The Amethyst iPig is an ipod dock music player that focuses on packing a punch within a small budget.

Given the size, you'd be forgiven for not expecting much from this little piggy. When you do get round to turning it on, you'll be amazed at the sound quality. The bass is very clearly defined for something so small and it's by no means a tinny soundsystem. The volume is easily (and cutely) adjusted by pressing each ear individually, the left ear reduces the volume, the right ear increases the volume. Nice'n'simple.
It needs to be mentioned that the novelty value of using the ears as a volume control does tire. There are times when the volume doesn't change because it's not very clearly defined how to change the volume.

The set up is extremely swift, it is very much a plug'n'play affair. Once you've plugged in the pig (hehe), there is a small on/off switch at the back (aswell as a few other controls we'll look at later) which means the pig will turn on and off, go figure. Now that the pig is on, the pigs mouth will illuminate a bright green colour to indicate that it's on. It's as simple as plugging your ipod into the top of the pig and pressing play on your ipod.

"I don't have an ipod, can I still use it?"

You can indeed! At the back are other controls including;
.A bass adjuster
.On/Off switch
.Input

The input means you can easily link it up to your laptop, computer or anything else with a headphone output.

The bass adjuster does just that, it adjusts the bass. I've found that the bass usually performs the best when it is set quite high. Although I did mention before that the bass is clearly defined, it is only so well defined when the bass is at a high level. That said, being from an engineering background, I can also say that the bass will vary from room to room. Smaller rooms typically give out more bass and so in a smaller room it might not need such a large boost. We usually have it sat in quite a large kitchen so it is necessary for a high setting.

Speaking of high settings, this thing is loud.

There's been many a time where I've been woken up upstairs because of my housemates blaring this little piggy at 5 in the morning. It will go beyond your expectation in terms of volume and honestly surprised me on all fronts when I first plugged it in and listened.

Below are the technical specficiations for any tech-heads reading this.

The iPig efficiently utilizes minimal energy and is designed using environmentally friendly components and non-hazardous materials
Product Model-AIP
Amplifier output power: left / right 4W x 2
Amplifier output power: Subwoofer 15W x 1
Amplifier input sensitivity: ≤ 400mV
Amplifier SNR: ≥ 82dB
Amplifier distortion-: ≤ 0.7%
Frequency response: 60 Hz - 20 KHz
Speaker units: tweeter ф 35mm, subwoofer ф 94mm
Power voltage: AC110-240V, 50/60Hz

All in all, I'd recommend this for anyone who has an interest in high-quality sound but does not want to break the bank. It is sturdy, easy to use and fairly cheap. What else could you want?