Roth Audio ALFiE

The basics

The ALFiE from Roth Audio is an iPod dock that is encased in sleek and stylish black plastic. It features touch sensitive controls and shows of a matte silver aluminium side and bottom frame. The dock itself is inside a pop out drawer and slides back in for a discrete playing experience

The good

Is anyone else tired of the random typography? Anyway, we digress. Named after Michael Caine's philandering cockney, the ALFiE might be small, but it's a real star when it comes to flexibility. See, this DVD/CD/radio/alarm clock also has a pop-out iPod dock round the back, so you can pump out your iPod's sweet sonics, which sound pretty good through the built-in speakers.

The bad

While you can adjust the bass and treble levels a little, it always veers a little towards the former for our liking. If you like your tunes to be all about the bass then that's fine, but this isn't the crispest, clearest micro-system we've listened to. DVD playback is also decent enough, but without an HDMI output there's no HD upscaling, so you'll have to make do with standard definition. Shame.

The bottom line

ALFiE is a multi-talented delight in a compact, sleek body. Even if his knowledge of 'cracking birds' and the best ways to woo them is limited.