The mStation 2.1 Stereo Tower is a floor standing iPod docking station/speaker system that's fabricated in high-tech extruded aluminum. At nearly four feet tall and clad in a high-tech silver and black matte finish, there's no middle ground when it comes to this system's looks : you either love 'em or you hate 'em.

With 100 watts of peak power, and a total of seven speakers (a 5.25-inch sub, four 2-inch midrange, and a pair of 1-inch dome tweeters), the 2.1 Stereo Tower fills most rooms with sound that's loud and clear with lots of bottom. We've got it in our kitchen and it's among the best sounding speaker systems we've had there. Not as good as the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin ($599) or Blue Sky EXO 2.1 stereo monitoring speaker system ($399), but pretty darn good and a little cheaper, too.

The stereo speakers, which are in the two tubes you see at the top of the unit, can be rotated around 45-degrees each to create more or less stereo separation. Rotating them this way and that let me tune the system so its stereo imaging was better than I expected from a one-piece system (but, of course, not quite as sweet as stereo speakers placed a few feet apart).

It has a USB port so it can be used to sync your iPod (assuming your computer is within a few feet of it). Unfortunately, the six dock adapters in the box don't include the latest generation of iPod, so my 3G iPod nano and iPod touch worked OK, but both jiggled a little when docked, which I wasn't particularly pleased about.

A ten key IR remote lets you navigate within playlists, adjust the volume, bass, and treble, and also includes play/pause, next/prevous track, and fast forward/rewind buttons.

Other nice touches include a power supply hidden within the lower tubes so there's no big power brick to trip over, and that it includes USB and mini-jack to mini-jack cables and a cute little dust cover for the dock.

The Bottom Line

This is a good-sounding iPod speaker system that's particularly welcome in situations where shelf or desk space is at a premium but floor space is not (like our kitchen). It's also a good choice if you enjoy deep thumping bass, which its downward-firing subwoofer delivers in abundance.