Sony Walkman RDP-NWV500 Soundmug fits your car's cupholder, looks good with a rifle

Sony's ¥20,000 (about $214) RDP-NWV500 speaker, like the Rolly before it, is one of those rare devices that can be seen as either brilliant or foolish at first glance. Built to fit in your car's cupholder, the 16W tumbler tethers to your music player to pump out 360-degree sound from its 2-way speakers (56-mm woofer, 20-mm tweeter) that can be managed via top-mounted controls or the included wee remote control -- power is supplied from the car's accessory socket, not an internal battery as you might have hoped. At home the Soundmug fits into it's bundled charging dock that simultaneously charges your Walkman. Crazy, like a fox? Check the video demo after the break.

[jaydzz Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:19AM]

lol

[Prospero Posted Apr 8th 2010 5:41AM]

@jaydzz

lol, oh Sony!

[santela Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:21AM]

i like it

[VIDEOGAMES Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:26AM]

Speakers?

In a car?

That can connect to an MP3 player?!!?!!

GENIUS! I'M SOLD.

[kjube Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:26AM]

would be great if it also kept your coffee warm inside

[tonicboy Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:27AM]

huh? almost any card made today has speakers and more and more offer easy ways to hookup your mp3 player and even with the ones that don't, there are thousands upon thousands of easy solutions to hook up your mp3 player, giving you great sound at a quarter of the price. at home, there are much better portable speakers for under $200.

[ichirakuramen Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:29AM]

Makes me wish i had a cupholder, maybe i could remove my stock speakers for cupholder space!

[evilspoons Posted Apr 8th 2010 3:58PM]

@ichirakuramen I find this vastly ironic since the car is a Volvo S40/V50/C30.

Modern Volvos are known for:
1. Their FANTASTIC Dynaudio sound systems, and:
2. Their absolutely HORRIFIC cupholders.

Seriously - try to drive that car with a manual transmission and a drink. Not gonna happen.

[mikachu Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:29AM]

Now if my car had cupholders... :D I think I'm gonna keep my car speakers and my iPod connectable sound system ^^

[questionexclamation Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:30AM]

I rarely eat Burger King. And just the other day after ordering a "Medium" drink from burger king. I got in my car and was amazed on how my cupholder was not big enough for it. America is seriously FAT. Maybe if this speaker would take up the cup holders it might somehow impact people's eating habits. Although it would probably be minuscule, its better than nothing.

[Atkins Posted Apr 8th 2010 5:08AM]

@questionexclamation Yes, they should switch from FAT to Home Fitness System or Home Fitness System Plus.

[tonicboy Posted Apr 8th 2010 6:05AM]

@Atkins
Even the Not Too Fat System would be preferable.

[sys3175 Posted Apr 8th 2010 10:32AM]

@questionexclamation too bad those medium and large drinks usually have less then 1 can's worth of actual soda in them.. they are mostly ice :) not to mention the fast food place mixes in so much water.. the soda size isn't what makes us fat... it's the food we shovel into our mouths every 4-5 hours.

[nicholaelaw Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:31AM]

I wanted a Rolly, but this? Only if it also holds water.

[tonicboy Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:50AM]

@nicholaelaw
Sorry, this concept doesn't hold water.

[mrqs Posted Apr 8th 2010 5:17AM]

@tonicboy

nice

[Atkins Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:32AM]

No multitasking. Either you drink or you listen to music.

[furquanatique Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:46AM]

Right-hand-drive?!!!? omgbbqsauce explosion!

[questionexclamation Posted Apr 8th 2010 11:54AM]

@furquanatique

...Just be a mailman for goodness sake.

[weatherman Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:52AM]

I thought for sure this was actually going to be a somewhat lever device that inluded a large HD for storing tunes coupled with a battery for long car trips and both audio-out and maybe an FM transmitter to play the tunes on the very capable stereo that most cars already have. That would have made sense to me.

[eddib Posted Apr 8th 2010 5:55AM]

I like it. Especially the word cup, now how about D-cup stereo for A-cup girls. Everybody wins!

[Gad Get Posted Apr 8th 2010 5:57AM]

So... it's a tiny speaker system designed to nestle in the cup holder of your car? And it plugs into the cigarette lighter for sustained power? That's ingenious! I'm sure it produces much better, more car-filling sound than the average car's sound system! And since no convenient little cigarette lighter-powered device exists for broadcasting the audio content of your mp3 player over the FM spectrum, to be received by an antenna connected directly to the car's sound system and then pumped into the air by said sound system (with much less authority than this thing likely manages, anyway)... this thing could revolutionize music in the car!

/sarcasm

Crapgadget, anyone? Seriously, Sony... I might expect something as harebrained from some little-known Shenzhen manufacturer, but not from one of the biggest electronics giants in the world!

OK, rant over.

[sys3175 Posted Apr 8th 2010 10:35AM]

@Gad Get This is why Sony is quickly in danger of not being one of the electronics giants any more. They are clueless about what people want.. of course the walkman product line has pretty much suffered from that since the invent of the portable compact disc and took a second hit from portable media players.. lol

[FallenArms3 Posted Apr 8th 2010 6:03AM]

I'm sure it will sound excellent when it rattles around in my crappy foldout plastic cupholders. Plus the fact that my accessory outlet has been missing since I bought the car.

My car is so ghetto I love it.

[shell56xxx Posted Apr 8th 2010 7:18AM]

My question is why? A cup in the cup holder is more useful than this crap. Most cars have inputs for mp3 player. why buy it?

[bgphoenix Posted Apr 8th 2010 7:56AM]

Next device from Sony:

a CD that goes in the CD drive of your car that holds your cups....

[sys3175 Posted Apr 8th 2010 10:37AM]

@bgphoenix My first pentium based computer came equipped with one of those, and if I remember right it was made by sony.. pressed a button and the cup holder came out, only problem is it would try to pull the cup into the computer when you needed to reboot.. wierd stuff. :) lol

[darkmax Posted Apr 8th 2010 8:44AM]

Wow! I didn't know there are so many ignorant people in Engagdet's forums!!

Notice 360 degrees sound? Of course, most iPod users wouldn't know or tell the difference. Also comparing Walkman's sound output to that of a standard car stereo system, is pretty poor a comparison, much less that of the iPod.

[GErvy Posted Apr 8th 2010 8:49AM]

This is actually an awesome idea.

Lots of older cars on the road do not have stereos that have auxiliary jacks or ipod docks. Thus you're relegated to really crappy FM-transceivers that 99.9% of the time completely suck (mono sound, typically interference, etc....).

I for one am thinking of buying this for my Honda, as it would require way too much work to get my Sirius radio to play with decent sound quality over the existing stereo (as I'm not about to rip out the dashboard in order to get to the antenna port for a FM-to-antenna widget).

[rend2688 Posted Apr 8th 2010 8:53AM]

im sure people have actually watched the press video and seen its just another speaker dock, which so happens to fit in your car cup holder.

or..... all of you must be joking around.... ALTHOUGH....id say some of you actually dont know its just a normal speaker, that fits in your cup holder lol

[cjwild Posted Apr 8th 2010 9:22AM]

What about the vehicle speakers themselves? :\ Why not just get an auxiliary plug in...

[espentan Posted Apr 8th 2010 10:09AM]

Clever. Me like.

[nevernot Posted Apr 8th 2010 10:54AM]

Sony might be missing the point on this one. Why not put it in the water bottle holder on a bike? Makes perfect sense, far more than putting it in a car with 18 bajillion speakers surrounding you. If the battery life is decent this would be the perfect cycling accessory. Riding with headphones is illegal in most states.

[PrinceAli Posted Apr 8th 2010 11:19AM]

the steering is on the wrong side :P

[kjube Posted Apr 8th 2010 1:48PM]

@PrinceAli In Japan they also drive on the left ;)