Digital Trends

mStation 2.1 Stereo Tower November 19th, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Setup and Use

The whole setup process takes less than 5 minutes. Open the mStation Tower and set the main Tower assembly on the floor. Its base is already attached, so you'll only have three or four more parts to deal with. Unwrap both the left and right tube-like speakers and set them upright on the left/right mounts on the Tower. The two speakers connect via RCA jacks built into the body of the Tower. The speakers also rotate 20 degrees left and right in order to provide you with changing sound characteristics.

With the speakers mounted, plug the power cord in to the Tower base and a wall outlet. It's best to plug into an outlet on a surge protector to avoid damaging power spikes - a decision that could greatly lengthen the life expectancy of the speaker system.

Remove the flat plastic panel that covers the iPod dock. Find the right dock adapter for your iPod (mStation gives you 6 adapters, which is pretty generous) and attach it to the dock. Finally, attach your iPod and turn the Tower on.

If you want to dock your iPod on the Tower while at the same time having the iPod connected to your computer (to sync more songs), keep the iPod on the Tower and connect the Tower to your computer via the USB-to-mini-USB cable provided. The only caveat is that you'll have to keep the Tower within five feet of your computer. That can be pretty inconvenient, but it's not at all impossible.

Additionally, you can connect your computer directly to the Tower as the main speaker. mStattion provides a 3.5mm audio cable to help make this easier. Again, this option will anchor your mStation Tower within 5 feet of your computer. Two ways to liberate the Tower and get a little distance: buy a longer 3.5mm audio cable, or use something like Apple's "AirPort Express" to wirelessly stream your iTunes music to the Tower. Either solution works wonders.

The USB and Line-in Connections

When playing music from your iPod using the mStation Stereo Tower, be sure to start out at low volume levels. The Tower may only have 100 watts of power, but it feels and sounds much more substantial.