For our anniversary my partner bought me a iPod speaker that "worked with the iPhone in the shop". Turns out they had updated it slightly so the floor stock worked, but, when she took it home it didn't.

So we went back to the shop and plugged our iPhones into every 'iPod speaker' they had. None worked. Then it dawned on me. Why get a speaker with a dock built in when I could just get any self powered speaker and put a proper iPhone dock on top of it.

Seeing as it was just for the bedroom it didn't need to be big, or sound brilliant. But I didn't want it to sound shit either. We settled on the TDK Xa-40.



It looks pretty good, and for $60 packs a decent punch. Certainly better than any of the other smaller options that were in the shop. Plus if you add $35 for a dock it is still cheaper than most of them.

If you struggle to get out of bed, turn it up. The alarm will scare you into getting up.

Want to charge your phone but you're expecting a call? Turn it up and hear it ring from anywhere.

If you don't want annoying 'you've got mail' noises through the night but still want your alarm to go off. Just switch it to silent while you sleep, the alarm still works.

Not much to this really. Just thought I'd share.

is this shielded for iphones?

I don't know but it hasn't made the b, be, b, bee, baa, b, bee, baa, bbb noise yet

I've had that TDK speaker for about a year now and its brilliant for both price and reliability.

So portable and gives great sound too. I've also been using the feature where you plug in your iPod to a self-powered dock (to charge etc.) and then plug the speaker into the line-out. Fantastic sound and good enough for your office or bedroom.

I've even plugged it into our small TV in our bedroom when the TV speakers died. I've also had no problems to do with shielding or anything. Doesn't seem to be an issue.

I really recommend this product too. I mean its easy to get caught up in the marketing hype surrounding the very competitive iPod dock speaker market. But go for this (plus dock), you will not be disappointed. It is simple looking, functional, does what it says it does (and does it well in my opinion) and it won't stick out like a sore thumb re: decor.

Great for the bedroom, office or small living area.