Onkyo ABX-N300 Wireless Music System

I bought this sound system for about half the Amazon price. Even so, it's definitely not worth the money, for 20 bucks, you get PC speakers that sound a lot better. There is a Super Bass feature, but you can barely hear any difference at all if you turn it on. There are "Tone" settings, you can set Treble and Bass between -3 and +3, but as the speakers are totally crappy, that won't help.There's a display which is mounted horizontally at the top of the device, I think this choice was totally brainless because you can't see the display if you're more than a few feet away, even if you place the system on the floor. The remote itself is quite bad, but in fact it's useless because for every feature but the most basic ones (like volume) you need to see the display. Setup (like entering the wi-fi key etc.) is horribly awkward, but that wouldn't have been a show-stopper for me. The design is actually the best part, but that doesn't help much...

I was excited to get this - I know the brand and equate Onkyo with high quality. But, in the end, my expectations were not matched by the reality.First, I had a problem noted by a few other reviewers. I could not get the speaker to connect to my wireless network. I tried dozens and dozens of times with the clunky menu and data input interface that is present for setting up the network. I am confident that the problem is not my router - I have close to 10 devices in my house that all recognize and connect to my Netgear router without a problem. After two days of trying to connect so I could use Airplay and listen to internet radio, I gave up.After giving up on the network connection, I connected my iTouch to the dock, selected Pandora, and waited. And waited. And waited. Turns out the system would not recognize the Pandora audio stream. I quickly swapped out the Onkyo and plugged my Sony dock back in, connected my iTouch, and verified that Pandora was indeed working. Once again, I was stumped.The Onkyo did recognize and play the music in my iTouch library without a problem. Once I could get sound quality, I was left with a firm "meh" regarding the sound quality. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I was expecting for the asking price, nor the brand. There are superior (and cheaper) docking stations available elsewhere on Amazon.In the pure looks department, the Onkyo is a stunner. It has a modern design, a sleek brushed metal overlay that slides away to reveal the docking station and menu, and solid construction. It is true that the pictures does not do it justice. But this beauty compared to the quality of its intended function brings a saying to mind: "Big Hat, no cattle." In other words, looks can be deceiving.

I had high hopes for this speaker, since Onkyo A/V receivers have a rock solid reputation, but the ABX-N300 ended up being a mix of cool looking industrial design but so-so sound.The speaker looks like it's floating on its metal base, hovering is space, and it curves toward the base in a way that the pictures don't do justice. The top is one sleek piece of black plastic with touch-sensitive areas that light up with blue LED "buttons" that fade away when not in use. The top metal piece slides to the side to reveal a 30-pin Apple dock, but you'll keep it closed and just use AirPlay if you're like me. The whole effect is that the ABX-N300 looks elegant and clean (even if the external antenna is SO early 2000s).As for the sound, well... it's okay, but probably on the bottom end of most of the AirPlay speakers I've used. The clarity isn't phenomenal and the bass doesn't pound like some other speakers, and the biggest problem is that it distorts heavily at high volume. If you're just listening to music in your bedroom it probably won't matter, but the speaker won't cut it overriding the din of a party.That said it IS compatible with iPhone 5 via AirPlay (which I don't think is clear from other reviews), though AirPlay still isn't the most reliable of technologies, which isn't this speaker's fault.In summary, this is one of the better looking AirPlay speakers around, but not the best sounding one at this price point. Get it if you like the design, otherwise, consider a few more options in your shopping.

Sound quality is fantastic...rich deep bass and clear highs. Not sure why other reviews ding it for not having a lightning connector (iPhone 5)...when this was released the connector wasn't even out. Only now are lightning devices starting to show up. Also, with Airplay you don't need it. The Airplay works fantastic. Used it with my iPhone 5, iPad Mini and MacBook Air running OS X Mountain Lion. All sound great, and I appreciate being able to see the song info on the Onkyo's display. Another nice touch is that when using Airplay, the volume controls on the Onkyo sync with the volume controls on the Airplay device, change one and the other matches it. The Internet Radio function also works well...I used it recently to leave some mood music playing for visiting folks in the guest room.Only reason it's not getting 5 stars is the WiFi key entry process. It doesn't support every standard symbol like !, which prevented me from entering the security key for my WiFi network. Required me to change the key on my network. Other than that, this is exactly what I hoped it would be, 90% of the sound quality of a B&W Zeppelin at a much lower price.

Worked nicely. Love this thing. Not powerful but fills a small room with music