After
purchasing and using my 5G iPod for a few weeks it became apparent to
me that I needed a set of external speakers for use at work and in my
shop. I was hooked on having my entire music collection at my
fingertips but felt tethered to the ear buds. Not knowing exactly
what was out there I set my requirements. Simple I thought I needed
a set of speakers that also came with a FM radio receiver so I could
listen to sports talk radio and Baseball games.
The
obvious choice would be the iBoom. I looked at it and was not
impressed, so I set my sights on a quality boom box with a line in.
This proved slim picking’s as there are only a few quality boom
boxes out there and even fewer of them have a line in. The results
of that search came up with a only a couple of high dollar units that
were much to big to travel back and forth to work. At this point I
decided to sit back and wait, surely something would come along. It
did.
A few
days later I was in Best Buy looking at NAS units and wondered down
the alarm clock isle. There sitting in the shelf was a demo unit of
the ShoqBox. Initially it was unimpressive at a little over 6 inches
wide by 2 inches deep and less than 2 inches tall. I was intrigued
though it had 2 titanium dome speakers, a FM tuner, line in and would
definitely be portable. So I pressed the demo button; WOW the thing
could produce high volume clear sound, and friends I do mean HIGH
volume considering it’s size, ShoqBox is definitely the proper
name for this device. I was impressed so I ordered one.
When it
arrived I put it to work right away and it had preformed better than
I expected. For $99.99 here’s what you get:
Sound
This
little thing will absolutely astound you with volume and clarity. It
simply defies the rules about how big a speaker need to be to produce
a high amount of volume and it does it with clarity and a more than
fair amount of bass. Find one and listen you will be “Shoqed”
Battery
Life
I have
not put a stopwatch on it but I can say that I have had it playing
continuously for close to 12 hours. In fact it always outlasts my
iPod’s battery which is supposed to have 14 hours of life.
FM Tuner
I have
been impressed with the quality of the FM Tuner. While at work I sit
in the midst of a myriad of high voltage transformer and other power
generating equipment that does quite the job of quashing radio
signals even with several 100,000-Watt Mega stations in the area.
The Shoq Box picks up stations that most of the boom box style radios
that some of the guys have won’t even touch.
The only
annoying thing about the FM tuner is the fact that you can’t
just turn it on and tune in to a station. Each station has to be set
as one of ten presets. Why?
Build
Quality
This is
no iPod it is a little heavy for it’s size and looks and feels
to be built like a tank. I have not dropped it to test its tankness
but I suspect it would take a fall better than my iPod or any other
normal boom box.
Ease of
use
To begin
with there is a little learning curve. Once mastered it can be set up
and adjusted easily and quickly. All the buttons have a nice tactile
feel and the interface responds fairly quickly.
Extras
The
PSS110 also includes an alarm clock that will wake you to stored
music, the radio, or a buzzer. Other extras are a sleep timer and an
auto shut off . I haven’t used any of the extras except the
alarm clock and it works well but it baffles me that here is no
snooze button.
Software
and Internal Memory
I have
used the firmware update utility and it is simple and easy to use. I
have not however used the Music Match software or the internal
memory. I have no need with The paltry 256MB of internal memory and
an iPod to plug into the line in.
Conclusion
I use
the ShoqBox for the radio and as speakers for my iPod and have loved
it. I have become irritated though, if the Shoq Box had say 6 GB of
storage and could use something other than Music Match it could
replace my iPod at work. As it is though the 256MB is simply not
enough for a unit such as this and the 512MB slightly bigger brother
would really be no better. It’s sad that such an awesome piece
of equipment is limited to such a small amount of storage.
If
Philips would figure out how to put in a decent amount of storage,
add a snooze function, allow me to just tune in a FM station and
market the ShoqBox I would bet that it would be a big seller. Think
about it a desktop music player with all feature of the Shoq Box and
the storage capacity of a at least 6GB that you can grab and take to
the beach. I’d buy one…
As it is
now it’s a great set of speakers for your digital music player
with the advantages of easy portability, a FM tuner and a long life
battery at an attractive price when compared to the other offerings.
Links:
Philips
USA
ShoqBox
Product Page
Marketing
Rant
It looks
to me like the big companies would have figured this out. Apple has
a 70+ percent market share because it markets the iPod. You see iPod
TV commercials, magazine adds, Hell they probably pay Best Buy and
Circuit City to Have the iPod listed in their weekly sale paper even
though iPods are never on sale. (Apple Locks the Price. And no I
don’t know why Wall-Mart can sell them a couple bucks cheaper
must have something to do with quantity ordered?) The point is right
now Phillips has an Awesome 6GB player and Creative has an Awesome
30GB player but they will never gain much market share with out a
marketing push. As a business major and by dealing with my Fiancée’s
Clothing Boutique I know that marketing makes money, you have to do
it, it’s not a choice. Why do these companies not market their
products aggressively?
Apple
sells us a great sounding and easy to use player but feature wise the
iPod lags behind the current competitors yet people still buy it. I
admit it, I have one because of the easy access to accessories and
compatibility with car stereo systems by Pioneer and Alpine. ( Yes I
said Compatibility in the same sentence with an apple product.)
Anyhow if one of the other companies would market their player
aggressively instead of just trying to out feature the iPod there
would be a market shift.
/end
rant, I’ll save the rest for another day…