Cambridge SoundWorks i765

The $499.99 Cambridge SoundWorks i765 might seem like nothing more than an overpriced clock radio. But it's actually a surprisingly good miniature home entertainment system with a lot of well implemented features. Its exorbitant price tag will surely scare away a few audiophiles, but those who plunk down the cash will be impressed by its overall performance.

Setup is simple and only involves plugging in the AM antenna (the FM antenna is internal). The i765 can play music from any iPod with a dock connector, and includes eight plastic adapters that allow any iPod including the new iPod Touch, Nano and Classic to fit into the dock.

It can also play CDs and DVDs, and supports MP3 and WMA playback from media recorded onto discs. If you connect the i765 to an external display, you can also watch DVD's it can even play videos from a video enabled iPod, and has an auxiliary input port, too. While the device provides AM and FM radio, it lacks support for satellite radio.

Though we're always dubious of miniature systems that promise big sound, the i765 delivers on that promise, and then some. The little 1.6 inch tweeters belt out crystal clear highs while the built in subwoofer covers the bottom end surprisingly well. Of course, there's only so much bass a little woofer can thump out, and the bass tends to get drowned out somewhat as volume increases. When watching DVD movies, soundtracks sounded surprisingly good thanks to a "wide" audio option that projects the sound to the left and right for a "wall of sound" that is very convincing.

If you dock your iPod into the unit, it will charge the iPod while connected and display track information on its easy to read LCD for the song playing. You can also skip tracks and play or pause songs on your iPod with the remote control. The i765 doesn't officially support the iPhone, but we were able to charge our iPhone and play music on it without problems. The bundled remote control is decent and includes buttons for every feature, including a snooze button you can press when the alarm goes off.

It also lets you tweak bass and treble levels, whether text scrolls or stays static, and snooze length. You can also save 16 FM radio presets and eight AM presets. The i765's dual alarm clocks are easy to configure, allowing you to select a CD, iPod tunes, radio station, or a simple chime as the wake up music. You can also manually adjust the alarm volume and snooze length, as well as set a sleep timer if you want to doze off to music. We had difficulty setting alarm times with the remote, however, as the i765 often refused to register button presses, but we were able to adjust settings by pressing buttons on the i765's faceplate.