Gadgetory

I'm David Connolly executive editor for cnet.com and I'm here with the JBL on beat as you can see this is an iPad stereo docking system it also takes the iPhone and the iPod touch but the big deal here is that it's supposed to work with the iPad now the one small flaw is that while it has a swiveling arm design it doesn't swivel with the iPad that's a real problem because if you want to watch movies in landscape mode you can't swim over the dock it won't stand up it is not designed to work with the iPad you can do it with the iPod Touch or the iPhone but not the iPad apart from that this is a pretty good little stereo system it is fairly lightweight so you can take it from room to room and it's designed to sit on a bedside nightstand does have a little bit of a funky design the front looks a little bit like a woman's formal dress some people won't mind that some people will this does sound decent it plays loud has decent amount of detail it'll fill a small to medium-sized room and that's really its strong point it's a little thin on the base because it is so small and there isn't much in the way of stereo separation but it is a decent sounding little system around back it does have a couple of extra features there's a USB port so you can connect this to your computer and sync your iTunes there's also a video output however that is a composite video output so the picture isn't gonna be all that great but you could send the video from your ipad or iphone to a TV that's all there really is to it there isn't any built-in bluetooth like there is on its bigger brother the JBL on being extreme which does retail for a lofty $500 this one goes for about $120 online that's down from its list price of $150 when it first came out last year in 2011 wouldn't call it a bargain of that price really should be less than $100 particularly because of that design flaw where you can't put your iPad in landscape mode really an iPad stereo docking system should allow you to do that so it's really hard to recommend at this price I'm David Carr noise and that's the JBL on meat