enhancement market: The company uses digital trickery to make the audio you listen to sound better, through effects that accentuate bass presence, maximize stereo separation, eliminate volume spikes, and perform other acoustic modifications. Audiophiles object to such effects, saying that they artificially detract from what the audio’s original creator—the musician, the movie soundtrack producer—had in mind. But again: I just want things to sound good.

SRS works its audio magic in various third-party hardware devices—such as the iWow 3D ( ) and iWow-U ( )—and the company offers an iTunes plug-in that competes with Bongiovi Acoustics’s Digital Power Station ( ). But with its Audio Essentials software, previously for Windows PCs and newly available for the Mac, SRS looks to improve the audio for any sound that your Mac can generate.

Overall, it’s merely okay.

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When I tested the SpeechWare TableMike for the microphones for speech recognition buying guide, I used the company’s 3-in-1 model. SpeechWare has now released new versions of their microphones, including the USB 6-in-1 TableMike, which includes a number of features and options that are not in the 3-in-1 model, such as an optional foot/hand switch that turns the microphone on and off.

With wideband audio and noise cancellation, the 6-in-1 TableMike is designed specifically for speech recognition, and you can set it on your desk with the tip of the microphone more than a foot from your mouth and get excellent accuracy. The microphone comes with a 20-inch boom that bends at two points: just above the base, and just below the tip, making it easy to position the mike.

Working with the 6-in-1 TableMike is extremely simple. You place it on your desk and then put the boom in position in front of your mouth; this can be as far as 18 inches and still offer excellent recognition. The microphone base has two settings: one for speech recognition, and one for normal audio, such as talking on Skype or recording podcasts. Once you’ve adjusted the microphone’s volume in Dragon Dictate or Dragon Express, you’re ready to go.

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Apogee, the company responsible for such stellar audio hardware products as the Jam ( ) iOS guitar interface, One ( ) USB audio interface and microphone, and GiO ( ) guitar footswitch controller has released the $249 Mic, a diminutive microphone that’s compatible with both computers and iOS devices. While both portable and flexible, Mic’s trade-off is sound that’s good for many, but not all, portable recording situations.

Specs and accessories

As with every Apogee product I’ve used, Mic is solidly built and attractive. Mic supports 24-bit, 44.1/48 kHz audio and can easily fit in a pants pocket. On the right side of this condensor microphone you find a Gain wheel that allows you to adjust input volume. Near the middle of the mic you find an LED status light, which indicates when MiC is connected but not ready (blue), connected and ready to go (green), and when the input level is too high (red).

Included in the box are a .5 meter dock connector cable for connecting Mic to your iOS device (supported devices are iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and the original iPad and iPad 2), a 1 meter (40-inch) USB cable, and a small desktop tripod. I would have liked to see a standard microphone stand adapter included as well, as the desktop stand isn’t useful in most recording situations—it's too low for voice recording and you'll need a boom stand for recording most other instruments. If you want that adapter you can purchase it separately for $10 or you can wait for the $249 Mic Pro Kit (available soon), which contains not only the Mic, but the adapter, a Mic carrying case, and two 3 meter connector cables (a USB cable and one for connecting to iOS devices).

Sound quality

As for its recording quality, it can be quite good for capturing acoustic instruments if you’re careful about its placement. I used it to record my grand piano and found that if I placed it in the middle of the piano’s collapsed music rack and opened the piano’s lid, it recorded a good overall sound—not as good as using two microphones suspended over the strings as you’d do in a more professional setting, but that’s not an option with an iPhone or iPad's microphone.

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If you’re looking to build your own iPod or iPhone stereo, AirPlay audio system, or desktop audio system, you could buy self-powered speakers, such as computer speakers or studio monitors. But with a small integrated amplifier, which combines a preamplifier’s volume-control and source-switching features with a power amplifier for driving speakers, you can take advantage of the vast selection of passive (non-amplified) bookshelf speakers, which range from inexpensive, do-it-yourself speaker kits to slick-but-pricey audiophile models. Such speakers are often found as part of a small home audio system, but they can also be right at home in your bedroom, kitchen, or office—even on your desk.

Small, inexpensive amplifiers usually produce around 20 watts per channel when paired with 8-ohm speakers (the most common impedence for compact speakers). While a walk through your favorite big-box store might suggest that amplifier power ratings in the hundreds of watts are necessary, a 10- or 20-watt amplifier is usually more than enough power to fill a normal-sized room with sound.

While I’ll be looking at a few dedicated small amplifiers in a future review, I recently had a chance to test a number of models that also include a built-in digital-to-analog converter (DAC). This feature makes these models particularly useful as part of a computer-based audio system, or when paired other digital components such as Apple’s AirPort Express, as the DAC extracts the source’s digital audio signal—avoiding the source’s electrically noisy internal components—and uses higher-quality circuitry to convert this signal to an analog signal that the amplifier can send to the speakers. Each of these models also includes a built-in headphone amplifier separate from the main amplifier—this dedicated circuitry should do a better job of driving headphones than the built-in headphone jack on a computer, iPhone, iPod, or other device, and also allows use of the built-in DAC when listening to headphones.

We tested four small integrated-amplifier/DAC combinations from three different companies. Each is smaller than a standard stereo component and can provide enough power to drive a pair of bookshelf speakers to reasonable listening volumes (and, depending on the combination of amp and speaker, even to unreasonable ones) in a small- or medium-size room. However, the four models vary widely in price, design, features, and sound quality.

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In the Buying guide: Microphones for speech recognition article I wrote last December, I left out one type of microphone: handheld mics. Philips recently released Mac OS X software for their SpeechMike Pro LFH3200 handheld microphone allowing it to be used with Macs and with Nuance's Dragon Dictate ( ), but not with Dragon Express ( ).

The SpeechMike Pro is a descendant of the earliest dictaphones: it is a handheld microphone that offers a number of buttons to control dictation. Unlike other microphones, this type of device requires that you maintain your hand in an appropriate position. While there's a certain amount of wiggle room, you should try and keep the mike about 4 to 6 inches from your mouth. Depending on the noise around you, you may be able to hold it further or closer to your mouth. With the SpeechMike Pro at the appropriate distance, its accuracy is excellent, and among the best of the many microphones I have tested.

While the need to hold something in your hand may be seen as a constraint, it can actually be very helpful in certain situations. For example, if you are doing research, moving back and forth among books and computer screens, being able to hold this mike always in front of your mouth is practical. While a headset would offer the same position, the SpeechMike Pro has a number of buttons allowing you to control dictation, giving you more than just a microphone.

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I love music and I love bicycling, but it’s hard to find a satisfactory way that’s both safe and enjoyable to combine the two. Earbuds and headphones, besides being illegal in many places, make it hard to hear what’s going on around you. Tunebug’s $120 Shake aims to offer a solution by turning your helmet into a surround-sound speaker.

I was initially intrigued by the Tunebug Shake because it seemed to offer the possibility of a personal “soundsphere” that wouldn’t completely cut me off from the outside world (and wouldn’t be illegal, either). You strap the Shake—a small 0.85-inch tall, 2.3-inch triangle—to your helmet with the included Velcro straps or mount. You can either run a cord from the Shake to your music player or pair it via Bluetooth to your iPhone, iPod touch, or other Bluetooth-enabled device.

In theory, as the Tunebug Shake vibrates from the music, your helmet will resonate sympathetically to become a loudspeaker (similar to the Tunebug Vibe [ ], which is designed for other types of surfaces). Touch-sensitive controls let you adjust the volume and turn the device on and off. For the most part, it works. What became obvious, however, is that my bike helmet has lousy bass. Then again, my helmet wasn’t designed for head banging, but rather to keep me from banging my head. Unless you get a special—but non-existent—bike helmet manufactured by Bose or Altec Lansing, you can forget about bass response (although my dental work occasionally attempted to fill the bass chair if I turned up the volume too much).

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When Apple announced GarageBand for iPad ( ) back in March 2011, the company showcased the $99 Apogee Jam as a way to connect your electric guitar or bass to your iPad or iPhone.

The dock connector provides a higher quality connection with less crosstalk than the headphone jack. Sonoma WireWorks already had a dock connector guitar interface, the GuitarJack, but it only worked on the iPhone 3G and 3Gs as well as the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod Touch. A new version, the Guitar Jack Model 2, will work with iPhone 4 and 4th generation iPod Touch, but has not yet been released.

A little bigger than a Bic lighter, the Apogee Jam has a clean and simple design, and a 1/4-inch input on the bottom lets you connect your electric guitar or bass using a standard instrument cable. A connector on the top allows you to connect one of two included cables: a 1 meter USB 2.0 cable that connects to your Mac or a 0.5 meter cable that connects to your iPhone or iPad's dock. A gain slider on the side of the Jam lets you easily adjust your input level, while a small multicolor LED flashes red if your level is too high, green when connected and ready to play, or blue if connected to your iOS device or Mac, but not ready to play. The Jam is bus-powered, so no battery or external power is required.

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Denon's $600 RCD-N7—also known as the RCD-N7 Network Ready Receiver/CD Wi-Fi Network Streaming AM/FM/CD Player With Integrated iPod Dock—is a small, powerful device for managing audio from just about any source that comes in your choice of white or black. In addition to an iPhone/iPod dock, a CD player, and an AM/FM tuner, the RCD-N7 can stream audio—via Wi-Fi or ethernet—from Internet radio, several online music services, and, thanks to integrated AirPlay, from your iOS devices and from your iTunes library on your computer. The unit's built-in amplifier supplies 65 Watts per channel at 4 ohms, which equates to roughly 33 Watts per channel at the more-common 8-ohm speaker rating. Which means the system is designed for use with bookshelf-size speakers or very efficient full-size speakers.

Unlike most AirPlay-enabled products we've tested, the RCD-N7 isn't a speaker dock, but rather a full-featured, two-channel receiver—and then some. Looking a bit like a super-sized Mac mini, the RCD-N7 measures 4.4 inches tall, 11 inches wide, and just under a foot deep. On the top of unit sits a hinged cover; opening it exposes an iPhone/iPod cradle. The unit’s front face hosts a tray-loading CD player (remember those?); a USB port; a 1/8-inch (3.5mm) auxiliary-input jack (for connecting an analog audio source); a similarly sized headphone jack; an LED display; and Power, Source, Eject, Play/Pause, Volume Up and Down, and menu-navigation buttons. The CD player supports audio CDs as well as WMA, MP3, FLAC, CD-R, and CD-RW discs. The USB port lets you play music hosted on an MP3 player (including an iPod, iPhone, or iPad), a flash drive, or a hard drive.

The back of the RCD-N7 hosts a slew of additional ports. You get banana-plug-style speaker posts for the left and right channels, a pre-amp subwoofer output (for connecting an external subwoofer), one set of RCA stereo-audio outputs, two sets of RCA stereo inputs, an optical (digital) audio input, and connections for AM and FM antennas—an AM loop antenna and an FM wire antenna are included. There’s also an ethernet port and a spot to attach the included Wi-Fi antenna. (Denon offers a set of matching speakers, the SC-N7 Speaker System, but the RCD-N7 works with any standard, unpowered speakers.)

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Samson’s $99 Meteor Mic couldn’t be much cuter. This retro, shiny, capsule-shaped USB microphone easily fits into a large pocket, bag, or purse. It records 16-bit 44.1/48kHz audio, includes a 3mm headphone port on the back, a volume dial for that headphone port on the front, a convenient Mute button, an LED that indicates gain peaks, power, and mute; a tripod mount on the bottom; and three rubber-tipped legs that fold out from the side. More? Okay, it requires no driver to work with a Mac and it operates flawlessly when jacked into an iPad via Apple’s $29 iPad Camera Connection Kit USB adapter ( ) (for both input and output).

The Meteor Mic would be a bit of welcome audio convenience except for this one thing: Its diminutive stature. Place it on a desk or table, sit in a chair in front of that desk or table, and you’re going to tower over it enough that when it comes time to record, you’ll either pick up a lot of room noise because you’re so far away from the mic or you’ll have to hunker over the thing so you can get decent sound from it. You could, of course, attach it to a microphone stand, but it’s even too short for most desktop microphone stands. Placing it atop a pile of books would certainly do the trick, but doing so is a little inelegant.

If I must take another swing at this mic I’ll also say that while I love having a Mute button—a feature I’d like to see on more USB microphones—whenever you press it, you can very definitely hear it. I’m a habitual throat-clearer and I need a button like this when recording podcasts. But in its current implementation it would do nothing to help when later editing my recorded audio. The difference is that I’d have to edit out the button clicks rather than my throat clearing. This sound is more acceptable when you're using the microphone for something like Skype and iChat conversations.

Macworld’s buying advice

The Meteor Mic sounds fine, however its size cuts both ways. It’s small enough that you can easily take it with you, but once you’ve taken it where you want it, it’s difficult to place it in a good location unless you also bring along a mic stand.

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The Gemini FirstMix USB MIDI Controller is a small, easy-to-use tool for aspiring digital DJs to learn the basics using songs from their own iTunes library. The FirstMix Controller has two decks for scratching or queuing up songs, a mixer, and several built-in effects. And while it’s missing some of the features of many higher-end controllers, the First Mix offers a fun way to gain some rudimentary DJ skills.

Priced at $100, the First Mix is a piece of cake to set up. It's compact at 14 by 5.25 by 1.75 inches and a little over a pound and a half. It has a non-removable USB cable that connects to your Mac and powers the unit.

Install the included MixVibes Cross LE software and you’re ready to start importing songs into your MixVibes Collection. The software can scan your iTunes library and make those songs available, too. It analyzes your files for beats per minute and peak volume. Having the beats per minute information, along with the tempo tools provided, you can automatically match the beats per minute between songs for smooth transitions. You can create and save playlists of songs, and even record your mixes to your Mac’s hard drive.

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Sonos, the company that creates home-wide wireless streaming music systems, has released the Play:3, a $299 powered speaker that incorporates nicely into the rest of the Sonos family. With a Play:3 jacked into a router via an ethernet connection and the Sonos Controller app for iPhone or iPad (and even Android), you can easily fill a room with sound from your iTunes library, Internet radio, and services such as Pandora, Rhapsody, Napster, Spotify, Mog, Rdio, Last.fm, SiriusXM, iheartradio, Stitcher, Aupeo, and Wolfgang’s Vault.

The specs

The Play:3, available in black or white and weighing in at just under six pounds, is smaller and lighter than the larger ZonePlayer S5 ( ) I reviewed in late 2009. (The S5 has now been rechristened the Play:5 in a general rebranding of all Sonos products.) It bears a single ethernet port on the back as well as a mounting socket, should you wish to place it (or a pair of them) on the wall. The top of the unit includes the usual volume and mute buttons. Unlike with the Play:5 there’s no headphone or line-in ports. The speaker comes with a detachable 6-foot power cord as well.

Inside you’ll find three speakers—a single tweeter and two 3-inch midrange speakers. The Play:3 uses a passive radiator to pump up the bass (versus the Play:5’s ported bass setup). Each speaker is powered by its own dedicated Class-D digital amplifier.

The Play:3 supports MP3, WMA (including purchased Windows Media downloads), AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Audible (format 4), Apple Lossless, FLAC, and uncompressed WAV and AIFF files. As with other non-Apple hardware, it can’t play older, DRM-saddled audio purchased from the iTunes Store.

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While a lot of people upon first spying an iPad thought, “This will be perfect for Angry Birds!” musicians instead responded, “There’s my next portable studio.” The problem was that while the iPad, with its large work surface and highly portable form, seemed like an ideal musical companion, there were no ideal ways to attach musical instruments to it other than tethering one device at a time via Apple's iPad Camera Connection Kit. Alesis has capably addressed this issue with its $399 iO Dock Pro Audio Dock for iPad. Available everywhere for a street price of $199, the iOS Dock is a versatile piece of gear that many musicians will like.

The iO Dock is made of plastic, meaning it’s reasonably lightweight but could be subject to damage if you’re not careful. It includes a multitude of ports for a docked iPad or iPad 2. (Early iOS Docks shipped without the plastic insert that allows the iPad 2 to fit properly in the dock. The unit I received included this insert.) These ports include MIDI In and Out (the traditional 5-pin connectors), USB MIDI, headphone, stereo main outputs (for connecting to an amplifier, mixing board, or powered speakers), two guitar/XLR microphone inputs, a composite video out, and a footswitch port. It supports both line-level and guitar input and offers phantom power for those microphones that require power to work. It also powers an iPad plugged into it (provided the iOS Dock is connected to power and switched on).

Which of the dock’s ports function depends entirely on the app you’re running on the iPad. The iPad supports CoreMIDI and as long as the app you’re using does as well, you should be able to play the instruments available within that app with a MIDI keyboard. Apple’s GarageBand for iPad app, for example, accepts MIDI input. It doesn’t, however, support MIDI output so you can’t then play sounds on your MIDI synthesizer using the iOS Dock’s MIDI out connection. Similarly, GarageBand doesn’t support an external footswitch so that port likewise does you no good.

Testing

I connected a microphone requiring phantom power, MIDI keyboard, and guitar to the iO Dock, inserted my iPad 2, and fired up GarageBand for the iPad. I was able to use each device, depending on which instrument I chose in the app. For instance, when I chose the Smart Guitar, Keyboard, or Drums I was able to trigger that instrument’s sounds with my MIDI keyboard. My keyboard’s Pitch and Modulation wheels worked as well, as did the sustain pedal and a volume slider. When I chose the Guitar Amp I could monitor and record the guitar as well as apply GarageBand’s amps and effects to it. And when I chose Audio Recorder I could record my microphone.

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Versatility, thy name is One—assuming, in this instance, that versatility is defined as a $249 microphone/USB audio interface made by Apogee. And it earns this label because this black ice-cream-sandwich sized interface allows you to connect a variety of audio devices to your Mac via USB as well as XLR- and quarter-inch connectors. It supports both standard XLR microphones as well as those that require phantom power. And tucked inside is a quality mic preamp. Compatible with any Core Audio application (including Apple’s Logic, Logic Express, and GarageBand as well as Ableton Live and ProTools), the One also sports a very decent built-in microphone.

How it works

Inside the box you’ll find the One, Quick Start guide, software disc, USB cable, and breakout cable that holds an XLR input and a separate quarter-inch input. Install the software and restart your Mac. Attach the breakout cable to the top of the One and jack in a guitar or microphone cable. Regrettably, the box does not contain a microphone clip that fits the One. Apogee sells such a clip separately for $20.

Apple and Apogee have a close relationship so Apogee’s gear tends to “just work” out of the box. In the case of the One and GarageBand, this is exactly the case. To use it with GarageBand, string the included USB cable between the One and a USB port on your Mac. Fire up GarageBand and you’ll be asked if you’d like it to use One as an input and output device. Click Yes and you’re nearly there. The One will now appear as the input source in any real instrument (digital audio) track and will also be used, by default, for guitar tracks. By default, its built-in microphone is the selected input. Also, by default, it will be GarageBand’s output device. You can use it that way with headphones or powered speakers plugged into the Headphone port or change outputs and monitor from another device—headphones or speakers attached to your Mac, for instance.

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In my coverage of under-$100 headphones for Macworld, I’ve been consistently impressed by the sound quality today’s models are capable of when paired with an iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Mac. But there’s a whole ‘nother world out there—one where vendors aren’t forced to cut corners in terms of components, design, and manufacturing in order to hit a “consumer” price point. Enter this world, and you’ll be greeted with headphones designed to wring every last bit of accurate musicality out of your media, no matter the cost—price tags of $300, $600, $1000, or more are common.

But you can’t just plug these high-end headphones into the headphone jack on your Mac or iOS device and expect spectacular sound. Most built-in headphone jacks are afterthoughts that don’t do good headphones justice, and, for sources such as computers and digital-media players, the built-in digital-to-analog converter (DAC) leaves a lot to be desired. For the best possible sound from great headphones, you’ll want to bypass your device’s built-in audio circuitry with an external DAC and a dedicated headphone amplifier.

HeadRoom is an online headphone-gear retailer that also makes amplifiers and DACs for getting the most out of your headphones. The company sent Macworld its $349 Micro Amp and $299 Micro DAC, which together are also known as the $649 Micro Amp + DAC Package. Though each is near the bottom of the company’s hardware line, which extends into the four-digit range, the resulting combination isn’t inexpensive, and it takes the performance of the higher-end headphones I tested to impressive levels.

A built-in problem

First, some background info: Most listeners plug headphones into the built-in headphone jack of the device they’re using. But on most devices—even some pricey home-stereo components—the quality of audio from these jacks is limited by cost, space, and power. But headphones are basically miniature loudspeakers, and they require power to make those speakers move and, thus, to move air. This is particularly true for headphones with large drivers or for inefficient headphones. (Put generally, inefficient speakers require more power to produce the same sound level as more-efficient models.) An external headphone amplifier can provide more, and higher quality, power than the typical stock headphone jack, ensuring precise control of headphone drivers and the capability to reproduce the large dynamic swings and powerful bass that make music dramatic. Indeed, many higher-end headphones are designed with a dedicated headphone amplifier in mind.

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SRS Labs’ surround-sound technology is found in a variety of AV gear including TVs, AV receivers, computers, car audio systems, and media players. As such, you may know that it expands the sound stage and enhances certain audio frequencies to make music seem more “alive.”

SRS has brought this technology to the $70 iWow 3D for iPod, iPhone & iPad—a dongle with a 3.5mm jack on one end and a 30-pin dock connector on the other. (SRS Labs also offers a $100 iWow 3D Deluxe version that includes custom earbuds and five faceplates in different colors you can use to customize the look of the dongle.) To use it you plug the appropriate end into your iOS device’s dock connector port and an audio cable or headphones into the 3.5mm jack. When you do, you’ll be prompted to download the free SRS iWow app from the App Store. To switch on the device just press the white button on the dongle or launch the iWow app, and choose one of three presets—Headphones, Speakers, and Car.

(Note that the prices listed are MSRP—SRS Labs sells the standard and Deluxe editions on its Website for $60 and $80, respectively, and other online retailers offer them for even less. And although the device is clearly targeted at the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, you can use it with “traditional” dock-connector-bearing iPods as well. Jack it into one of these devices and push the button on the dongle to switch on the iWow effect. Obviously, you can’t configure that effect but the one setting it provides expands your music nicely.)

Wow

When you switch on the iWow, you’ll notice an immediate change in the character of the sound. At its finest it’s like someone took a squeegee and wiped the dullness from your music, making it sparkle. The sparkle comes in the form of slightly increased volume, a wider sound stage, and more clearly defined lows and highs. The difference between the three presets is subtle. The Headphones preset is more balanced. The Speakers preset adds more lows (as it’s likely to be used with inexpensive speakers that lack a defined low end). And the Car preset boosts highs to compete with the kind of noise you’d hear on the road.

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Creative’s $90 Sound Blaster Tactic3D Sigma is one of the best headsets to use if you want to tune out the world around you. Creative claims that the headset’s earphones let you hear sounds from multiple directions, (above, below, and around), so you feel almost fully immersed in sound environments. It does a great job at doing what it promises, though it could produce better bass, and its microphone could be less powerful.

The Tactic3D Sigma comes with high-resolution 50 mm speakers that are attached to a steel-core reinforced headband. A noise-cancelling microphone and a tangle-free flat cable are affixed to the headband. The cable has a volume control device that not only adjusts the volume of the speakers, but also controls the power of the mic. I found little problem with the design of the headset, but I did find its non-adjustable headband to be a little loose on my head. Right below the volume control device on the cord is a small clip that allows you to attach the control device to your shirt for easy volume adjustment.

Overall, the Tactic3D Sigma work well. The earphones do a great job at blocking outside noises, as I was able to listen to music, play games, and do other audio-related tasks without hearing much around me. While using the headset at a medium volume setting, I couldn’t hear my immediate desk mate’s typing or talking. Unfortunately, the earphones do almost too good a job at blocking outside noises—I suffered a bit of the occlusion effect when I talked to others around me.

I was quite pleased with the Tactic3D Sigma’s sound quality. Listening to games, music, and movie trailers, the headset does make you feel like you’re hearing sound from multiple directions. If you’re playing an RPG game and someone walks behind your character, you might actually feel like someone has actually walked behind you. If something explodes above you in the game, you might actually feel like something has exploded above you.

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Waking up is an intensely personal experience: Some prefer to be awakened gently by the sound of music; others opt for the morning news; and still others want their iPad or iPhone within easy reach to check the latest news and tweets. The $200 iHome iA100 has something for all of those folks, plus plenty more bells and whistles, to boot.

The iA100 is a Bluetooth-enabled alarm clock with a dock connector that accommodates not just iPhone or iPod touch models, but also the iPad (original or iPad 2). Measuring in at 11.1 inches wide, 6.7 inches deep, and 3.2 inches tall, the iA100 is a bit larger than most of the alarm clocks I’ve tested, thanks in no small part to its iPad support.

The front of the iA100 features a big, easy-to-read LCD display flanked by a pair of speakers. You’ll find most of the built-in controls on the unit’s top: Volume Up and Down, End and Talk buttons for the built-in speakerphone, Bedtime and Wakeup buttons, a Snooze/Dimmer control, Previous and Next, Play/Pause, and buttons for input switching, the DPS audio enhancement feature, and Power. The Previous and Next buttons double as tuning buttons for the radio, and you can access and set radio-station presets using the Play/Pause button.

There are a few additional buttons on the unit’s rear: Clock Adjust, EQ, Pairing, Nap, and Alarm 1 and Alarm 2 controls. There’s also an AC-adapter jack, a standard 1/8-inch line-in jack (for connecting an additional audio source), and the wire for the built-in FM antenna. (The system doesn’t support AM radio frequencies.)

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The iMainGo X is the latest in Portable Sound Laboratories’ line of "speaker cases" for the iPhone and iPod. The iMainGo X is more versatile than the company's iMainGo 2, ( ) while offering a similar combination of protection and good sound.

Since the original iMainGo, released back in 2007, Portable Sound Laboratories hasn’t strayed much from the initial design of its product. The iMainGo X still uses a two-part, clamshell case that zips closed. One half houses the amplifier, speakers, and battery, while the other half holds your device. (You connect the iMainGo X's audio cable to your iPod or iPhone's headphone jack, adjusting volume with your player's own volume control.) When closed, the iMainGo X measures 5.7 inches long, 3.8 inches across, and 2.4 inches thick; it weighs 1.5 pounds.

The biggest difference between the iMainGo X and its predecessors is that the iMainGo X uses a rechargeable, Lithium-ion battery instead of four AA batteries. Portable Sound Laboratories says the battery can last up to 12 hours; in my testing, the battery lasted 11 hours, 40 minutes with my MacBook Pro's volume set halfway between minimum and maximum. The iMainGo X's battery powers only the speakers—unlike docking speaker systems, the iMainGo does not charge your iPod or iPhone's battery.

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With the introduction of AirPlay and Home Sharing support for iOS devices, streaming audio and video between your various computing devices is getting a fair measure of Apple’s attention. Whereas in the past you could stream audio from your iTunes library to an AirPort Express Base Station, Apple TV, or another Mac, iTunes can now stream audio and video to compatible iOS devices running iOS 4.3 or later, and those same iOS devices can stream their video to an Apple TV or other AirPlay-compatible device. But what about content that isn’t contained in your Mac’s iTunes library? For that, there’s Rogue Amoeba’s $25 Airfoil for Mac.

Airfoil lets you stream any audio on your Mac to a variety of devices, including Apple’s AirPort Express Base Stations and Apple TV units (any generation of either), other computers (Mac, Windows, or Linux) running Rogue Amoeba’s free Airfoil Speakers application, and iOS devices running the just-as-free Airfoil Speakers Touch app ( ). As with AirPlay from within iTunes, you can stream audio to multiple devices simultaneously, and using the included Airfoil Video Player, you can even stream a video’s soundtrack and—the tricky part—expect the audio and video to be in sync. (Alas, you can't use Airfoil to stream non-iTunes video to any of these destinations.)

New in Airfoil 4 is the capability to control playback for some audio sources (Apple's iTunes and QuickTime Player and Rogue Amoeba's Pulsar among them) from within the Airfoil Speakers application; the display of metadata within this same application; and the capability to watch, within Airfoil Video Player, video from streaming sites including YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix.

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There's no shortage of Mac software for controlling iTunes when it's not the frontmost application—just here in Mac Gems, we've covered CoverSutra, SizzlingKeys, and Synergy. Bowtie (Mac App Store link) is yet another entry in this crowded field, but it's one with a major distinction.

Like many similar utilities, Bowtie's small window contains buttons—Previous, Play, Pause, Next—for controlling playback. (Bowtie also offers customizable keyboard shortcuts for those functions, as well as for changing the volume, increasing or decreasing track ratings, and, for Last.fm users, for loving or banning tracks.) You can choose to have this window—the "Bowlet"—stay visible at all times or behave like a normal window.

What distinguises Bowtie from some of the other iTunes controllers is that it's skinnable. There are dozens of free themes for Bowtie, which let you choose what you want the Bowlet to look like and the controls that it contains. Some of these themes show album art, others merely text; some are tiny, others large; some have animations (for example, spinning "vinyl" records), while others have "scrubbing" progress bars for quickly moving to a different position in a track. All of these themes can be downloaded from within the application and applied with a click. These themes are nice if you opt to keep the Bowlet window visible at all times, although in an attempt to conserve screen space, many are too small to be practical.

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I listen to Internet radio quite a bit—I love that even the most obscure music and programs, from radio stations all over the world, are available at my fingertips for instant listening. (I also get a kick out of listening to my favorite stations from places I used to live.) Unfortunately, iTunes’ Internet-radio feature feels like an afterthought. Radium makes it easier and, frankly, more fun to listen to Internet radio and several online music services.

Launch Radium, and its retro-radio icon appears in your menu bar. Rather than having to click tiny genre triangles to manually browse stations, as you do in iTunes, you just click the Radium icon and type a few characters of what you’re looking for—a station’s call letters, a genre of music, a keyword. Radium searches its database of Internet-radio stations and displays a list of matches along with each station’s description. (Unfortunately, you can’t view a station’s entire description—only what fits in width of the Radium menu.) Choose one, and it starts playing.

Everything you need can be found in Radium’s menu. You can view the current track, artist, and station; if you like the current track, you can share that info via Twitter or Facebook. If you find a station you like, just click its heart icon to save the station to Radium’s menu as a favorite. (If you’ve already got favorites in iTunes, you can drag each from iTunes to Radium’s icon to add it; you can also add a station using its URL.)

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When last we reviewed it, Blue Microphones’ Mikey was a capable, though somewhat limited, iPod microphone. It was capable because it recorded good-sounding voice memos on an attached iPod, but limited because it offered just three gain settings and no line-in port. Today’s Mikey makes strides in the right direction. It includes not only a line-in port that allows you to easily record audio from an external source, but also a USB port for charging the iPod while the Mikey is connected. While it has the same three gain settings, those settings have been tweaked so that they’re less sensitive—making it very difficult to overdrive the gain on any of Mikey’s settings.

The $80 Mikey is a cardioid condenser microphone that records 44.1kHz/16-bit audio at a fequency response of 35Hz to 20kHz. Unlike the first Mikey, it doesn’t carry a speaker—not a huge loss as that speaker was very tinny. It can be angled to seven different positions. It works with the first three generations of the iPod touch, the second-through-fifth generations of the iPod nano, all iPod classics, the fifth generation iPod, and the iPhone 3GS and earlier. (So, no support for the 4G iPod touch and iPhone 4, which each have built-in microphones.) It’s compatible with any iOS voice recording application—including Apple’s Voice Memos—but the company recommends its free Blue FiRe recording app as it adds the ability to record over Mikey’s threshold level as well as record for a user-specified period of time (an hour, for example) or until a time you specify (5:00 PM, for instance).

Where the first iteration of Mikey was easy to overdrive at the most sensitive setting, the latest Mikey is perhaps a bit too conservative. Because it is, it’s worth making test recordings before committing to a particular setting. For example, the setting where Mikey is least sensitive—the one you’d use for a blaring concert recording—requires a lot of sound. With the first Mikey, I got reasonable results using this setting with Mikey set atop my piano. With the latest Mikey, this setting produces recordings that are too quiet. Similarly, where the old Mikey was plenty loud at the medium setting when recording voice notes, I found the most sensitive setting better for this purpose.

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Zoom (distributed by Samson), with its line of portable digital audio recorders, has made high-quality handheld recorders more affordable than they once were. With the H1 Handy Recorder—a $160 device available for $99 just about everywhere—the company has gone from more affordable to downright inexpensive.

This unit includes many features that will appeal to budget-minded podcasters, broadcasters, reporters, and musicians—up to 24-bit/96kHz WAV and 320kbps MP3 recording, built-in X/Y mic placement for stereo recording, external mic/line-in input, headphone/line-out output, storage up to 32GB on MicroSDHC cards, reasonably intuitive display and controls, power from a single AA battery, and a compact design. But with its plastic case it’s a recorder that should be handled with a measure of care.

The design

Each side of the candybar-sized H1 has some variety of button or switch on it. Along with a small LCD that displays the left and right recording levels, a battery level meter, the recording format, and recording time remaining on the media card, the front features a single red Record button, which you use to start and stop recordings. Unlike Zoom's larger and more expensive H4n recorder (street price $300), the Record button on the H1 acts in a simple On/Off mode. Press it once and you start recording. Press it again to stop. The H1 monitors levels continuously whenever it’s switched on.

The left side offers the 1/8-inch (3mm) headphone/line-out jack and a volume rocker switch. Farther down the side is the slot for the MicroSDHC card. This slot is covered by a piece of plastic that, I imagine, will break off if not treated carefully.

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