Ten... boomboxes There are some really excellent iOS speaker systems available at the moment, but most of them are designed for a tasteful dinner party with friends rather than a full-on party scene. And, of course, they’re mostly mains-powered and designed for use at home. However, there are a number of boombox systems that can run off …
Apple have pulled a blinder by getting their adapter accepted as a standard. Hopefully the EU will stick the boot in at some point (like they have with mobiles and chargers).
Heck, maybe we should just declare the Apple port as the official standard and thus unpatentable and allowed to be freely used without license?
After all, isn't competition good for the consumer?
My wife uses one of the single dock Ion units for all her dance teaching and Zumba classes, with a wireless headset receiver in the aux input. I've even played my Roland drums through it - works really well.
It is VERY loud!
Recommended for places were volume's needed over fidelity - which is not usually a problem when mp3 and aac files are being played.
Tim
I'd add that the pioneer looks like the only candidate for the title of boombox. Also we're missing the two TDK boxes, one of which was used for the last Beastie Boys album launch, that's accreditation..
Also I'd like bemoan the lack of solar, or even a little windturbine, don't laugh I live in Scotland, I'm serious! its all about efficiency, not wattage. Bose know it but they use it to make things that are very small.
Jamie
( Tried to reply directly to your comment but for some reason got a "Gone" http error when I tried)
Absolutely agree with you about these devices pandering to Apple. It's for that reson, as I read the reviews, that I decided the only unit I'd be interested in out of the lot of them would be the Logitech - simply because it did NOT have an Apple suck-up dock.
Just as I refuse to allow Apple products in my house, I similarly refuse to allow products that accommodate them.
Well if you're happy with "sound only" 3.5mm aux port then by all means stick with it. Some of us have moved on and actually like the added functionality a multi-use io port gives us.
And the only reason you see i* docks on so many accessories is because there are so many i* items out there. If Google had had the sense to mandate a std physical interface in the same way then I'm sure it would be being supported too
"...one needs an open standard to browse/control."
Good to know that there is one (assuming that there is), shame it doesn't seem that anyone's using it or that they're all keeping pretty quiet about it if they are.
The other players need to wake up and smell the coffee. The only way they're going to dent the iMonopoly is by all conforming to a single interface standard. That way they might pull enough clout between 'em to get the third-party device lads to take an interest.
...DLNA is all about? And I hear tell that even if this is followed, it's only to relative values of "standard" and supposedly "DLNA" complaint devices will not interoperate.
This is why you must buy all-Sony, or all-Samsung or all-Apple.
You must be true to your chosen cult, only the heretics expect manufacturers to allow consumer to benefit from interoperation.
Knowing the wattage output tells you bugger all. How's it measured? Peak, RMS and into what load? How efficient are the drivers? A 3dB difference in speaker sensitivity means you can use half the watts for the higher sensitivity speakers to get the same sound pressure level. And how did the manufacturer measure that sensitivity? That's right - they didn't. It's like buying cars based on brake horse power figures. Pointless.
Still... if it sounds good and goes loud enough who gives a crap?
What, do you guys in the UK not enjoy the wonderful boombox styling we^H^Hyoung people these days enjoy here in the land of the frat boy?
http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/11/13/00/28/67/1113002867765_500X500.jpg
http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/04/73/23/66/0004732366100_500X500.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41St3IEU5eL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
http://trendsupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/lbt-zx99i_cw.jpg
Sony seems to be the perpetrator of a good number of audio atrocities, which seems odd, for a company whose design sense is so clean in other markets - but it seems that Sony knows that college nitwits with more money than brains buy expensive stuff because it looks garish... but *adults* with more money than brains buy stuff because it looks great.
(For the record, adults with no money and no brains *either* buy stuff because it looks garish, too. This is why you can go to the Home Despot and get one of a hundred gold encrusted sconces with curlicues and fillets and carving and embellishments and sparkles for $11, or buy one that's a simple brushed-steel cylinder for $140. Fucking hell, why is it that if you don't want to spend $100 on a wall light you have to get something that looks like it was stolen from Donald Trump's bathroom?)
But I digress - and wait! Another contender has stepped entered the ring!
http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/jvc_mx_gt80.jpg
Ding ding ding! Stand up and applaud, if you're not vomiting - JVC emerges victorious in the "Oh my Jesus Lord" sweepstakes for fucking terrible looking audio equipment.
I mean, *damn*.
Admittedly, the JVC is possibly the most hideously fugly male-adolescent-oriented toss I've ever set eyes on, but it's not really a good example of state of the anti-art.
The monstrosity is a decade old- the giveaway was what appeared to be twin cassette decks at the front (cassettes are dead, or at best a semi-ironic piece of 80s-invoking retro as far as today's adolescent is concerned)
http://www.amazon.com/JVC-MX-GT80-GigaTube-Compact-Stereo/dp/B00005AYA7
Also noticed that it has a 3CD changer; even I don't use CDs these days.
BTW I dislike the creeping Americanisation of the use of the term "boombox"... it were "ghetto blaster" when I were a lad, and a "ghetto blaster" it will always be. (Er, even though "ghetto blaster" was probably an American term in the first place and ditched due to the slightly insulting undertone!)
There seems to be a rather arbitrary approach to which products you review, which makes them a little bit...totally ****ing useless.
Your reviews are in general well written, but when they miss out really obvious products in whatever category you're reviewing, it really doesn't help me decide which one to buy, just how I should feel about what I've already bought.
Speaking of which - why didn't you include the jawbone jambox in this review. Spectacular piece of kit.
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