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The bottom line: The Altec Lansing InAir 5000 produces well-balanced sound in an attractive package that will blow the roof off your room...if you can afford it.

Bottom Line Altec Lansing's inAir 5000 Wireless AirPlay Speaker offers powerful, distortion-free audio performance, but AirPlay itself still has some issues to work out.

For $500 the inAir 5000 doesn’t have the sound quality I’d hoped, even in a Wi-Fi speaker. The functionality, especially given the lack of lag, was excellent though. It played loud enough to fill a room with sound, though you wouldn’t want to be directly in front of it when it’s rocking.

If you don’t mind the occasional mid-playlist hiccup, aren’t too picky about EQing and are itching to burn $500, the inAir is a good investment. If you crave absolute wireless stability or a truly transparent audio experience, skip it.

If you have the room and the budget to bring home an InAir of your own, you won’t regret it: It looks nice, it sounds good, and it’s easy to configure and use.

The inAir 5000 is beautiful and well made, and we love its mellow, vinyl sound. If you can afford it, buy it.

The Altec Lansing inAir 5000 is beautiful and well made, and we love its mellow, vinyl sound. If you can afford it, buy it.

Bottom Line: Serious wireless audio for any Apple devotee. However, at above 80% amplitude bass begins to diminish due to Altec’s digital signal processing to avoid distortion.