Posts Tagged portable music
Brunton Restore Portable Solar Power Supply
If we’re not all charging up our music players and cell phones with solar power, it’s not for lack of trying on the part of device manufacturers. Some of these solar devices actually work quite well too, like this portable power supply from Brunton.
The first idea here is you can charge it up at home or in a car ahead of time, like the iGo Power Extender and CallPod Fueltank Charger we reviewed before. Then you take it with you on a trip, using it to charge up your devices when you can’t get near an outlet, like on a plane or bus.
This goes a big step further though. The second idea is to use it as a solar charger when you are on a long camping or mountaineering trip off the grid. With the Brunton Restore and ample sunlight, you can restore your devices to full power. If it’s fully charged, it’ll reload your iPod or regular cell phone two or three times. It’ll fully charge a smart phone or gaming device one or two times. It has enough juice to recharge four AA batteries and can recharge your Bluetooth headset seven to eight times. For an iPod, one hour of sun equals six or seven hours of music—that is far superior to what most other competitors promise.
I left the unit in the sun for seven hours and it was all charged up—I could tell from the handy 4-light LED system. I was then able to fully charge my iPod twice and a half-empty phone and still have juice left in it.
This Brunton version is a bit heavier than some others I’ve tried, at 7.2 ounces, but it’s rubberized and really solid. It feels like it could be dropped off a roof and survive. It’s water resistant too. It flips open too and exposes two rather large panels, making it easier to operate (especially with one hand) than the three-panel Solio charger I’ve tried before.
There’s a handy design to this whereby you can plug in a USB cord to charge up anything attached to that, or you can pull out the male USB plug and insert it into the device. Or pull out the other end of the cable instead and it goes into a mini-USB slot like you see on Google phones and the SlotPlayer for example. There’s an adapter for micro USB as well, which other devices use. So basically you’re okay charging up any music player, communication device or camera, provided it uses some version of USB.
“But Tim, my damned Nokia phone and my damned Samsung phone need different adapters than these!” Well, there’s the biggest drawback with this. Eventually we’ll get to a happy place where every device shares the same standard charger setup, but until that time you have to keep fooling with tips and adapters. Brunton doesn’t offer any help in that department, so if your device doesn’t come with some kind of USB charger, you’re SOL unless you can find some adapter on eBay that will do the trick. For Apple devices, you’ll have to bring along the USB cord to connect the device to a USB port on the charger.
The Restore retails for around $90, but the packaging says it’ll give you the output equivalent of 1,372 AA batteries. You can use this charger 500 times before the internal battery will wear out, which is probably plenty for a lifetime unless you’re a hermit moving to Death Valley. If you’ll be in the wilderness or you’re just a backpacker who will be in a place where sunshine is far more prevalent than reliable electricity, this is a solid solar charger that really works.
Get the Brunton Restore Portable Power Device at REI.com
Posted by Tim in Adventure Gear, General Gear on March 4th, 2010
Portable Speaker Kit From Eagle’s Nest Outfitters
We’re suckers for portable travel speakers here at the Practical Travel Gear blog because hey, music is best when it’s shared. If you’re in a nice luxury hotel with an iPod/MP3 dock that’s easy enough, but it’s not so likely when you’re paying $20 a night for your digs or you’re camping somewhere.
Speakers for travelers have to be easy to pack though, which leads to all kinds of variations on size and weight reduction. This version takes the case approach: the speakers are built into a case that also holds your music player and cords. It zips up tight so your player is protected in a semi-hard case. When you’re ready to crank the tunes, you unzip it, turn both the player and the speakers on, and you’re set.
Eagle’s Nest Outfitters is a company best known for its great hammocks that pack up small. I’ll be reviewing one of those when this damn snow stops and the flowers start blooming in the south. They put out a line of accessories you would want to take along for your chillin’ time though and this is one of those.
As with most all of these portable speakers, there’s a major trade-off when it comes to sound quality. Labeling this as a “Hi-Fi Speaker Case” doesn’t make it so. On the plus side you get the separate stereo channels you don’t hear with the likes of the one-speakers solutions we have reviewed (see links at the end). On the minus side, the usual lack of bass response is joined by noticeable distortion, especially at a volume level that goes past halfway. On a sliding scale, electronica sounds best, followed by country/Americana, classic rock, and jazz. Anything dominated by a heavy bass and vocals mixed way up front—like rap—ends up sounding pretty lousy, even after tweaking your iPod’s EQ.
The thing is, they’re not alone in these deficiencies. For 25 bucks and eight ounces of weight, what can you reasonably expect? This “hi-fi” speaker case is not going to fill a large room with crystal-clear sound. What it will do is accompany your campfire weenie roasting or provide some musical accompaniment as you play backgammon in a cheap guesthouse room. For most of the time when you’re traveling, that’s good enough. It uses two AA batteries too, which makes things easy. The specs say the batteries will last 7 to 12 hours and I’m already at 11 in my testing, with rechargeable batteries I’ve used at least 20 times already, so this set of speakers is definitely efficient.
Shop for the Eagle’s Nest portable speaker case at Rock/Creek,
Related reviews:
Sony Ericsson MS410
iHome IHM7 mini speaker
X-mini capsule speaker
Posted by Tim in General Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on February 17th, 2010
Kidz Gear Headphones for Young Children
I sure wish I knew about these Kidz Gear headphones when my children were preschoolers. At ages 7 and 9, they’ve now mastered the art of using earbuds. But back when they were little, and we brought a portable DVD player and cassette-tape player on every road, plane and train trip, this kid-sized gadget would have been the perfect fit!
What I like most about these headphones is the soft, padded ear cups that are covered in a leather-like material. The kiddie headphones my toddler kids had for their backseat car use were made of foam, and they picked at those, tearing them easily. The adjustable Kidz Gear version actually looks like “grown up” headphones — with the black and chrome-colored plastic — but they are sized for little heads. The very comfortable headphones (I tried them on myself!) are made for children as young as two to use, and they fold up for easy transport and storage.
The quality is quite good — I tested them with iTunes and my laptop, and compared them with my iFrogz earbuds. The sound coming from the earbuds is crisper and louder, but the headphones absolutely do the job well (especially for children). There is built-in independent volume control, so kids can adjust the sound as they like. But parents should monitor as needed, since the volume can get quite loud if the dial is turned up all the way.
Kidz Gear headphones have a universal plug-in for use in portable DVD players, mp3 players and hand-held video games. You can buy Kidz Gear Headphones from Amazon.com; they retail for $16.99. There’s also a wireless version for $29.99 that are compatible with DVD players installed in most cars, from Acura to Mercedes Benz.
Posted by Kara in Kids and Family on January 15th, 2010
Sansa Clip Plus MP3 Player – 4GB for $40
I’ll admit that I like my iPod and travel with it a lot, but I’m kind of ambivalent about it. I hate the fact that you can’t play a regular song purchased from iTunes on other players, while an MP3 can be played on pretty much anything. You can go the other way, however, importing anything into iTunes, which means that songs in the MP3 format are essentially more valuable than ones in Apples’ AAC format.
Just as Windows laptops give you far more for your money than Apple ones, MP3 players tend to be much cheaper and more flexible than Apple’s players. Take this Sansa Clip+, which holds 4GB of songs (the equivalent of two 4th-generation Shuffles) and also accepts the cool little SlotRadio cards preloaded with music. And it has an FM radio with 40 presets. Plus a mic for voice recording. All that for $50 list and only $40 at Amazon. Is that a deal or what?
I’ve been using one that SanDisk sent me to try out for a couple weeks now and this Clip+ is a screaming bargain. I loaded it up with all the MP3s I had on my computer and played the radio sometimes too, both through earbuds and through the iHome mini speakers I reviewed last week. As usual, the earbuds that came with it were crappy, but when I plugged in my own good ones the sound was indistinguishable from that of my iPod.
The navigation is pretty simple and easy to figure out, with songs arranged by album, artist, and playlist. A quick click of the home button on the front takes you to the main menu. Simple controls allow you to do all the usual—pause, go back or forward in the tracks, and raise/lower the volume. There’s a power button on the top, though with no “hold” button to keep it from starting up in your bag. Battery life is15 hours, so that’s probably not much of a worry. It has a standard mini USB plug (yea) and the included cord recharges it through any USB hub. A bright display on top tells you what song is on—the main drawback of the Shuffle in my opinion.
Besides MP3s, it supports WMA, secure WMA, Audible, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and audio books/podcasts. Plus there’s a microSD card slot, which also doubles as a SlotRadio card player. If you get sick of your own 1,000-song collection this will hold, pop in one of those prerecorded cards and you’ve got 1,000 new songs instantly.
This is one tiny player too. See the photo below where I put it on top of my iPod. It barely even covers the video display area. And it has a clip on the back to keep it secured to your clothing when you are running or biking. No accessory needed. It comes in black, red, or blue, also in 2GB and 8GB versions.
Apple has become so dominant in music players that it is hard for anyone else to make a dent, but this is certainly a worthy competitor to the Shuffle or Nano, especially if you don’t care about watching video on a teeny screen or shooting video, like the new Nano does. If you’re getting a gift for a child or will be getting your music somewhere else besides iTunes—like eMusic, your own CD collection or Amazon’s better-priced MP3 store—then this player is a terrific value.
Get the Sansa Clip+ 4GB at Amazon
25 FREE Downloads. eMusic for your iPod or any MP3 player
Posted by Tim in Kids and Family, Travel Light on December 20th, 2009
Holiday Tunes to Go: Sony Ericsson MS410 Portable Speaker a Sound Investment
If someone on your gift list carries a Sony Ericsson Walkman or other compatible cell phone, better sound is a snap with the MS410 snap-on speaker stand.
The small stereo speaker—just a little over four inches wide—works with more than 50 phones in the Sony Ericsson line. And for something so small, the sound is surprisingly good.
Music never sounds good on a cell phone’s built-in speaker. Phone speakers always sound tinny, with no discernable bass.
The MS410 speaker made Gwen Stefani sound much better on the W518a Walkman phone I tested it with. Realistically, you’ll never get concert-hall quality out of a four-inch speaker set. Nor will it match the sound of a good set of earbuds such as the Shure SE530PTH or the V-MODA Vibe II earbud-microphone combo we reviewed earlier.
But the MS410 does give decent stereo separation and greatly-improved frequency response compared to the phone’s built-in speaker. Set in on a table and there’s plenty of volume to be heard throughout a room.
The speaker stand plugs in to the charging port on the phone and doesn’t require any batteries of its own. As another benefit, it will hold the phone upright for watching videos.
The MS410 also includes a built-in FM antenna for phones equipped with radios. The antenna sensitivity leaves a bit to be desired. I was able to pick up local stations fine. But any station more than a few miles away couldn’t be heard. Reception will vary, depending on where the phone is used.
The list price is $39.99.
If you’re looking for a gift that’s simple to use, easy to carry on the road and not too hard on the budget, check out the Sony Ericsson MS410 portable speaker. You’ll hear the difference.
Get the Sony Ericsson MS410 Multimedia Speaker System at Buy.com
Related reviews: X-mini speaker and iHome mini speaker
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on December 13th, 2009
