Boston Acoustics "Horizon Duo-i" Ipod speaker dock: looking for advice on some issues

[dan steinberg]

Hi there everyone, I am writing to see if anyone has any knowledge to share about some issues I am having with an Ipod speaker dock/clock radio, the "horizon duo-i" by Boston Acoustics, as seen here:

http://www.bostonacoustics.com/Duo-i-AMF...-P199.aspx

I recieved this product today from an internet retailer (could not find one in a local store), and I'm having some sound quality issues. Before I go to the trouble of having this one sent back and getting a replacement, I'm trying to determine if I got a bum unit or if it's a design defect. maybe someone reading this has the same product. The details:

-With my ipod classic 160 gig inserted, I get a faint buzzing sound, even at the lowest volume, but other than that, the music comes through nicely. The buzzing is a bit irritating but I could live with it.

-With my 1st gen, 160 gig ipod touch inserted, things are much more problematuc. The buzzing is louder and with a deeper, more noticable pith, and there is a loud "popping/thumping" noise that repeats irregularly, at any volume.

From what I can tell, the louder deeper buzzing and the thumping noise only occur if the ipod dock is trying to CHARGE the ipod touch. If I slant the itouch to the left on the dock connector, the audio pins still carry music over, but the power pins disconnect (charging icon changes), the buzz goes back to the fainter version, and the thumping stops. I also tried turning off wi-fi on the Itouch, didn't make any difference. There's no ground to lift on the power cord, it's a 2 prong, ungrounded cable.

This is quite vexing because the goal here was to leave ther ipod touch in the speaker dock most of the time, and let it stay charged. Now because of this issue, I need to have it partly pushed in when listening, then remember to push it all the way in when done to charge it, etc.

I can't seem to find any local stores from Boston's dealer list who actually carry it in stock locally, or I would go try a unit at the store and see if it has the same problem. Does anyone happen to use this unit with the ipod touch, and if so, ever seen anything like this? I'm worried it's a design flaw and exchanging it will not get me anywhere, but maybe I'm paranoid

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer. One of these days I need to offer some helpful advice around here instead of just always asking for help!

[Zoidberg]

That sounds like a defect; I've no direct experience with the unit (was looking at buying one but decided to wait until it gets iPhone shielding, if ever) but more than a bit with Boston Acoustics. I'd recommend calling them to arrange a replacement. Anecdotally speaking, I understand they're quite good about that.

[dan steinberg]

Yeah, I'm going to assume that it's a defect, unless I can verify with a store model (can't find one) that they all do it, or if someone else chimes in on this thread that their does it too.

Hopefully it is just isolated to this one unit, the radio has lots of reviews on Amazon and no one mentioned any trouble with the itouch, someone must have been using that combination.

I called up Boston Acoustics, they were not willing to do an exchange, even though I only just got the unit today, they would only do a repair. I am wary of that approach since you always hear stories in general of how repairs from these companies take forever, and sometimes come back with nothing fixed.

However, the online retailer I bought it from (thenerds.net) said they can do an exchange, and it will only take a few days, and they will email me a fedex table to take care of shipping. The one thing they need is for me to give them a "repair reference number" I supposedly can get from Boston themselves, so that the retailer will be able to return the unit for credit. Hopefully it will all go as quickly and easily as they say.

I seem to have bad luck with these kinds of things and would have been happy to spend a bit more to buy locally, but that was not an option. I checked carefully and none of their dealers in the whole Washington DC area stock this radio as a regular item.

Thanks!