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.

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.

Individual products on Page 2

A few years ago, you were looking at $400+ for any decent Cambridge SoundWorks product at their mall-front audio boutiques.

You got a good product, but they sort of fell into the Sharper Image category of “oh, this is nice, but I’d never spend that much money on it.”

The big difference, however, is that Cambridge actually has useful products that normal people can benefit from instead of hundreds of different back massagers.

Cambridge SoundWorks, now owned by Creative Labs, decided to close all of its retail outlets and focus on direct marketing — reducing their and our costs.

Thus, the SW820 HD Radio, which would run you hundreds more in the store days, is only $129.99, and it still sounds like $400.

Not everyone is a believer in HD Radio, and we’re not necessarily sold on the concept either. But look at it this way: Radio is here to stay. Why not give HD a shot if it really does offer more programming options for free?

There’s just one flaw in that otherwise impeccable logic. The HD signals are often spotty at best, especially getting 15-20 miles into the suburbs, away from a metro radio signal.

Here in Boston, you’ll have a hard time getting a good HD signal — or the stations-between-the-stations — on the South or North Shore or beyond Framingham. (West Coasters — think of that as deep into Orange County from Downtown Los Angeles.)

The other big flaw with the SW820 is that the antenna is a bitch to screw on, requiring a special wrench that comes with the radio. Don’t lose it, or you can forget about HD programming no matter where you are.

The radio does sound very good, and tuning via the knob instead of repeatedly mashing buttons is a relief. When you do get an HD signal, you clearly notice the difference.

Like it or not, HD Radio sounds good, and for the $100 you’ll spend on Amazon for this baby, Cambridge SoundWorks makes their case.

Don’t miss John Guilfoil’s “Five ways to listen to music without an iPod” story, in The Boston Globe.