Bayan Audio – Bayan 7 iPod Speaker Dock Review

The Bayan 7 review sample we received, came packaged in polystyrene inside a plain brown box,  so for obvious reasons, we decided not to take a photo of a box, however, the actual retail units will be packaged slightly different.

Straight out of the box you are presented with a beast of a dock; the Bayan 7 is one of the largest speaker docks that we’ve seen and it weighs in at nearly 7KG!  The design is very clean with an industrial look to it. The layout is symmetrical, with two sets of tweeters that look suspended in the clear acrylic front. In the middle is a 8″ sub-speaker. Something rather unusual about the Bayan 7 is that it features two iPod/iPhone docks, one on either side. This is something we don’t often see, so we’ll take a look at this in more depth later.

The whole unit is fairly deep, which could make it difficult to fit on a shelf. Again you can see how the tweeters are suspended in the acrylic.

Below is a closer look at two of tweeters that cover the mid and high range audio.

Around the back of the Bayan 7 there is the on/off switch on top of some volume adjustment buttons. There is also a USB2.0 port and a 3.5mm audio in jack for connecting to other media devices like iPads, laptops or other smartphones, although the USB port only provides power and not audio.

Also around the back is a large sub that is encased in a wooden enclosure to maintain a high level of audio quality.

As we briefly mentioned before, the Bayan 7 features two docking points for an Apply iPod or iPhone, on either side of the speaker unit. The Bayan 7 supports all generations of iPhones and iPods. The right dock also houses the IR receiver. Each dock also has a small rectangular rubber pad to support the Apply device when it is connected.

Around the back of the dock there is a small knob, that when turned adjusts the height of the small rubber pad, to keep the iPod/iPhone secure and reduce the amount of vibrations.

The Bayan 7 also comes with a IR remote that controls all of it’s primary functions, such as bass and treble levels, track selection, play, pause and so fourth. The remote it’self is roughly styled to that of an iPhone 4 – even similar in size and shape. The remote is the only way of controlling the Bayan 7’s functions (except the volume and power), so it is crucial to not lose it!

So now we’ve had a good look at the Bayan 7, it’s time we put it to the test.