Home Stereo: Belkin TuneStage for iPod
It didn't take long for Belkin's new TuneStage for iPod to become one of our favorite iPod accessories. It lets you stream music wirelessly from your iPod to your stereo from up to 33 feet away via Bluetooth 1.2. Setup is a snap, and the sound quality is good. The TuneStage does have some limitations—most notably that it doesn't work with the new iPod nano or the iPod shuffle—but none were deal-breakers for us. And the metallic silver and white base station with its bright-blue LED looks classy next to any home stereo (plus the LED just happens to match the blue lights on our Harman Kardon receiver).
The compact base station (6.5 by 4.5 by 1.2 inches) plugs into your home stereo using the included gold-plated RCA-to-stereo mini plug cable. We like that the device itself has both RCA jacks and a 3.5-mm mini jack, so you can choose which end of the cable to plug in to your stereo based on its input capabilities. All you need to do from there is plug the base station in and turn it on.
The small silver and white transmitter plugs into any iPod with a remote-control jack—that's the little 4-pin connector next to the headphone jack. Alas, iPod nano and shuffle users are out of luck (for now) since neither of those models have that port. Pairing with the base station is automatic. Just plug the transmitter into your iPod and press Play.
The transmitter is rated for up to 33 feet, depending on the shape of your home, the number of obstacles blocking the signal, and the proximity of items such as microwave ovens, 2.4-GHz WLAN, and cordless phones. The system can work around most interference problems, however, via its adaptive frequency hopping. We tested the unit at a distance from the base station of about 16 feet while using a microwave oven, and we only experienced a dropped signal when we put our iPod right in front of the oven.
by Michael Kobrin
The compact base station (6.5 by 4.5 by 1.2 inches) plugs into your home stereo using the included gold-plated RCA-to-stereo mini plug cable. We like that the device itself has both RCA jacks and a 3.5-mm mini jack, so you can choose which end of the cable to plug in to your stereo based on its input capabilities. All you need to do from there is plug the base station in and turn it on.
The small silver and white transmitter plugs into any iPod with a remote-control jack—that's the little 4-pin connector next to the headphone jack. Alas, iPod nano and shuffle users are out of luck (for now) since neither of those models have that port. Pairing with the base station is automatic. Just plug the transmitter into your iPod and press Play.
The transmitter is rated for up to 33 feet, depending on the shape of your home, the number of obstacles blocking the signal, and the proximity of items such as microwave ovens, 2.4-GHz WLAN, and cordless phones. The system can work around most interference problems, however, via its adaptive frequency hopping. We tested the unit at a distance from the base station of about 16 feet while using a microwave oven, and we only experienced a dropped signal when we put our iPod right in front of the oven.
by Michael Kobrin
