JBL MX100 Review

After spending a couple of weeks with the JBL MX100 iPod Dock and CD Player, I’ve grown fond of the speakers. It’s like a boom box that sits perfectly in the corner and blasts out some ear-popping audio.

The JBL MX100 is the biggest iPod Dock I’ve ever tried and it’s pretty heavy too (18lbs). The front grills are made of a aluminum bee-hive mesh design with glossy black plastic all around. It’s got a pretty solid construction and finish.

The slot-loading CD player is inconspicuously placed at the front bottom part while the iPod Dock is a detachable cradle which hooks up in a port on the left side. And while that made sense for the design to be symmetrical, I worry that it could accidentally be chipped off.

Nevertheless, I thought it’s a nice idea so you can just take it off and store it away if you’re not hooking it up to your iPod (there’s a 3.5mm jack you can plug in its stead).

The top surface is forward slanted at 45-degrees which is somewhat glossy/transparent and serves as the digital display. It’s obviously a finger-print and dust magnet so you gotta wipe it shiny everyday. The physical controls are placed vertically on the right side but you can always use the remote for playback controls.

As for sound quality, the JBL MX100 has a pretty wide range with enough volume to fill an entire hallway or ballroom. There’s no noticeable distortion at maximum volume although I thought the base did not have that heavy umph (floor-shaking thump) I expected for its size. That’s because the woofers are placed front to back and not top to bottom (facing the ground).

At two-thirds volume, you can already significantly feel the the air-pressure from the speakers a foot away. The most comfortable listening range is between 30% to 70% volume (that’s with ambient noise).

The MX100 has a power out put of 30 watts per channel with 2 tweeters and 2 low-frequency woofers. The built-in FM tuner needs an external antenna to work but it’s got a good number of input options – 3 analog auxiliary, 1 digital auxiliary and iPod dock. It’s also got output for TV so you can deliver videos or movies from your iPod thru the MX100 and into your TV.

While JBL MX100 might have a very nice design and appeal, the suggested price of Php34,990USD 596INR 50,547EUR 568CNY 4,342 puts it in  the luxury category not a lot of people can afford.