By: Cliff Lively

The iPod is a fantastic storage mechanism for your whole music collection – but it’s one bad point is that it has no internal speakers and so you’re stuck with earphones in if you want to listen to your music… or are you? Enter iPod docking stations with speakers, the ideal answer to the problem of sharing your music collection with others in your household or just not having to have something stuck in your ears all the time.

However, here are so many iPod docking stations with speakers to choose from that it can be hard to know where to start.

First you need to decide what you want of your dock; do you want something equivalent to a full blown stereo system which has several speakers including a subwoofer or would you prefer something more portable which you can easily carry around the house or take on holiday with you?

Do you want to be able to connect your iPod to a television or other video device in order to look at pictures or watch videos? If so, then you need your dock to have a video output connection.

iPod docking stations with speakers come in all shapes and sizes too; they can be square, oblong, conical or round, curved, tubular or flat. They can be black, white, red, blue, chrome or even pink and believe it or not there are iPod docking stations with speakers in the shape of a pig or a panda.

Some of these units incorporate a CD player, radio or clock and others are suitable for iPhones as well as iPods.

There are many different brands too; choose from Panasonic, iHome, Bose and Logitec to name just a few.

There’s a wide price range too; you can pick up a unit for around two US dollars, believe it or not, or you can splash out nearly two thousand US dollars on a top of the range bit of kit which is also a rather stylish piece of furniture, but definitely not portable.