Audyssey Audio Dock Air

Audyssey is a Los Angeles based company who designs innovative audio technologies and products. I was fortunate enough to be given the Audio Dock Air for review. At a steep MSRP of $399.99, does the product stand up for itself? Make sure you read on to find out!

In the box, you get the speaker itself, a power brick and a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cord. Upon my initial unboxing and removal of the speaker, I noticed that the speaker has some heft to it , as it weighs in at 5 pounds. The speaker itself is 4.7” wide by 8.9” deep by 8.3” tall.

The Audio Dock Air features Apple's proprietary wireless streaming technology called AirPlay. Setting up the wireless connection is straightforward and simple if you follow the included instruction manual. There are a few steps involved that will connect the speaker to your home wireless network and after a few minutes, I was up and running. The one complaint I have about the wireless streaming is that there is a lag. What I mean is that when my iPhone 4S was controlling the speaker, if I changed songs, the speaker wouldn't see the new song for 2-3 seconds, however volume input was reflected almost immediately.

Build quality of the unit is impressive. Like I mentioned above, you will immediately notice the weight of the speaker. It looks and feels high quality and for $399.99, it should be. There are two 0.75” tweeters, two 3” woofers and two 4” passive bass radiators. The two sides of the speaker are separated by a gray plastic trim that ties the design together rather well. The top of the unit features a volume knob and LED indicators for power and wifi connection. One end of the speaker has the pairing button, aux input and power inputs while the other end has a 3.5mm headphone port and a useless IR receiver. I'm not sure why the IR receiver is included on this speaker since it does not have a remote control.

So, how does this baby sound? In short, it's okay. Audyssey claims the speaker will provide rich and balanced sound which I didn't find to be true. In my testing, I didn't find the sound signature to be balanced. At ½ volume on my iPhone, you'll come close to having a balanced sound but as soon as you go beyond ½ volume, the highs drown the bass (almost completely) and the sound signature becomes extremely treble heavy. As you near max volume, I noticed that the sound remains crystal clear and this speaker can really pump out some sound albeit next to zero bass at high volumes. As for the bass that Audyssey brags about, I didn't buy into it and couldn't replicate any sort of impressive bass levels despite the different genres of music I played through it. In fact, I was disappointed as I had read that the Audio Dock Air pumped out some serious bass.

Upon completion of my testing, my opinion of the Audyssey Audio Dock Air is mixed. At half volume, the sound is adequate but I don't think it is enough to justify spending $399.99 of your hard earned money on. At $249.99, I could recommend this product, but I believe it is just too expensive for what you're getting.