But if you want to listen to your music unplugged, Consumer Reports' Tom Maung tested ten of the newest speaker systems.
The $150 Acoustic Research comes with separate speakers.
With the $300 Altec Lansing, model imv712, you can also view any of your iPod videos.
And the $500 system from Chestnut Hill Sound has a remote control to make it easier to operate your iPod and select songs.
Since what's most important is sound quality, Tom tested by having each system play a mixture of all audio frequencies, called pink noise.
A computer shows how accurately the speakers reproduce the highs, midrange, and base. Testers also listened to a range of music on each system.
The $350 one, that also plays CD's and comes with a clock radio, earned top-ratings, with excellent sound quality and lots of features.
It's the Cambridge soundworks radio cd 745i.
