One Piece, One Sound – Speaker Dock Showcase

Creative ZiiSound D5

One Stop Shop

In the old days when casette tapes and compact discs were all the rage, stereo systems meant having an amplifier and two or more speakers sitting in a corner of the room. In today's age of the iPod and wireless portable media players, the trend is toward one-piece speaker systems that connect to our mobile devices either through a physical dock or wirelessly via Bluetooth. In this special feature we showcase three of the latest docking speakers in the market, the Creative ZiiSound D5, the Philips Fidelio SoundCurve 8800W, and the Pioneer STEEZ Type Z.

Up first is the ZiiSound D5 from Creative Labs. Housed in its sleek silk-wrapped chassis is a  2.1 wireless Bluetooth speaker system. Unlike the other two speaker docks in this special feature, the ZiiSound D5 does not come with a remote control, as it is designed to be "Pure Wireless". It is compatible with any device that has Bluetooth with A2DP profile, be it a notebook, smartphone, or a tablet. If your device is also AVRCP compliant, then it can also control the speaker volume wirelessly.

Apple gets special love here, as the ZiiSound D5 comes with a Creative BT-D5 Bluetooth dongle with the 30-pin plug found on all iPods and other iOS devices. Aside from wirelessly connecting to the speaker, the dongle turns your i-device into a remote control for volume and playback and also allows you to charge via the ZiiSound D5's special dock. To ensure the highest sound quality over its Bluetooth connection, Creative Labs has equipped the ZiiSound D5 with the aptX audio codec, which processes the wireless audio data so that it retains detail and has a quality that is indistinguishable from a wired source. 

A full list of the supported iPod models and other information on the ZiiSound D5 is available on the Creative Labs website. The speaker dock is available in electronics boutiques around the country for PhP 13,995.