Kenwood's Prodino gets good marks for storage options, not so much for price

The name of this portable digital audio system is partly derived from the Italian word for "great," and we're hoping it's an accurate descriptor, because at a likely price of ¥45,000 ($462) plus another ¥12,600 ($129) for an iPod docking station, this thing isn't as affordable (or stylish, for that matter) as previous products we've looked at. The Prodino (less sexily known as the CORE-A55) tries to earn the price tag by supporting not only USB but up to 32GB of storage on SD or microSD -- perfect for that slotMusic collection you wasted your money on. With speaker output at only 10W each, though, we're thinking a little shopping will find you a more attractive alternative.

[Via Impress]

[James @ Oct 30th 2008 1:25AM]

Wow can you say "waste of money"

[macfly @ Oct 30th 2008 6:48AM]

"sprecare soldi" is italian for wasting money: should have called it "sprechino"

[Chris McDowell @ Oct 30th 2008 1:43AM]

Can you believe it is someone's job to approve the creation of crap like this. Think of all the time and money invested into something like this. It could have been something much much better.

[webon @ Oct 30th 2008 2:40AM]

Japan is such a consumerism heaven this Will be sold, a Lot

[fred @ Oct 30th 2008 2:36AM]

thats some sweet profit margin there.

[Doddball @ Oct 30th 2008 6:54AM]

just a word from the article text: Actually the name prodino has no meaning in italian...it may come from 'prode' i.e. 'valiant' so 'a small valiant one' (very odd) or from 'crodino' popular analcolic beverage (disturbing).

[macfly @ Oct 30th 2008 8:07AM]

or, even more disturbingly, come from the name of ex prime minister Romano Prodi :-)

[Erik Tomlinson @ Oct 30th 2008 2:51PM]

Please stop perpetuating the myth that "More Watts = Better Sound". I have a 15 watt-per-channel stereo that sounds a heck of a lot better than a similarly-priced 60 watt-per-channel unit. Sure, the maximum volume isn't as high, but the 15 watt bugger can get loud enough for most rooms anyway. Power measurements do not take into account the efficiency (db produced per watt of input power) or sound quality of the system (much harder to quantify).

I'm not disputing that this thing is overpriced (even if the $462 included the iPod dock), but I am willing to bet that this thing sounds pretty damn good.

[TehNomad @ Oct 30th 2008 5:18PM]

x2, sound quality is independent of wattage