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Bayan 7: Hands-on with the dual iPhone speaker dock

If you still haven’t bought all your Christmas presents and know or live in a house overrun by iDevices, then cast your eyes over the Bayan 7 from Bayan Audio. Able to handle two iDevices with its dual docking points, it also boasts five-way 2.1 channel stereo speakers, an 8″ subwoofer as well as a 3.5mm line-in for other devices. Bundle the striking design into the mix and before we even get to sound quality we’re feeling love for the Bayan 7.

The Bayan 7 is a great bit of kit if space is an issue. While it isn’t by any means portable, requiring it be plugged into a power point, it’s compact enough for a small to average sized living room and is well-able to fill it with decent sound. Coming in both white and black, on the front side are the speakers and subwoofer as well as the two iPhone docks – these can be used for both playback and charging of your iDevice. On the reverse are two ports of note – a USB port for charging and a 3.5mm line in. The Bayan 7 also ships with an audio cable, making playback from any device with a headphone jack possible, <whisper> even an Android phone </whisper>.

With the wooden speaker house reducing energy dissipation, the five-way 2.1 channel speakers and the 8″ subwoofer, the Bayan 7 produces a great sound, especially when the £299 price-tag is taken into account. With exceptional clarity, it’s slightly less rounded at the lower ends than some other speaker systems we’ve tried that cost considerably more, however is definitely category leading at its price-point.

Shipping with an IR remote that not only controls playback across devices, but also interacts with the iPhone, the Bayan 7 gives you the ability to navigate across playlists from the comfort of a couch, making it the perfect living room companion. A note about the remote – make sure that there’s a clear line of sight between the remote and the dock. We found it didn’t work too well at an angle and the buttons aren’t as responsive as we would have liked, feeling spungey when pressed. Functionality-wise however, the control does the job and even matches the iPhone 4 / 4S dimensions for added aesthetic homogeneity.

All in all, our office has been well and truly accommodated for with the Bayan 7 busting out a range of tunes all day and doing a good job of it. At £299 direct from Bayan, it’s definitely better than any iPhone all-in-one speaker we’ve tested at its price-point or lower in terms of sound, and with the dual audio-dock is a great solution for any household with more than one iPhone / iPod. So whether you’re looking for a last minute present or a dock for yourself, you could do a lot worse than pick yourself up a Bayan 7.

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