Most of us in the technology have at least heard of Kensington for their great computer accessories, but most of the time we would not think of them when thinking about iPod accessories. Well, today I will show you that this has changed, and Kensington is making a true entry into the iPod accessory market.

For our second product from Kensington, we are reviewing the Stereo iPod Dock. This is a small dock that sits by your stereo and lets you output sound from your iPod to your stereo, plus control your iPod with a wireless IR remote control. The dock also charges your iPod while it is sitting in the dock.

Coming in a good looking retail box, the first impressions of the Stereo Dock are very good. The dock is a simple design that is all white with a metal bar going through it that is for support of the iPod plus it doubles as a cradle for the remote. On the front of the dock is the IR receiver area which is behind a dark plastic shield like on most electronics with remotes. On the top of the Dock is the Dock area for the iPod and the Kensington Logo which has the same orangeish backlight as the remote.

A very neat touch is that the remote resembles the iPod click wheel in its looks. It also has a orangeish backlight that reminds you of the key backlight on the 3rd Generation iPod units. Although the remote does not function like the click wheel, it does have the look and  the play/pause, fast forward/skip ahead, rewind/skip backward, and volume up and down buttons on it. You can not select songs from the menu on the iPod, but you can change the volume, play/pause, and skip between songs on your current playlist. Because of the backlight, you also can find the buttons easily in a darkened room. The backlight comes on for a few seconds when ever a button is pressed.

In setup, the whole process of getting up and running is very simple and easy. Included is a RCA output cable that is white to match the theme of the dock, the cable plugs into the back of the dock and then into the L and R ins on your stereo. You also need to plug in the included AC adapter and plug it into the back of the dock. Once this is done, you can place the included AAA batteries into the remote (2 supposedly last up to 1 year (I have been using mine for a few weeks and it still works just as good as when I first put the batteries in).

Another thing I should mention in setup is that the included cables are all white on the outside that makes them look very nice. Plus then to tell which is L and which is R, they have the color coding on the insides of the connector as you can see in the picture above.

In usage, you just need to pop your iPod into the dock to get it charging and all ready to play music on your stereo. Grab the remote from the cradle on the back of the dock and you have your fully functioning iPod dock with your remote control. I was able to use the remote from anywhere in the room (as long as I could see the dock) and I was able to test it about 35ft away which worked perfectly. The sound quality was superb from the dock, and I was very impressed with the audio quality on all the stereos that I tried it with. Every function seemed to work perfectly, and you can tell that this product was well thought out.

Overall I really liked the iPod dock and I think its a great value for the money. The construction is very good, the sound quality is awesome, and the features are second to none. If you want to play music on your stereo from your iPod, you should definitely consider the Kensington Stereo Dock.

Pros:

• Compact Design
• Great sound quality
• Charges your iPod
• Easy Operation
• Backlight remote
• 5 Year Warranty

Cons:

• Back support bar does not provide support to some of the smaller iPods like the Mini and 20gb versions, but this is not a major issue as with these smaller iPods, the dock can support them just by using the sync connector.

Thanks to Kensington for the Review Sample!