JBL On Stage IIIp: iPhone Accessory Review

Posted by Bill on May 12th, 2009 at 07:04pm Comments

JBL On Stage IIIP Review
Reviewed by: Bill Henderson
Official Home Page
Price: $179

It always amazes me when companies can produce big, full sound from small enclosures. Bose is the most known brand in that department, but other companies are catching up fast and at a better price point. For instance, Altec Lansing’s inMotion MAX is a Bose competitor at 2/3 the price.

And there’s JBL. Part of Harman International, JBL was originally started by Jim Lansing, the same man who began Altec Lansing. Throughout its history, JBL has been making high end speaker systems for home and the professional market. With the popularity of the iPod and now the iPhone, JBl has become a leader in new products that sound much bigger than they are. Which brings us to the JBL On Stage IIIp.

This thing is small. It’s basically a circle with a dock stuck in the middle. In the outer rim are 4 speakers - which JBL calls Odyssey Transducers - that are clear sounding without being brittle.

Now the fun part… the bass. One reason any speaker might sound larger than it’s size is bass. A small speaker can sound bright, sharp and great, but without bass, it still sounds small. Bass is big, period. And the On Stage IIIp has big bass. JBL achieved this  by incorporating something they call Slipstream port design, which is also used in high-end Infinity car speakers.

Yeah, it’s no Bose killer, but it wasn’t designed to be. This is a compact, portable, easy-to-set-up speaker system. You have the choice of running  on AC or 6 AA batteries. When docked and plugged in, it will also charge your iPod/iPhone. It comes with an AUX (Audio In) port if your MP3 player doesn’t fit the dock.

The IIIp sat on my desk for a month pumping out all my music from my ipod and some albums I keep on my iPhone. I even used it to play audiobooks from my iPod nano and there, the sound for voice was clear and not boomy at all.

The unit comes with a small, lightweight remote. The buttons are clearly marked and easy to press with instant response. I needed to read the manual to figure out all the ways of the remote as it wasn’t completely intuative. Now I don’t know if JBL did this on purpose, but the remote tucks in right behind the iPhone when docked, so its out of the way. Cool.

The On Stage IIIp comes with everything you need (except batteries) for set up. There are a choice of dock inserts to fit whatever iPod/iPhone you may have.

At $169 US, this is not the cheapest portable speaker available. But if you want something that sounds like it takes up a lot of room but doesn’t, than you may like the On Stage IIIp. This is a stylish product that is designed to fill a need and JBL did just that.

Now that its off my desktop, I don’t notice the extra space I gained back, but I do notice the sound I’m missing.

Score:
9/10

Related posts:

1. The JBL On Stage IIIP System for iPhone and All Dockable iPod Models.
2. JBL On Stage 400P: iPhone accessory review
3. Altec Lansing inMotion MAX: iPhone Accessory Review
4. Kanto Syd 5 : iPhone/iPod Accessory Review
5. JBL On Stage 200ID and 400ID Loudspeaker Docks for the iPhone

Care to rate this iPhone World article? Current news rating:

Filed Under: iPhone Reviews

comments