Review: Monster iSoniCast Wireless iPod Bridge

June 2008 By Grant Clauser

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At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, nearly every exhibitor booth included some kind of iPod dock. It seems America can’t get enough of the iPod (one of the few home-grown, sort of, gadgets around these days). There are hundreds of ways to get your iPod music out of those little earbuds and into your home audio system. One of the newest and simplest is Monster’s iSoniCast which wirelessly connects your iPod to any sound system.

I love the iSoniCast for its simplicity and for the fact that it works just like the box says it should, and it’s essentially wireless. The iSoniCast consists of a small base station receiver that works in the 2.4Ghz bandwidth (same as many cordless landline phones) for up to 4Gbps. The base station connects to an AC outlet for power and to a few stereo inputs on your home sound system—in my case a Harmon Kardon surround sound receiver. Attached to the top of the base station is a small 2.4Ghz radio frequency transmitter.

To use, you just remove the transmitter portion of the iSoniCast from the base station and plug it into the sync port of your iPod. Then you navigate through your music via the click wheel just as you would if you were using earbuds. When you click to play, the little transmitter sends the audio signal to the receiver and into your sound system. That’s it.

As easy as it is to play music, via this device, the iSoniCast could be a little better. Due to the limitations of the iPod’s connector, you can only use your iPod for selecting music, not for raising or lowering the volume. To turn up the volume you need the remote for your sound system. Also, the wireless connection isn’t flawless. I experienced occasional dropouts lasting a second, but no more than you get with the various Wi-Fi media adaptors on the market that generally cost more than this. The drop-outs occurred mostly when I was moving the iPod and stopped when I put it down to listen. The transmitter attached to the iPod doesn’t have any power on its own, so it does drain the iPod battery just a little bit faster than normal. Finally, if your iPod is video-enabled, don’t expect to send videos through the air with the iSoniCast. This device is strictly for audio.