Sony’s XA900iP may be a bit pricey, but it provides impressive audio quality and a range of additional features that few other speaker systems can match. Take a look at Group test: what's the best iPod and iPhone speaker dock?
It looks like a serious bit of kit straight out of the box, measuring a full 60cm wide, 20cm high and deep, and finished off with an attractive silky cloth cover. See all iPod and iPhone speaker docks.
There’s a retractable dock on the front of the unit, which is sturdy enough to support a 10-inch iPad if required. The dock uses the older 30-pin connector, but the XA900iP is also equipped with both AirPlay and Bluetooth wireless streaming, as well as an Ethernet interface, so you’ve got plenty of options for connecting a wide range of Apple and non-Apple devices.
Sony doesn’t stop there, either. Tucked around the back of the unit you’ll find a standard analogue Line-In connector, along with a digital input that will allow you to hook it up to a TV. There’s also a video output connector so that you can play your video downloads on a TV screen too.
None of this would matter if the sound wasn’t up to scratch, but the XA900iP definitely delivers the goods, with clear, detailed higher frequencies and a really solid bass slap from the built-in sub-woofer. We’re not convinced that it has the full 200W output that Sony lists on the spec sheet, but about 75% of maximum volume seemed loud enough to annoy our neighbours so it’ll certainly be loud enough for most people’s day-to-day listening.
