A little bigger than the Bose SoundDock but mercifully smaller than the iPod Hi-Fi, Samsung’s piano black MM-X5 iPod docking station has a little extra trick up its sleeve: a slot-loading CD player.

The Shanling MC-30 Music Center is proof that not all iPod docks have to look the same. It comes packed with not only iPod support, but a Hi-Fi CD player, an AM/FM tuner, and a tube power amplifier.

In a world run by cell phones, tablets, smart watches and various other mobile devices, it's sometimes hard to remember a world without the devices we carry with us everywhere we go. Sure, we had the ...