I've owned an iPod for a couple of years now yet I’ve not felt the need to have a pair of speakers but it seems the Sharp Music System for iPod (DK-AP7N) may well have changed my mind. Trust me when I say that’s not an easy thing to do!

Sharp is a name synonymous with the 80's and 90's and Manchester United football team... For those of you not into football, they were their sponsors for many years. In short Sharp are major players in the electronics industry and have been for some time so how would they fair with iPod speakers?

Opening the box brought a smile to my face as I revealed a shiny black rectangular unit, if its one thing I can't stand its gadgets that come in white so this was a good start.  The front flipped down and there were the speakers and the slot for your iPod. The unit comes with four adapters, one of which will fit into the slot and allow you to then attach your iPod for a snug fit. It supports most of the iPod range Including 1st-4th generation iPod Nano, 4th & 5th generation iPod, iPod Classic, iPod Touch, iPod Mini but not iPhones. With the later Nano’s and the Touch's you will need the dock adapter that was supplied when you bought it. Also supplied is a mains adapter which when plugged in will charge your iPod at the same time, handy!

I slotted in my iPod and selected a playlist, the speakers give off a reasonable amount of volume but I noticed that with some tracks it buzzed a bit when I had the sound up too high However I discovered that if I changed the equalizer setting on the iPod to suit the type of music I was playing this problem was remedied. It handled everything I threw at it from dance to classical, ok so you wouldn't use them to have music at your party, they aren't designed for that but as travel speakers I was impressed.

According to the leaflet the battery life is approx 8 hours and, knowing that you don’t always get as much as you are told when it comes to battery life, I decided to put this to the test. Using the popular brand of battery with the copper coloured top I played music for 11 hours and they still hadn't run out! So definitely not power hungry then... brilliant!

The unit weighs 630g (730g with batteries) and the adapter weighs 135g so less than a kilo for the lot means you can carry them with you without adding to your luggage weight too much. It’s also compact, measuring 20x7x8cm and both the unit and mains adapter come with their own soft carrying cases so you can protect them from scratches and damage.

There is also the ability to use a video lead (you know the one that has a yellow end) to plug the speakers into your TV and show video from your iPod onto your TV screen, any sound is projected through the unit. I wasn't entirely sure about this but I guess if you want to watch something that is on your iPod on a larger screen then it’s a fairly good idea.

On a technical note it gives 2.1 sound which in simple terms is two speakers with a built in subwoofer so it can handle bass without sounding tinny. It also features something which Sharp calls E-Sound. This is a digital signal processing technology that improves the quality of compressed digital music. Apparently most compressed music experiences have some sound deterioration and the E-Sound mode corrects this deterioration by enhancing the sound frequency spectrum as well as increasing the sound pressure.

All in all my first experience of iPod speakers has been a very pleasant experience and that is thanks to Sharp. Great speakers and reasonably priced, one of the reasons why Sharp have been in the forefront of the electronics market for so long!

Available from www.sharp.co.uk with an RRP of £69.99