Here's a story of how a significant price reduction can transform a product. Earlier this year, Logitech introduced the AudioStation, an iPod speaker dock with top-notch sound that was a good alternative to the minimalist yet pricey Bose SoundDock. Logitech's new Pure-Fi Elite, like the AudioStation before it, packs plenty of features, including an AM/FM tuner, a sleep timer, an iPod video-out, and a better-than-average remote. At $299, the AudioStation was a fair value, but for the Pure-Fi Elite, its latest, mildly refreshed version, Logitech has dropped the price all the way down to $179. And when it comes to what really counts—namely, sound quality—this system delivers.

The Pure-Fi Elite offers some minor, though welcome, improvements over its predecessor. It looks similar, but the speaker grilles are metal instead of cloth, designed so that the system sounds equally good if you remove them. The remote is now backlit and features six keys you can program to cue up your favorite iPod playlists or radio-station presets. But like most other low- to mid-price iPod speaker sets, you can't navigate the iPod's menu system from the remote.

Clad in slick black with the aforementioned black metal speaker grilles, the Pure-Fi Elite looks as sharp as it sounds. It's wide but surprisingly shallow, measuring 16 by 7.5 by 5.5 inches (HWD), and you pop your iPod into the center just above its display. So far, so good. But an unfortunate surprise lurks inside the box: the power brick. It's huge, rekindling memories of my 20-year-old Atari 800XL. Fortunately, unlike the AudioStation's power connector, the Pure-Fi Elite's is hardwired and it stays put.

I ran into another minor quirk, too. My test system didn't always feel like powering on quickly; sometimes it took three or four button presses, regardless of whether I used the remote or the front-panel buttons. Just to be sure it wasn't simply a faulty unit, I tested the buttons on another system and experienced the same problem. Once each unit was on, however, it played fine. But I was disappointed at how erratic the button response was, and how slowly the display updated.

Like its predecessor, the Pure-Fi Elite doesn't feature an alarm-clock function. Given the system's built-in clock and sleep timer, why not throw in an alarm? Yet Logitech left it out again. It's a baffling omission and a missed opportunity to make the Pure-Fi Elite the perfect bedroom sound system. But overall it's not a deal breaker.

The Pure-Fi Elite delivers where it counts most: in the sound department. The set features a total of 80W RMS power, split into four separate amplifiers. A pair of amps drives the 4-inch, long-throw polypropylene woofers, while another set powers the 1-inch soft dome tweeters. Logitech rates the system's frequency response from 36 to 20,000 Hz at +/- 3 decibels. That rating seemed optimistic, but there's no denying that this set has deeper bass extension compared with the Bose SoundDock. It also sounded smoother and more detailed than the SoundDock in the upper midrange, with better image depth and an airy treble that avoided any hint of harshness. For example, Thievery Corporation's "Revolution Solution" had a transparent, almost 3D image, and it was easy to separate the bass guitar and kick drum on this track's difficult-to-resolve low end. In fact, the Pure-Fi Elite excelled with just about any type of tune I threw at it.

Logitech includes a surround SRS mode that widens the image at certain frequencies, making the sonic presentation larger if not as accurate. Even though this practice is heresy to pure audiophiles, I had fun playing with it. There are also adjustable bass and treble controls that come in handy for those moments when you really need to feel the kick drum in, say, Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love."

Think of the Logitech Pure-Fi Elite as an inexpensive yet superb-sounding iPod speaker dock and you'll be impressed. Its AM/FM tuner, adjustable bass and treble controls, auxiliary input, and backlit remote are nice bonuses, and it would win our Editors' Choice award but for its erratic response, a slow-as-molasses display, and the lack of an alarm clock. The fact still remains, however: Looks, punch, and price steal the show here. In the end, the Pure-Fi Elite turns heads and pumps out top-notch sound quality at a great price.

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