NEW YORK – As more and more tech toys evolve to include music-playing capabilities, gadget lovers face an increasingly common problem: How can you amplify them all without buying five different speaker docks?

Lately, this has been a problem for me, so when I first spotted iLuv’s i199 multimedia system – promising to play music from all these sources while also letting you transmit and receive music – I was optimistic, though admittedly skeptical.

The $250 i199 is $50 cheaper and purports to do much more than Bose’s excellent-sounding SoundDock for the iPod. And although some other systems offer multiple playback options, users are still hard-pressed to find one that promises the level of interoperability found in the i199.

The i199 does all that it claims – and much of it well enough to make it worth the price of a video iPod.

The iLuv dock comes in black or white and is about the size of a sleek desktop computer. Various controls on top let you toggle between functions, manipulate playback and volume and control features like the clock and alarm. A hinged panel opens to reveal an iPod dock, USB port and a port for iLuv’s Bluetooth implementation.

The front of the iLuv is mostly speaker grill, obstructed by a slot-loading CD player and a central, adjustable LCD that glows bright blue.

When I started testing the iLuv, I wasn’t sure where to start. With plenty of playback possibilities, I was briefly tempted to connect all my gadgets at once.

But I decided to ease my way in instead.

First, I docked my video iPod and found that it was typically easy to control with the iLuv’s small, slightly awkward-feeling remote. The speakers also sounded good, though not incredible.

Soon, I moved on to CDs by popping in an old “No Doubt” disc. The CD slid smoothly into the unit, and, again, playback was steady and simple.

I began turning up the volume and found the sound good and clear until a little more than two-thirds of the way up. At full blast, the music began sounding a little distorted, but definitely loud enough to support a nice-sized party.

Of course, a good party demands a steady flow of solid tunes, and some of these are stored on stereo Bluetooth-enabled devices like cell phones.

As noted, the i199 has a port for Bluetooth devices. The gadget comes with a tiny “BluePin” audio transmitter and receiver, which you plug into the port. The i199 can now wirelessly play music from any stereo Bluetooth-enabled device and can send sounds for listening on similarly enabled headsets.

I did just that, but couldn’t get music from my phone to play at first. Only then did I notice a tiny switch that had to be moved from “transmit” to “receive.” Other than that, it was easy to set up. However, I found playback often noticeably choppy, especially when moving the phone.

I called a friend as music blared to see what would happen. As with a stereo Bluetooth headset, the music automatically paused once I hit the “call” button on my phone, resuming again after I hung up. The same thing happened when a friend called me.

I was more impressed with listening to music on a pair of Bluetooth headphones. Living with two roommates, all on different schedules, I like being able to rock out without annoying them.