JBL On Air Wireless

JBL On Air Wireless

A quality speaker set like the Harman Kardon SoundSticks III ($169.95, 4.5 stars) will almost always sound better than an iPod speaker dock in the same price range. There are a couple of possible reasons for this: Apple likely charges a pretty penny for "Made for iPod" certification, and the inclusion of the dock connection itself could be costly. Either way, it leaves less of the production budget to devote to speaker quality. The JBL On Air Wireless includes not only the iPod dock connector, but the ability to stream audio via AirPlay, Apple's wireless streaming feature for iOS devices. But something's amiss: It's a $349.95 (list) dock that performs like a $150 dock. Less-than-obvious controls are combined with audible low-end distortion at even modest volumes. Sure, it looks cool and can stream music from your iPod, iPhone, or iPad wirelessly, but for this price, you can do much better. The 9.4 by 11 by 7.8-inch dock looks like it could belong to Darth Vader. A circular band with a metallic grille surface houses the speakers, shooting sound upward and outward. In the negative space inside the circle, the contour is shiny black plastic with chrome-colored buttons that are under-lit white when the unit is powered up.