Portable Battery Powered MP3 player with Speakers

[Armitage]

I'm looking for the 21 Century version of a Ghetto Blaster... for the backyard.

I used to have a sweet Sony CD Player with rechargeable batteries that kept me entertained without bothering the neighbors. I could sit it on the table in front of me and enjoy. I've burned tons of my CDs to MP3 so I don't even need a CD function.

I'm tempted to just bring out a laptop and plug in battery powered speakers, (but I wonder if even under an umbrella I can see the screen) or run a line out from my Onkyo receiver which has a few zones I'm not using... but then I won't be able to look at a menu etc, nothing beats something small I can drag around.

What are you guys using? Anyone recommend anything out there?

Thanx.

[Armitage]

Wow, it's so hard to spend money without feeling ripped off or not getting the simple things I want.

I just want to sit down on my patio, have some tunes at the table, sit in it's sweet spot, not bother the neighbors and have control of the music, you know pick songs and albums... heck, I could do it in the '70s... I'm not shy on spending money, I just want stuff that works, and works well, and doesn't have serious design flaws that I can see while standing in the store.

No one seems to make a reasonably engineered player/amp combo.

I'm also not a fan of Apple stuff, more because of how stuff is designed to make them money, not to work well for you. Changed an iPhone's battery yet? Apple has told our local Cell company to take in every iPhone that comes in the door, reguardless the reason it came in, and change the screws to tamper proof ones, they want their $80+ to change the $80 battery. Apparently even the Dealer can't change the battery! That kind of business ethic drives me nuts.

Everyone knows iPods, and everyone makes an iPod dock... most don't work with other MP3 players, (proprietary jacks and all), and Apple demands you don't install competing jacks, even the Sony unit only takes Apple, not Sony Walkmans! Some have a line-in jack, so you can run out the headphone jack on another brand player and plug in... line in jacks don't charge your player/smart-phone like a dedicated jack does though, or like a USB... and if you can hear the difference between two different $1000 amplifiers, you know you don't want to run through the $6 built-in amp of an iPod/MP3 player if you don't have too... but you can live with it for outside I guess...

I looked at iPod Touches... lots of features I don't need and with a screen you can't easily see in the sun anyways. Kind of expensive as an MP3 player. The Nano does what I want, but the jack is as big as the player and at the bottom (the screen doesn't auto-flip like the regular one) so I can see that failing after being picked up a bunch of times. Hmmmm... I suppose I can even use my freshly retired Blackberry Storm as an MP3 player for now.

I was immediately walked over to the Bose Portable SoundDock at $359.00, as many people who love audio call them "All Hi/No/Fi Bose." The highs are lovely, but artificially airy, I could live with that, it actually sounds nice, (some people love the fake 3D effect, others it drives insane), but there's no low mids or bottom at all until you turn it up... if I'm going to sit in the back and actually listen to music for the day, it'll drive me nuts because I'm not going to turn it up enough to annoy my neighbors. It would make a really nice kitchen radio for the background though (they make a regular plug in version for that). Comes with it's own rechargeable battery (that lasts only 3 hours). That's $359.00... plus spare battery... plus MP3 player... At least you can plug it in and it charges itself.

Sony makes one that sounded better all round, the Sony RDP-XF100IP Portable iPod Docking Station, and was only $187.92, and not nearly as artificial, more realistic lows (for a tiny unit anyways, yet the Sony's bottom end distorts quickly at higher volumes, but I'm putting it on a table facing me in the back yard, I'm not turning it up). No USB play or charging for other players... but you can just plug it in to recharge itself.

The TDK $400 Boombox sort'a works. I saw three, one is a nice size and a cube, which means the speakers face everyone else but me... (neighbors, naw), the second was nice, but the even bigger one sounded much better. It's almost as nice sounding as my old Ghetto Blaster... which was $150 with CD/tape and radio built in. The TDK sounds nice, and can get way louder then I'll ever need out back and can even plug in an thumb-drive direct or MP3 player by USB (and keep the player charged)... there's even an instrument input... Pandora time! But not only are there basic concerns like the USB jack sits straight out the side, right where your thumb drive can get whacked off... and people are already complaining about the quality of the jacks at the best of times, and with twelve (12!) "D" sized batteries... that's a lot of real estate in the house to sit three full sized chargers every day. Why can't it have a built in charger? Is the $6 worth of parts asking too much? It's big and heavy, (really big and heavy!) but I'm not taking it on vacation, just to the back yard. So maybe... maybe not. I thought it was funny the huge store I was in sold tons of rechargeable D batteries, but not one charger to fit them (just AA/AAA)... let alone that many at once.

I've yet to check out the Altec Lansing Mix iMT800, the tremendously ugly Harman Kardon Go + Play Micro, or just giving up and going to a wireless set of speakers (or running a zone out of my receiver in the house) and giving up on a menu driven choice of music, I can always hit "next" all day long... grrrr, maybe not. Bluetooth audio quality is typically lacking... Apple AirPort Express is another idea... but then I'm feeding the monster that's actually creating the problem...

This is the 21st Century, this should be easy. Certainly easier then 35 years ago... you'd think.

[JohnnyB]

This may be what you're looking for. Here's the full factory description. The customer reviews are very encouraging.

TDK also offers a boombox version. It's also available at Amazon.

All mp3 players are compatible, as it has a USB input. For an iPod you connect with the dock-to-USB cable.

Sound quality should be good. The side drivers are active coaxial speakers. The center diaphragm with metal dustcap is a passive radiator to increase bass response.

[mathman]

I have an earlier version of

[Feynman]

I have a slightly later version of

[mathman]

ahh but is your version vintage?

[JGale]

I accidentally your version.

[mathman]

I accidentally your version.

Me too.

Actually, I have a fairly Cheap iHome 2go that works fairly well for a portable boom box but it is fairly cheap. Has decent sound but not really hi-fidelity. Which is sorta what the other post was meant to convey.