Dainty. Elegant. Classy. Understated. These terms apply to a great majority of iPod docks and speakers. None of them apply to the GX-M10. This boombox is a real bruiser. It weighs a beefy 16.8 pounds (20.2 pounds with batteries), and is 30.5 inches long. Roughly cylindrical in shape, it looks like something you'd use to knock out a Panzer tank. Except instead of being ordinance gray, it is exuberantly orange. If someone laughs at you for carrying around something so outrageous, you can express your displeasure by crushing them with it.

But once you get past the craziness of the thing, it's actually kind of cool. This boombox is the Swiss Army knife of playback. It packs a CD player, FM radio with 40 presets, and iPod/iPhone dock/charger (behind a flip-down cover) with an "old style" connector. There is a pair of front-firing, full-range speakers of 3-1/8 inch, and a pair of 5-1/8 inch subwoofers at each end of the cylinder. Powering these are two 17-watt RMS (into 3 ohms) amplifiers and a 66-watt RMS (into 3 ohms) amplifier. Last but certainly not least, there is a pair of accent LEDs that flash on each subwoofer cone.

Around back, you'll find a line-level audio input, as well as 1/4-inch inputs for microphone and guitar, with individual level control for each. You'll also find a video output and a headphone jack. Of course, there is a USB port (on the front panel). This is convenient for jacking in an iPad, for example; the onboard display shows song titles. The CD player also supports playback of MP3 and non-DRM WMA files. And, there is a radio whip antenna.

Digging a little deeper, you'll uncover a number of nice touches. For example, if you turn the unit on/off when set to a loud volume level, the unit automatically fades in and out to a softer level. And, there is a clock/timer/sleep feature. Of course, no self-respecting boombox is complete without equalizer presets; in this case, you'll find classics such as "Xbass," "rock," "vocal," "hip hop," "salsa," and the ever-popular "reggae."

My favorite thing, as noted in the owner's manual: "When enjoying loud music at high volume, sound vibration is transferred to the docked iPod or iPhone. This vibration may cause the song to shuffle if the iPod or iPhone 'Shake to Shuffle' setting is turned on." It's not a bug, it's a feature!