When I received my Ikicker docking station in the mail a few weeks back I was not impressed.Though the bass was great,many boomboxes in my collection could do a much better job on the mids.The treble control only seemed to adjust the extreme highs.Guitars did not stand out.Its overall presentation was dark,distant,and rather passive if I played anything but the beats."What a waste of money",I thought.

Luckily Kicker was wise enough to provided an "Aux. in" on the units backside.I undocked my Ipod Touch and plugged it into this input to see if I could get some better results using the players built in EQ. settings.Of course I would no longer be using a line level signal from my player so the Ipods volume control had to be optimized for this setup.After trying many EQ presets,I finally settle on "Dance".To my surprise,this brightened up the midrange and things were sounding much better.However,I really wanted to use the line level signal from my player.



Given the fact that the Ikicker is a high quality 3-way design I pondered the idea of using a rack system graphic equalizer to see how much I could get out of it.Luckily I was able to find an inexpensive 10-band Azden at Goodwill fairly quickly.I used my Sendstation mini dock to get a line level signal from my Ipods data port.This I ran into the back of the Azden.Then I connected this 10-band equalizer into the "aux. in" on the Ikicker.After setting the docking stations tone controls values to "0",I made some adjustments to the high frequency sliders on the Azden and was totally amazed by the results !This really brought the music to life!My Ikicker now sounds like a totally different stereo.At 50% volume it is almost ridiculously loud since the Azden restored the midrange.Now it is one of the best sounding stereos in my collection!




I cannot overstate the amazing results I now get from this docking station!This is a really top notch product with a seriously major flaw.Its basic software bass and treble settings are hiding most of this units performance and sound quality potential.I wonder how Kicker could have overlooked including a multiband EQ on this model.Now I do not want to return this docking station.It's unfortunate I have to add another component to get great sound out of this thing.However as the Azden was only $8.00,I'm not going to worry about this too much and enjoy some amazing sound!

Congrats on getting an iKicker, but I'm sorry to hear about your opinion of the sound. I'm sure if enough people complain about it, the folks at Kicker will add the EQ on the next version.

I think by and large the midrange frequency's of most 'all in one' or dock style set ups are the weakest point. Seems all the sound manufacturers think that the bass is most important and the balance of the sound gets thrown out the window from the get go.

It's one of the many features I'm discovering with 70s and 80s portable radios is that the midranges are usually very clean and detailed, as opposed to anything more recent. Even my 5.1 home theatre system's weak point is midrange clarity. It's not just the stereo's of this day and age though, it's also the music. So much current popular music has completely superfluous bottom end with melodies being carried by the much higher frequencies that midrange isn't even in the source in some cases.

I'm an avid fan of how music production has evolved (and devolved) over the decades and find it very interesting to see how trends become mainstream popular music and what is their driving force.

It's great that a separate EQ can really make this much difference to an off the shelf unit....just like they do with the inbuilt ones on the radios we love from 20 years ago.

Rock On.

Fatdog-We can only hope they get the idea!However,due to its tonal balance right out of the box I'm thinking Kicker caters to only a very specific segment of musical styles.Actually I also found a dedicated home tuner at Goodwill which works well with it also.Seriously speaking if Kicker would build in an EQ,tuner,and battery power,no one here could stop talking about it!

Gluecifer-
I'm afraid I'm stuck trying to explain my observations about sound without having studied all of this in school.I can only hope I get my points across without misrepresenting the physics of sound too much.I've posted numerous times about the neglect of mid range in many stereos after the mid '80s.You are the first one to really comment at length about this also.Totally electronic music is probably the least impaired by the Ikicker.Though I like that style of music,I'm also into a lot of other types also.

I like rock specifically to have a more forward and less relaxed sound.More mids seem to create an environment around some of the more noisy electric guitar sounds giving them an "in your face" effect.Less mid range makes for a more distant sound (20th row as compared to upfront).Music more distant sounding will require less extreme lows and highs to sound balanced.I can only assume companies do this to maximize your perception of the bass their products will produce.This is of course at the expense of music that this doesn't complement very well.

My excitement with the Ikicker is the fact that all the necessary drivers,build quality,and power are there for amazing sound.That's rare or impossible to find in a somewhat portable device these days as everything is so cheaply put together.Unfortunately,it just seems like it was not tuned properly by its designers.However,I'm absolutely hooked on this device after adding the equalizer.It gives me everything I am wanting out of it and sounds fantastic!Admittedly,I'm a bit bummed that I have to spread things out with other components to see its full potential.

I think I get where you're coming from Jovie. I think I might be on the same wavelength as you in regards to guitar music. It's interesting to see how modern rock has catered to these trends by accentuating the bass guitar more.

Older productions would have the guitar and bass guitar blend more and be 'tighter' together for want of a better term, so the guitars sounded strong and together, just as you say in the live arena thats how they work for the most awesome 'wall of sound'.

Whereas most modern rock (probably since the grunge era) tries to make the bass heavier and lower in the production making the guitars sound more separated and have less overall impact, which completely changes the dynamic of how it's presented.

As you say, the electronic nature of popular music in the last 20 years has seen it effect many other styles of music too, a lot of crossover styles of the mid to late 90s started seeing some great combinations of guitar rock being produced as reggae, or hip hop mixing with metal. A great deal of todays sounds can be traced back to that period when bands like Senser, Raggadeath, Silverfish, Pop Will Eat Itself and the epynonymous Judgement Night soundtrack were released and what followed was the hybrid sounds of nu-metal, emo, roots hip hop, etc, etc.

Sorry for going on, I've a habit of doing that when talking about music and it's influences and sounds.

But it does get back to the different stereos for different vintages of music. I'm looking forward to tailoring the sound of my ghetto blasters to all my favourite musical styles and enjoying them even more so.


Rock On.

Thanks for the info on the iKick, Jovie (also here) - very interesting.
Half of me is surprised - the Kicker full range drive units I have in the car give buckets of crisp, clear midrange prescence - so much that I have the midrange tweaked down a tad in the car system.
The other half isn't surprised at all. Kicker is best known for it's weapons-grade subwoofers, so plently of bass would likely be seen as essential by the makers. Also, just like the Kaboom, modern systems tend to go a bit OTT on the bass if they can, sometimes to the detriment of the other frequencies.

Trouble is, I'll bet you're "high frequency fetish" means you're not Joe average when it comes to sound balance

Hey, good to hear that the iKick is capable of making a joyful noise.
Don't you think it's a shame you can't apply the iTunes "manual" EQ setting to music files when they played back on your iPhone, etc. The lack of a manual EQ on apple's stuff has always annoyed me a bit.