Altec Lansing iM413 MP3 Portable Audio System
The Altec Lansing inMotion iM413 leaves the iPod behind in favor of the Sansa series of MP3 players with some great sounding audio on an easy to use system.
Ease of Use, Performance: 20/25, Look & Feel: 20/25,
Features 20/25, How much I enjoy 20/25
Total: 80/100
The Sansa View and Fuze may not be the mainstream MP3 player but it does have a lot going for it, much more in my opinion than the iPod series. I like the fact that it does cost much less and that you are not chained to one type of music download system or program but one that is probably already on your computer.
The Sansa View, to be reviewed very soon, is a great little media player and I just had to find some peripherals for mine as soon as I received it. The inMotion Portable Audio System is the Altec Lansing answer to charging and hearing your Sansa media player at home, the office or just about anywhere.
The iM413 is a great speaker system that includes a battery option so it really is portable and includes an FM radio as well as the docking features. You can also connect just about any MP3 player or audio source to the speaker system using the optional audio input with a common 3.5mm audio jack.
The iM413 comes with the speaker system, power adapter, three Sansa model adapters, remote control and manuals that help with connection and usage. The wireless remote is a small twelve button remote that controls the volume, source, play and pause, forward and back, surround sound and bass as well as three presets for the radio.
The remote has a small wafer battery much like those used for the Bios on your computer and should last a long time just like using batteries for the speaker system itself. The speaker system can run using the power adapter or with three AA batteries and lasts for a good days of work.
I have been using the speaker system for a month and find that the rechargeable batteries I use last for almost a full day of playing with my Sansa View. This may vary depending on the brand and quality of the batteries but the player has some nice features like auto off for the backlit LCD display while playing to keep the battery usage to a minimum.
The remote has the usual functions of play and pause, source, bass and surround sound but also has the three presets for the FM radio. The FM radio will be very dependent on position and receiving a decent signal but if you put it in a good place for reception you can get good FM radio.
I had no problem getting in some local stations and using the presets is as easy as holding the preset button while on a radio station and waiting for the preset channel to come up. The radio plays well and I had no problem changing stations using the remote which has a few nice features.
The remote handles itself well over a short distance like across a fifteen foot room and will change songs while on the Sansa source mode but that is all it will do for controlling the MP3 player. If you want to surf your Sansa player or anything else beyond just going up and down in volume, pause or playing the songs as well as the next or previous song you’re out of luck.