With its Vaderesque design and scowling speakers, the Kicker iK500 actually looks l a little pissed. And while it will kick you around a little with its loudness, it can just as easily play nice on the quieter stuff too.
The Good: Kicker sounds equally good, and it can attain its maximum volume without any kind of distortion. Kicker comes with a remote that lets you navigate your iPod menus to select playlists or songs and adjust the volume. You can’t get busted for disturbing the peace if you can’t hear the cops banging on your door. Achieves ear-stinging volume without distortion. Volume, bass and treble controls are accessible with a poke and pinch of the front-facing knob. Zune owners can pick up a similar zK500 model.
The Bad: Directional buttons (rather than a wheel) make for slow going when scrolling in menus, especially if you have 80 GB of songs. Eight dock adapters snap onto most iPods for a snug fit on all but the Touch and iPhone. The iPod docks vertically (rather than at an angle), making the screen hard to read. The direction buttons on the remote slow down scrolling. No mic-in for high-decibel karaoke.
The Bottomline: Let’s face it, this thing is sort of ugly, but it’ll still look good on a bookcase or desk — badasses aren’t supposed to be cute
Price: Starting at $350.
Read full review over at Wired.
Compare prices for the Kicker iK500 iPod Dock at Froogle.
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