Design
The AJ300D may lack the distinctive spaceship contours of products like JBL's On Time, but its minimalist white design is unobstrusive enough to suit all manner of bedside tables.

The unit is square with rounded corners, and is quite compact at 191 by 161 by 164mm. The front houses a dock that will cradle your iPod (any flavour as long as it sports a dock connector) or Philips GoGear MP3 player. One thing to note: a supplied set of adaptors allows your player of choice to slot snugly into the dock, but there's no adaptor for the second-generation iPod Nano. It will still sit on the base, it's just a bit wobbly -- have a look at our video review on the right to see how it fits.

On either side of the dock are some track navigation buttons as well as selector keys that switch between audio sources. These buttons are replicated on the sleek and light remote control, which also includes Mute and Sleep buttons.

An LCD sits in the centre of the speaker grille, and is large enough for you to be able to discern the time through half-lidded eyes or a Sunday morning hangover. You can also adjust the brightness of the blue backlight should it present too much of an optical assault.

On the back is an auxiliary input, which allows you to plug in anything with a 3.5mm stereo output -- good for those impromptu house parties. The included cable is quite short though, so you may need to invest in a longer version for more flexibility. We didn't like the placement of the auxiliary port and the neighbouring power socket, as when you plug cables in they stick up and look a bit messy.

The top of the AJ300D has a nice big snooze button that will withstand an enthusiastically applied fist.

Features
In addition to providing a speaker system and charging dock for your iPod or GoGear player, the AJ300D offers an FM radio, track navigation buttons and not one but two alarms to rouse you from a heavy slumber. You can choose to wake up to music from your MP3 player, the radio, or the more conventional and infinitely more abrasive buzzer noise.

A feature we didn't like was that when you place your player in the dock, music immediately starts blaring out of the speaker. (The current track resumes, or if there is not one selected, the first song in the line-up will play.) One way to get around this is to set the source to Aux before plugging your iPod in, then switch back to the dock input once you have queued up your playlist.

The unit does not function on batteries, and there is no replaceable back-up battery for keeping track of the time and date should the power go out, but the manual promises time and date will stay current for a few minutes in the event of an outage. We tested this claim by unplugging the AJ300D for five minutes, and were relieved to discover the unit made good on the instruction book's promise.

Performance
We found the alarms easy to set and appreciated the choice of what to wake up to. The volume of the buzzer is not adjustable, but it is sufficiently loud to stir you from a solid sleep.

Sound quality is surprisingly good given the compact size and 12-watt RMS power -- perhaps due to something Philips calls wOOx loudspeaker technology, which pumps up the bassline. We were particularly impressed with how the audio stacked up against more expensive dock systems such as the On Time, On Stage II and Altec Lansing's M602.

One downside of the low price is that there's no equaliser, so you'll need to adjust settings on your MP3 player if you want to tinker with the audio. Overall though, the AJ300D offers great bass-rich sound, looks good on your bedside table, and doesn't require a hefty cash outlay.