USB retro wooden speaker escapes the crap pile by the slimmest margin
By Darren Murph 
posted August 5th 2009 8:06AM
posted August 5th 2009 8:06AM
posted August 5th 2009 8:06AM
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I bet it has better sound quality than an iPhone...
cmon, iPhone still no EQ?
you'll find the EQ under Settings->iPod...
not that it is any good, but it is there.
Um.. let me iClarify..
I want independant controls, NOT Apple APProved presets... (ROCK, CRAP, TREBBLE, CRAP and CRAP)
At least bury it into the menu so deep that the morons that don't know how to use it will never find it...
Seels to me most people that use APple crap cant count past the number 3. So 4 levels deep in the UI should thwart off the nubs!
If you create custom presets in iTunes, they sync to the preset list on the phone.
The built-in rechargeable battery is what sold me on this.
I've got an old set of Pioneer speakers that this thing HAD to be styled after. Good kit!
i made this exact thing for a group project
There's no 'I' in 'group' now, is there?
I would like to point you attention to groupies a very integral part of awesome.
my mistake, would you rather me have wrote "we" and left you wondering?
yes i would have
i made this exact thing for a school project
I concur (maybe someone's been watching a bit of Catch Me If You Can recently?)
"Aw, man. I should've concurred!"
LOL!
WTF man?
It's a perfectly promulent gadget!
You make it sound like this is a BAD thing!
Cheer up, little blog writer. Things'll get better.
"Promulent" is NOT a cromulent word.
But how loud are they?
At 3 Watts it can't be very loud. Given its size and price, I would also guess that the pitch will be close to a 12-year-old on Xbox LIVE.
"...through the pair of 3-watt stereo speakers..."
Not loud.
dB=10*log(watts)
granted it depends on how close you are to the speaker as well hince the use of a Logarithmic scale.
not very loud at all. An average computer speaker is about 5-10Watts
I dunno... a twelve-year-old on Xbox Live could make your ears bleed...
I got some 3 watt speakers that can fill a fair sized room with sound, enough to elicit complaints. They are about a foot high and made from wood, wood is good for speakers, as is size, so it's not all about wattage.
Now if only it acted as a sound card for your computer as well and a card reader...
...what?
...and poured your beer, downloaded torrents, selected choice bits of pron for my viewing pleasure, sent a deadly electrical charge through the interwebs into the keyboards and fingers of trolls, organized a swinger convention on your front lawn, turned lead into gold, singlehandedly perform a coup and install you as leader of a third world nation, created master works of art and music for you to profit from, bombard you with radiation that imbues you with supernatural powers, makes you irresistable to women, and finished your homework.
If you're gonna dream, dream BIG.
I hear the industrial designer has just booked a flight to a clinic in Switzerland. Seriously Engadget, surely it is better to get a full hands on before such comments? Where's the journalistic integrity? (Get the facts, ask questions, publish.) What's that opinion the Japanese have of US business practice? "Fire!, Ready? Aim!"
Without a screen, this is mostly useless.
Charge an extra $10, add a small screen and maybe a little internal memory and if nesseary, drop the remote, and you'll have a nice cheap little stereo. As it is, I'm not seeing it.
The "little" screen would have to be at least 3" for it to be worth anything, bringing the price closer to $80 or maybe more. Though I would prefer that and skip the internal memory to save costs.
"The "little" screen would have to be at least 3" for it to be worth anything"
Or it could be a black and white LCD readout like on a calculator, and it would cost pennies. It doesn't need to be a TFT or OLED screen, it just needs to say the track number, time, maybe track name, maybe total number of tracks, and a series of bars to indicate volume.
Naw, it should be like an 8 track player. No dsiplay, but there should be a click/clunk sound as you skip blindly from track to track.
That thing is pretty cool looking. I approve.
I wish it was more regular woodgrain color than black woodgrain color. Change the color and you have something that looks really late 70s looking.
Would have been perfect if the controls/flash drive were concealed inside an 8-track size flip panel.
This will be great for my 80,000 track cassettes!
Can we get a review here? The thing actually is pretty cool for $29.
agreed. please review.
i love this!!! kind of skeptical of the sound quality, but that's not why anyone is really going to buy it, now is it?
Looks to me a good thing to have on the desk/table to listen to podcast or voice recordings, I'd see it pop up in a movie or TV show where they retrieve a flashdisk and the team listens what's on it as they solve some mystery.
Can we get a review on this thing? It's actually pretty cool for $29.
I just got mine in the mail. (I like crapgadgets). Ships from Hong Kong.
There are a variety of power inputs on the back. The box, which is the only manual, says DC5W. The back of the unit says DC6W. I'm waiting for a reply from USBGeek about that. But, as the picture shows, it comes with a USB adapter cable. Also, it doesn't say whether or not the thing needs to be charged before it is played. In the meantime, it makes a nice conversation piece.
Ok, it works. I can't wait for a response from USBGeek as it's midnight in Hong Kong right now. I have it plugged in to a computer USB port right. I took an old USB key that has various documents and music on it, and a few seconds after I plugged it into the front it found music and began to play. Sound is *ok*. About what you'd expect. Will be good for audiobooks. No distortion from music, anyway. A blue LED flashes during playback, which is rather annoying. It stays lit while paused.
Aside from my power supply concerns mentioned above, I DON'T KNOW WHEN TO UNPLUG THE USB STICK! I'm so used to "Safe Removal" in Windows and Eject on the Mac. I'm not sure if I should pause, turn the unit off or what prior to unplugging.
but does it go to 11?
I like it! Would be great to have outside when bbq'ing. A lot easier to move than a boom box.
Might buy....
I don't know that I would buy it, but at $30, you could do a lot worse.
This would be great for playing background music at gatherings, like Christmas songs at Christmas.
why? because everyone hates Christmas songs and @ 3 watts no one would hear it?
That's pretty cool. It's very hard to find cheap wood-cabinet speakers. I was looking for an all-in-one powered speaker setup (think 'iPod' speakers but I didn't need the iPod dock) and ended up with a Vers system that has a wood cabinet. Almost everything else is ugly rattle-prone plastic crap.
crapgadget
It's 3 watts, people are raving about it here as if it's going to blow your face off.