Philips GoGear ShoqBox PSS110 (256 MB) MP3 Player
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- Number of Songs: 64
- Usage: Music
- Interface: USB 2.0
- Main Storage Type: Built-in Memory
- Storage Capacity: 256 MB
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In a class by itself
Pros
Novel; powerful sound for the size; lets you share mp3 music with others; fun factor
Cons
Bland design.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Get it now, or wait till a next-generation device comes out.
There is an unmentioned fun factor to the PSS110. Some examples: place the unit somewhere inconspicuous and set a high-quality lion roar, police siren, or soundbyte from your favorite action movie to play at full volume with the alarm function. This would surely scare the pants of someone. Take it to the next little-league game and use it to play crazy sound effects each time your kid's team scores. Etc. Etc.
As for music, have a few albums' worth of tunes to take with you on an outdoor trip: Unlike the traditional one-CD boom box of yore it can play at least 3 and as many as 6 complete albums depending on your preferred encoding method and bit rate. And of course, unlike the traditional boom box, it is incredibly compact.
It won't win any awards for audio excellence, but those speakers push a *lot* of air for their size. I placed my finger lightly on the surprisingly cushy speaker membrane and-- Whoa!-- the speakers vibrate as powerfully as a force-feedback game controller or heavy duty power tool.
It does act very well as an amplified speaker set for any audio device, including your PDA, PSX, laptop, portable TV or portable DVD player.
The build quality is superb...
The buttons have an incredible solid feel to them... something sadly missing from most of today's boom boxes with their often flimsy, featherweight controls. The unit itself also has a nice heft to it.
The only thing I would add to the unit is some sort of metal grill over the speaker membranes. I am scared that my 3 year old daughter wil try to color on the attractive shiny speakers
As far as it's radio goes, there's a minor quip in setting the presets: The radio auto-tune function needs to be fixed. Auto tune simple does not appear to work at all. The manual tune function will not let you hold down the up button to step quickly through frequencies-- you have to laboriously press up-up-up-up-up-up-up... literally hundreds of times through 0.1 mHz intervals to set your stations.
It is great to carry around in a hip sack:
The supplied carry case is very nice and stylish. But I love to go for walks and short outtings with the PSS110 in a hip sack meant to hold a portable CD player (I use my old CDProjects SP-1 leatherette pouch). Worn around the waist, the room in the hip sack lets me lay the PSS110 at the bottom of the pouch with the speakers facing upward.
The unfilled space in the hip sack acts like a resonance chamber. Even when the hip sack is entirely zipped closed, there is a nice worm boom to the sound. And having conversations with others around me while the music plays is easy to do since the hip sack makes the PSS110 sound a little less trebly (thus easier to talk over).
It's even nice to take with in the car (still in the hip sack) because I don't have to carry around CD's or burn compilation CDs anymore... And when I turn off the car and walk away, the tunes follow me!
Lastly, is is pretty impressive sounding at full volume: Loud, offering more bass than expected (with the DBB digital bass boost engaged), and not much distortion.
For the all-in-one mp3 boombox convenience, novelty and fun factor, I think you get what you pay for.
As for music, have a few albums' worth of tunes to take with you on an outdoor trip: Unlike the traditional one-CD boom box of yore it can play at least 3 and as many as 6 complete albums depending on your preferred encoding method and bit rate. And of course, unlike the traditional boom box, it is incredibly compact.
It won't win any awards for audio excellence, but those speakers push a *lot* of air for their size. I placed my finger lightly on the surprisingly cushy speaker membrane and-- Whoa!-- the speakers vibrate as powerfully as a force-feedback game controller or heavy duty power tool.
It does act very well as an amplified speaker set for any audio device, including your PDA, PSX, laptop, portable TV or portable DVD player.
The build quality is superb...
The buttons have an incredible solid feel to them... something sadly missing from most of today's boom boxes with their often flimsy, featherweight controls. The unit itself also has a nice heft to it.
The only thing I would add to the unit is some sort of metal grill over the speaker membranes. I am scared that my 3 year old daughter wil try to color on the attractive shiny speakers
As far as it's radio goes, there's a minor quip in setting the presets: The radio auto-tune function needs to be fixed. Auto tune simple does not appear to work at all. The manual tune function will not let you hold down the up button to step quickly through frequencies-- you have to laboriously press up-up-up-up-up-up-up... literally hundreds of times through 0.1 mHz intervals to set your stations.
It is great to carry around in a hip sack:
The supplied carry case is very nice and stylish. But I love to go for walks and short outtings with the PSS110 in a hip sack meant to hold a portable CD player (I use my old CDProjects SP-1 leatherette pouch). Worn around the waist, the room in the hip sack lets me lay the PSS110 at the bottom of the pouch with the speakers facing upward.
The unfilled space in the hip sack acts like a resonance chamber. Even when the hip sack is entirely zipped closed, there is a nice worm boom to the sound. And having conversations with others around me while the music plays is easy to do since the hip sack makes the PSS110 sound a little less trebly (thus easier to talk over).
It's even nice to take with in the car (still in the hip sack) because I don't have to carry around CD's or burn compilation CDs anymore... And when I turn off the car and walk away, the tunes follow me!
Lastly, is is pretty impressive sounding at full volume: Loud, offering more bass than expected (with the DBB digital bass boost engaged), and not much distortion.
For the all-in-one mp3 boombox convenience, novelty and fun factor, I think you get what you pay for.
