XtremeMac Tango Audio Speaker for iPod

(Review) - There are a ton of iPod accessories in the market, and they are all fundamentally similar to one another. So anytime we get a product to evaluate that’s designed for the iPod, it takes us a while to get really excited about it. Unfortunately, many of these products never really excite us for us to go ecstatic over their existence. Today, we have XtremeMac’s Tango audio speaker for the iPod, and let’s see if Tango has what it takes to go one step beyond the already millions of speakers for the iPod.

XtremeMac’s Tango is amazingly similar to Apple’s very own Hi-Fi speaker system for the iPod from a cosmetic standpoint. It has a very box-like shape that’s rounded from the edges with a simplistic appeal. The front is covered with a black grille-like material to effectively hide the tweeters, while the top is built with a solid, glossy plastic foundation. That’s all there is to Tango; simple and appealing. As you move to its back side, you will notice the power in port, S-Video port, AUX port, and A/V Out port. The top is also kept simple and is equipped with three buttons (and the iPod dock) for volume up/down and power. XtremeMac’s Tango has a very clean design overall.

Then there’s the included remote control that’s just as essential to Tango as the iPod itself. The remote also has the standard skip forward/backward, bass, mute, power and other such functions. Needless to say, if you happen to lose the remote, which is quite common for a lot of people, the Tango won’t be as much fun. The remote is impressively sturdy and durable, so at least you won’t break it as easily. Although we could adjust our bass and treble settings, there was no way for us to know visually how far we have pushed each setting. As a result, if we got confused with the settings, we would have to set it to the default setting every time. That got annoying after a while, as we were testing a variety of songs and had to adjust the settings accordingly. This is something XtremeMac could improve on with its future products.

The remote control, in our testing, worked within a 30ft. radius. You do need to make sure there are no solid objects blocking the signal though, or else the remote won’t work.

The audio quality was a mixed bag of treats at best. We couldn’t quite find the right beat. We can certainly confirm the audible hiss in between and at the end of most tracks. However, it was odd to notice the difference in quality from one song to another. Certain songs sounded amazing, while others were pitiful at best. That was true across all categories. One song from Rock would sound great, but the other song from the same genre wouldn’t sound as impressive. Needless to say, we are confused at best about the performance results.

The XtremeMac Tango is compatible with Nano, 30GB video, 60GB and 80GB iPod versions. For the price of $129.99 (MSRP $199.99), the Tango is certainly an expensive accessory. Even though the exterior is sleek and clean, we just couldn’t grasp its audio performance; and as such, we are unsure whether to recommend this or not. Let’s put it to you this way, if you can take it out for a test drive, give it a go and see how it delivers based on your music selection. But other than that, you just may be gambling.

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