Altec Lansing inMotion Air iMW725

Altec Lansing In Motion Air IMW725

At first glance, the Altec Lansing inMotion Air iMW725 wireless speaker unit ($199.95 direct) looks like an iPod dock, minus the dock. Altec Lansing decided to forgo the dock in favor of a USB dongle that streams audio wirelessly from your computer, as well as built-in Bluetooth functionality that allows for streaming from any mobile device with stereo Bluetooth or A2DP streaming capabilities. This means owners of the iPod touch and iPhone are in luck, but non-Bluetooth iPods won't work wirelessly with the speakers. A remote control is included, which can control iTunes and other media players on your computer. While it's certainly versatile, the inMotion Air distorts at high volumes and falls a bit shy of the audio quality expected from a $200 speaker system.

Design

Measuring 3.8 by 13.2 by 5.5 inches, the simple and sleek inMotion Air is portable and comes with a rechargeable battery. Most of its slanted, rectangular contour is covered in a very dark gray, rubberized material, while the front face is comprised of a gray plastic, semi-transparent grille hiding two 3-inch speaker drivers. An array of narrow silver-colored buttons along the top left of the unit includes controls for Power, Bluetooth and USB dongle pairing, Volume, Track navigation and Playback. The back panel has a recessed handle for carrying the device, and there is a slide-in storage slot for the remote control, behind which is an On/Off power switch for "long-term storage"—or whenever you don't want the battery to be used.

The remote, which measures roughly 3.8 by 1.2 by 0.3 inches, has controls for selecting the Source, Power, Volume, Track Forward/Backward, Ess (which is a stereo-enhancing sound effect I recommend leaving off), Play/Pause, Mute, and Launch, which opens up iTunes (or whatever your default player is) on your USB dongle-connected computer. Although the remote can control iTunes on your computer as well as most paired Bluetooth devices, including the iPod touch and iPhone, it's unreliable. Sometimes, it takes multiple presses to pause or skip a track, or the action is delayed a second or two—frustrating, but forgivable considering it is more or less a highly specialized, miniature universal remote.

Altec Lansing InMotion Air Wireless Speaker System.

The 'InMotion Air' (iMW725) is a wireless speaker system which uses Bluetooth, making for an unfashionable product from Altec Lansing, itself similarly unfashionable in recent years. The good news is Altec (one of the oldest audio equipment makers in the world) is in the midst of a welcome revival and it is products like the InMotion Air which are driving it.

Take the Air out of the box and there is little sign of the delights to come. It is pleasantly compact and weighs just 450g, but the retro styling is a love or hate it affair. Arguably what is more important, however, is build quality is good and Altec has eschewed the fad for glossy plastics with a hardwearing matt finish that is immune to fingerprints. Sticking to its theme the Air also forgoes touch sensitive controls for clearly labelled physical buttons. You'll find power, source/pairing, volume up, volume down, skip back and forward and pause/play along the front edge and each gives a reassuring clack when pressed.

As previously mentioned the Air isn't a dock so there's no port to charge your device, but it does mean no Apple favouritism or 'Made for iPod' licensing and more time spent focusing on the clever technologies lying inside. For those doing a double take I did just say 'clever' and I am going to talk about Bluetooth audio. You see what Altec claims is its proprietary technology transforms Bluetooth wireless audio from the mediocre, short range mess we all know into something comparable with lossless. Big talk.

To do this it uses Waves' Maxx audio algorithms to enhance the quality of the speaker output and its own 'aptX' codec which "reproduces robust sound that’s true-to-life, providing CD quality audio, regardless of file compression encoding." Obviously this latter quote is marketing fluff of the highest order, but happily it does work. No there isn't CD quality audio regardless of file compression, that's ridiculous, but the Air produces by far the best quality Bluetooth audio we've heard.

  

Altec Lansing inMotion Air (IMW725)

Seven metal (and, of course, angled) buttons run along an angled edge near the top of the inMotion Air: Power, Bluetooth/Source, Volume Down, Volume Up, Previous, Next, and Play/Pause. On the back of the unit, there’s a cozy slide-in storage area for the remote. With the remote removed, you can access a tiny On/Off switch. While this may seem like an inconvenient location, you’re meant to leave the switch in the On position unless you won’t be using the inMotion Air for an extended period of time—the system won’t even charge unless the switch is in the On position. (For everyday use, you use the aforementioned Power button on top of the unit to turn the system on and off.)

Also on the rear of the device are a port for the included AC adapter and a 1/8-inch (3.5mm) line-in jack for connecting another audio source. You can listen to only one source—Bluetooth or line-in—at a time, and you switch between the two using the aforementioned Source button. The Launch button is meant to launch the default music player on your computer. I found that it did nothing, whether paired with my Mac (via Bluetooth or the USB dongle) or my iOS devices.

The USB dongle sports a unique feature that makes it even more useful: a 3.5mm audio-out jack that lets you stream music to the inMotion Air while simultaneously listening through speakers—say, your normal computer speakers—connected to the jack. On the other hand—perhaps because of this additional input—the dongle is so large that on my MacBook Pro, it blocks the second USB port when inserted in the first.