I’ve long been a sucker for certain audio brands. Here in Boston, there’s no shortage of original talent, including Bose, Cambridge SoundWorks, and Tivoli.

Nationally, Altec Lansing’s long history for producing superior sounding products makes them stand out. Even their cheaper products stand out. The audio system on my computer at home is still an Altec Lansing SoundBar. The SoundBar, from 2008, has lasted longer than my last three computers, and I have access to nearly every computer speaker system out there.

And I feel the same about Cambridge SoundWorks products, even since their buyout by Creative. SoundWorks’s Newton speakers are divine. The company’s compact radios sound excellent and rival other tiny sound systems that promise big sound.

That’s what pains me about the SoundWorks i525, an iPod docking radio/alarm clock. By itself, the audio quality and construction make it a great choice. That’s how we should base audio products, right? Sound. Construction.

Well not quite. The i525 was not designed with the iPhone in mind. It plays and charges the iPhone, but Cambridge Soundworks did not get the product certified by Apple. A warning pops up on my iPhone 4′s screen when I dock it with the i525, warning me that it’s not optimized for my phone.

The product is fully functional, but WiFi and cellular phone activity can cause audio distortion and interference.

“The SoundWorks i525 will charge and function with iPhone. The Optimization flag appears as we are not yet certified for iPhone support. The product is fully functional with iPhone; however,” said Maria Cataldo, a spokeswoman for Cambridge Soundworks. “Please note, since we are not yet certified ‘for use with an iPhone,’ the user is presented with a warning that the iPhone may cause interference with the radio and offers you the choice to enter Airplane Mode. If the user does not enter Airplane Mode, the phone will still operate normally, but may introduce some interference from the radio when communicating with cell towers.”

In the device’s defense, I ran it through a few hours of trials and did not encounter any audio distortion.

Should we judge the i525 by this? On one hand, no. The i525 outperforms many similarly priced bedside iPhone docks. At $149.99, it’s the cheapest radio ever produced by Cambridge SoundWorks. it has an AM/FM radio that gets clear reception, and the company’s proprietary Smart Volume feature normalizes volume levels between songs, so you don’t get one really loud song and one quiet song.

But on the other hand, the company really needs to get that certification thing taken care of. The dock needs to fully play nice with what’s docking on it.

We’ve been really pleased lately with some of the new products from iHome. We love all the improvements and it seems like the company has been innovating a lot and the iP90 is no exception.

The iP90 is a Dual Alarm Clock Radio and also functions as an iPod speaker system. Simply place your iPod or iPhone onto the dock and the product will instantly start charging it and allow you to listen to some of your favorite tunes through the built in stereo quality speakers, which surprisingly sound very good for such a small unit.

As soon as I unpacked the iP90, the first thing I noticed was its very sharp appearance, featuring an all black design with silver trim along the front, which accents the product very nicely. As you glance at the face of the iP90, you can’t help but notice the large glimmering LCD screen and the two stereo speakers, in which are covered the black-wired speaker grill. As you work your way to the very top, you’ll notice an array of backlit glowing, large sized buttons that are very easy to see perform well. On the back of the iHome, you really find anything interesting there besides a line in jack, power port, FM and AM antenna ports, the set time zone and the manual clock set/time sync buttons.

Aside from design, performance is what really matters. So how does this product rack up? Music playing from the iPod dock through the built in stereo speakers sounded impressive for the small device size. There was a good amount of base, tones sounded loud and clear and when I increased the master volume, I really didn’t hear much distortion at all, which again is a nice plus.

When using the duel alarm clock, I found it worked well and when pressed and held the settings are very customizable, which is superb. Users can set the time they wish to wake up, select whether the alarm just be weekdays, weekends or seven days a week and then finally choose to wake up to either the buzzer, playlist, iPod or the Radio. Then when the alarm does sound, the unit will gradually increase the volume over a period of time, so you wont be startled out of bed, which I really like. Also, for those of you who can’t get out of bed and relay on the snooze button, you’ll be pleased to know its located at the center front of the device.

A nice touch on the iP90 is sleep mode, which lets you gradually fall sleep to your favorite audio. Simply set the sleep timer from 120, 90, 60, 30 or 15 minutes and the iHome will gradually lower the music and shut off once you reach the allotted time. Other notable features include: fade in sound, a play/pause button directly on the unit and on remote, ability to skip songs using the plus/minus toggle, daylight savings time and time sync switch, battery backup and more.

I was also very pleased with included the remote control. Not only is it well built, feels great in the hand, but it allows you to control almost everything the unit does from a distance. I’m very glad to see such a functional remote, since on my prior iHome iH6 unit this wasn’t the case.

A few disappointments I had with the unit were its large depth and the fact that the input/line in button doesn’t list the iPod as a source; Instead, I found to get to the iPod source you have to press the pay/pause button. This isn’t entirely a big deal, but I’m not sure why iHome doesn’t list the iPod as a source there and why the unit is so large in the rear. One small thing to note is the unit doesn’t come with every insert for the iPods that it supports. If in the box you don’t get the proper insert for your device you can order one the company. In my case, the unit didn’t ship with an insert for my first generation iPod Touch, so you have to place a call to order one.

Other than those small things, the iHome iP90 is sounds fantastic, is well priced, performs great and because of its relatively small size, it is ideal for college students living in dorms or for any room in that matter. The iHome iP90 is available for $99.99.

Sometimes you need a bit more power than those shiny white earbuds that come with your iPod can offer.

That’s where an entire audio sub-industry has sprung up, catering entirely to iPod owners who want to “dock” their music box somewhere and jam to a room-filling sound that’s not mashed into their ears.

Blast and The Boston Globe recently tested five of these docks: the Altec Lansing inMotion Max at $199, the Logitech Pure-Fi Express Plus for $78, the compact iHome iH4B for $39.99, the Cambridge SoundWorks i765 for $299, and Wayland-based Sprout Creation’s all-wood Vers 2X at $199.

As a bonus, Blast also tested the Boston Acoustics Duo-I at $199 and the iHome iH51BR at $149.

For professional advice, we turned to Dariusz Dobrolinski, is co-owner of the tiny yet historic Q Audio store on Vassar Street in Cambridge, which claims to be the worlds smallest hi-fi store and one of the original distributors of CD players in the US in the early 80s. Dobrolinski said the Altec Lansing inMotion Max was the best item on the list, and we agreed.

“It sounded the richest,” Dobrolinski said. He warned us not to jump at the deepest bass or the highest treble, which some inexpensive systems tend to crank up to make up for their lower quality components.

“If you want to buy a docking system, don’t look for something that has bass and sizzles, it may impress you, but later on you will notice you don’t get the midrange and that’s where all the instruments and all the voices are,” Dobrolinski said. “Bass is not critical unless you want to fill a huge room, but none of those systems are designed for huge rooms.”

The Altec Lansing and Cambridge SoundWorks models were all very similar, though. They sounded great, look great, and come from brand names that are known for generally building their products to high quality specifications.

The iHome name has gained a lot of ground in the last three years. You often see these functional alarm clock iPod docks in both luxury hotels and college dorms. They generally sound good and have useful wakeup features like dual alarm clock times and, of course, the ability to wake up to your favorite songs blasting from your nightstand. The iH4b’s compact size and low price makes it a great value for dorm rooms and bedrooms. It has a good sound on a small footprint.

The Vers 2X is a great choice people who want something different. It doesn’t have a radio or really any other features except an iPod dock, but it’s an attractive, well-built speaker system.

Dobrolinski said that you should also focus on how the product looks. Style is important. He also said that you’ll want your dock to have a remote control so you’re not getting up all the time to tune it.

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