Klipsch Gallery G-17 Air

As AirPlay speaker systems increase in number?most of them still being referred to as "docks" despite a lack of an actual dock for an iPhone, iPod, or iPad?a few things are becoming increasingly clear. Almost all AirPlay docks are black, and the Klipsch Gallery G-17 Air is no exception. They are all pretty expensive?the G-17 is a hefty $549.99 (direct). For the most part, all AirPlay docks thus far offer quality audio, ranging from booming bass, as with the Audyssey Audio Dock Air ($399.99, 3.5 stars) to superb high fidelity sound, as with the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air ($599.95, 4 stars). However, the disturbing trend that seems to be emerging with some AirPlay docks is a tendency to drop the stream?audio often pauses or stops completely, and this happens in a variety of scenarios. The G-17 sounds excellent, but is not immune to these stream issues. Klipsch reps acknowledge some of the streaming issues and claim a future update to iOS should fix the problem, but Apple reps will not comment on a time frame for the next update.

Design
The rounded, glossy black piano finish of the Gallery G-17 Air is striking, as is the horizontal array of drivers?two 20Watt woofers in the middle and two 10Watt tweeters on the far left and right ends of the front panel. A small Klipsch logo and a remote sensor are the only other things on the front panel. All of the controls are located on the small right-hand side panel?Power, Volume, Input Select, and Wi-Fi, which is used for inital setup. The back panel houses the power cable connection, a 3.5mm Aux input, and a USB connection. You'll need a Phillips head screwdriver to attach the glass stand to the speaker unit (screws are included), but the G-17 is also wall-mountable. Also included with the G-17 and its stand: a rubber cover for the input panel on the back, a black cloth grille cover in case you want to hide the awesome looking drivers, a remote control, the power supply, an owners manual, and?seriously?white gloves, so your fingertips don't smudge the glossy black surface when you move the system.

The included remote can be frustrating to use?depending on the angle, and strength of the Wi-Fi signal, adjusting the volume can be a very delayed process. When the signal is good and the audio is streaming smoothly, the remote, which is a simple, thin, black plastic controller with membrane buttons, works fine. It has Power, Volume, Play/Pause, Skip Forward/Backward, and Input Select buttons.

Performance
The Gallery G-17 offers fairly powerful, refined audio performance for its size. There are four drivers but no subwoofer, and the net result is a audiophile-friendly flat response, devoid of booming deep bass but quite capable of articulating low frequencies well. Kick drums sound tight, not thunderous. Lower register stringed instruments sound pleasantly resonant, not overly boosted or booming. John Adams' modern classical piece, "The Chairman Dances," sounds neither overly bright nor rumbly. Instead, the G-17's response favors mid-range frequencies, occasionally allowing high frequency percussion hits, like wood blocks, to pop out from the more commanding force of the stringed instruments. At maximum volume on deep bass tracks, the G-17 doesn't distort, but this is partially due to the lack of booming bass pushed out by the speakers. Still, many systems that have no subwoofer try to reproduce deep bass frequencies with the result of distortion, and the G-17 avoids this problem. The Knife's "Silent Shout," at maximum volume, doesn't sound as thumping as it would on a system with a sub, but it does not distort either, and the bass frequencies are still well represented. Basically, the G-17 offers a nice, smooth response throughout the frequency range that doesn't exaggerate the lows or ignore them. Fans of accurate response over booming bass will be pleased.

What they?and everyone else?will not be pleased with are the issues that AirPlay streaming suffers from. Simply put, no matter what variables we tried to introduce?say, shortening the distance between the dock, iPhone, and router, or using an entirely different Wi-Fi network?the audio streaming was spotty. The more tasks being completed on the Wi-Fi network, no matter how un-taxing on the bandwidth, like sending an email, the more likely the stream is to pause, or stop completely. Sometimes, the stream stops without any competition from a computer using the same network?simply adjusting the volume on the iPhone or laptop streaming the audio is enough to interrupt the stream. The Audyssey Audio Dock Air has similar streaming issues, and none of these problems occur when using an AirPort Express and AirPlay to stream from the same devices over the same Wi-Fi network. This is possibly because the AirPort Express uses 802.11n wireless signal, while Apple's AirPlay and the supported docks use 802.11g. Again, reportedly, there is a fix in the works in the next iOS update, but until then, this is the reality for some AirPlay docks.

With this in mind, it's not surprising that Apple is reportedly choosing to either switch to or include Bluetooth streaming into the AirPlay feature. Even a year or so ago, Bluetooth streaming was still a weak audio solution, with very little bass and low bit-rate fidelity. But recent developments have strengthened the audio quality greatly, as evidenced by recent Editors' Choices, the portable Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker ($299.95, 4 stars) and the fantastic JBL OnBeat Xtreme ($499.95, 4.5 stars), which shows up as an AirPlay device on an iPhone or iPad, but uses Bluetooth. Bluetooth streams are interrupted far less than AirPlay streams, at least in recent testing between Bluetooth speaker systems and AirPlay speaker systems.

If you're looking for a wireless dock, it's looking more and more like Bluetooth?as long as it's a recent system?is a more reliable option than AirPlay docks are at the moment. (AirPlay using Apple AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme products, however, is very reliable.) The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air remains at the top of the list of AirPlay docks, in terms of audio performance, with the Klipsch Gallery G-17 somewhere near the top. The G-17 sounds great, but like the Audyssey dock, the wireless streaming problems bring its rating down a notch.

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