iLive iS809B Wireless Speaker System with Dock for iPod (Black) - Best mp3 speakers site, right here

The speaker set as a whole works very well once you get it up and running. The set I purchased comes with 4 speakers and one dock. I found that 2 of my speakers have white LED indicator lights while the other 2 speakers have blue LED indicator lights, which is a bit odd. In any case, I found the speakers difficult to pair, for those with trouble try these steps:

1. Have all speakers and dock near each other within arms reach.
2. Plug all speakers and dock into an outlet and turn them on, dock and speakers will blink slowly.
3. Turn the speaker volumes to medium-low, when they come out of the box they are at max volume and will make a very loud beep when it tries pairing.

Alright, this is when coordination is key:
Each speaker has a pairing button, when you hold the pairing button down for 3 seconds, the speaker will make a beeping tone once every half-second while it searches for the dock, it will attempt to pair for about 10 seconds. The dock has a pairing button on it’s left side. When you hold the pairing button down for 3 seconds, the status light will blink rapidly as it searches for the speakers for 10 seconds. You can see how this requires some coordination…

4. Using one hand on a pair of speakers, press and hold the pairing button on the speakers to initiate pairing (beeping sounds start).
5. Repeat step 4 on another pair of speakers.
6. Quickly press and hold the pairing button on the dock.
7. If you are able to do this fast enough, all 4 speakers will make a long sustained tone indicating that they have been paired.
8. Dock your ipod and give it a whirl, if you find that one or more speaker(s) is not outputting sound, you did not go through the steps fast enough… Repeat steps 4-7 again but FASTER!

I found that the speakers and docks, once paired, will not lose pairing (THANK GOODNESS!) even if you unplug them for an extended period of time, although the clock on the dock will reset unless you install 2 AAA’s in the dock (not included).

Sound quality wise, I tried moving the speakers around my 1 story house and found that I got clear reception everywhere I went. The speakers do not produce the best sound in the world, they definitely do not measure up to my Klipsch speakers, but they sound decent once I up the treble to 5 and the bass to 3. Also, you can leave the speakers on and turn off the dock, they will not make any static sounds like many 900Hz wireless speakers do, they go into standby instead. Turning on the dock causes the speakers to spring into action.

The remote also appears to not use IR but will work wirelessly. You do not need to point the remote at the dock for it to work. In fact, I found that I could walk clear to the other side of my house and still be able to control the dock.

I’m overall very happy with this set of speakers. Pairing was a pain, but once I got it up and running they work decently, the range and ability for the remote to work anywhere was a definite plus.

Update: Discovered that when you play soft sounding music, the speakers will go into standby within 10 seconds. When the music gets louder, the speakers re-engage. This behavior is rather annoying, I wished that they would stay engaged while the base station is on.

Update 2-10-11: Speakers are still going strong. To resolve the issue of the speakers going into standby with soft music, I turned up the volume on the base station and turned down the volume on the individual speakers (end result of keeping the same output volume). It seems the speakers need a certain threshold of input sound or else they will go into standby.

Also, I discovered that the docking station will interfere with wireless networks, which makes sense as most wireless networks and these speakers operate on the 2.4Ghz frequency. When I place the dock near a computer that is using the wireless network, the computer will completely lose its connection until the dock is turned off.

I am still happy with these speakers, they have been on for the last 2 years, never turned off. I have since moved to a larger two story home, still works like a charm.

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 Comments (6)

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L. Dooley (Washington, DC) –

  

I purchased the set and pairing was really easy. It worked for 30 minutes and the dock died (no power, no nothing). I returned it and purchased another set. The second set worked for 45 minutes and the dock died. The sound was pretty decent and had a good coverage for the wireless speakers – only if they got the dock to work it would be useful. This product is horrible! What I waste of time to pair the speakers and have something working for a few minutes.

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This system is a great idea that is very poorly executed.

The instructions for pairing the base station with the speakers do not work. Both the instruction in the box and posted on [...] are wrong (thank you ichinban for posting usable instructions). Once the base station was paired with the speakers the system worked well for 5 hours. The speaker had decent sound and good range from the base station. Then the base station display stopped working and soon there after it would not transmit to the speakers. I tried several times to contact ilive customer service by phone (which was a dead end game of selecting different numbers) and received no response from several emails.

I will never buy another ilive product and continue to advise others against doing so because they either don’t know their own system well enough to write usable instructions or they just don’t care, their products are poorly manufactured and they have zero customer service/support.

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