I’ve been looking for some kind of portable iPhone dock for a while now. I currently have the ability to charge my phone in most rooms either by docking it in an alarm clock, or in the front of a TV, or just by putting it in the dock connected to my mac. The only problem with the ones I have is, a, they aren’t portable, and b, the sound quality isn’t that great.
So….I was in Currys last night at this one caught my eye, as it had a sticker on the box saying “iPhone 4 Bumper compatible”. All the docks in my house currently don’t have any of the dock adapters in them, as this is the only way I can sync/charge my phone without having to take it out of the bumper cover. As you can imagine, seeing a device which catered for this was a massive win !.
Another major selling point for this, was it can be also powered from 4 AA batteries, making it something I’ll be able to take camping, or even just to take out in the garden.
So..what’s it like ?….well it’s surprisingly good, it does claim to have “Crystal clear sound” and that it does, even with the volume cranked right up, it doesn’t distort at all. The design itself is nice, the plus and minus buttons light up on the front in a pretty cool orange, when you doc your device, and there’s a on/off button at the top on the back.
As well as being an iPhone dock, it’s also got an AUX-in at the back to allow you to plug in external devices via a 3.5mm jack plug.
There is also the ability to have this as a dock connector for your PC/Mac as there is a USB cable connector in the back.
I think the final thing to note is the free App you get with it called Fidelio. Now you can use your normal media player on your iPod/iPhone, or you can use their application which gives you a few cools features. It seems to aggregate a few apps I already have, for example Tune-in Radio (a radio app) and AccuWeather (a weather app) and brings them all together into a nice little packaged.
All in all a decent piece of kit, I don’t currently know how long 4 AA’s will last, but will update the post once I’ve tried it.
As always, unboxing pics, and screenshots of the app below.
Since buying C an Xbox for her birthday, I’ve spent a lot more time in the computer room playing on my Xbox Elite than playing in the front room on limited edition Halo Reach Xbox, on the 52″ TV, connected to the TrueHD 7.1 Amp.
To be honest, I actually prefer it, as we’re being a more sociable with each other. In the past, I would normally spend a good couple of hour playing on the Xbox downstairs, and C would lose hours on a “Dinner Dash type” time management game.
In the computer room we both have an LG LED 23″ FullHD Monitor/TV which we have the Xboxs connected to, which we then use as a 2nd monitor. The LED TV’s are great and give a great picture, however the sound quality is only average at best. I’ve spend the last week or so with a pair of £10 Sony headphones on, which does give a lot better sound, but….I do miss the surround sound.
Now we have the history out of the way, you now know why I’ve been out and bought this headset. As I mentioned above, I tend to spend more time in the computer room being “sociable”, but miss the surround sound. I knew there were headsets out there that could product a surround sound experience, as this type of stereo expander has been mainstream for quite a while.
I did look as some headphone which actually had multiple speakers in each earphone which would give an actual surround sound, however these are advertised as being able to give a true 7.1 using only a stereo headset….obviously I was intrigued and bought them.
The DPX21 is essentially a bundle. It’s the Ear Force PX21 headet, with the Ear Force DSS digital processor. The processor itself has an optical input, which then passed 7.1 / 5.1 to the headset giving you the 7.1 surround sound experience.
Now to be honest, I was a little dubious, as everything in my head suggests, that stereo headphones and and will only produce a stereo sound ….surly ?…….I wrong was I !!! These things are AMAZING !!!
Once I’d got everything wired up (which was slightly messy to be honest), I fired up Red Dead Redemption on the Xbox and was totally blown away the the ambiance. I then fired off a couple of shots, and just sat there with the biggest smile on my face. I have to say, that my expensive amp and 7.1 speaker system in the front room has been equalled if not beaten by this £100 headset !
I then plugged these into the PS3 and put on the Black Hawk Down bluray (my Bluray of choice when testing an audio system), and again… AMAZING !
As you can probably tell from the above, the headset is universal, it works on the PS3, Xbox and Mac/PC (assuming you have an optical port)
The headset itself is very comfy, it is a little weighty, but the head strap is adjustable enough to take the weight.
All in all, this is an amazing headset, and suggest to anybody who is playing games on a Xbox, PS3 or even PC/Mac in 2 channels due to not having room to place the speakers….and have a £100 spare, go buy theses, they are amazing !
I found these at Amazon for about £110, however with shopping around I found them at just over £90 at shopto.net with free shipping.
As always, unboxing photos below, as well as the official blurb from Turtle Beach describing how these work.
This was our orignal Hi-Fi that we used to have downstair, it was an extremely powerful system however it had 1 major drawback….no optical inputs !
When I bought my PS3 a couple of years ago, I was kinda gutted that I could only hear it in Pro-Logic, and it felt a bit of a waste, so upgraded to the Onkyo TX-SR606 so I could get TrueHD. After forking out for the amp, I couldn’t really afford any speakers at the time, so used the speakers from the Technics
As part of the Computer room tidy up, we decided it was time to finally get the new speakers for the front room. I had a pair of Eltax Liberty 5+ speakers which I used to use when I was a bedroom DJ, and now have these in my bedroom connected to my amp. I’ve been so impressed with the sound quality of these, I decided to go with Eltax for the majority of my new speaker setup.
and finally the Gale ARIA AR50 Centre speaker due to Richer Sounds not having any stock of the Eltax SYMPHONY C4 Centre speakers and I was a little impatient.
Finally I bought 60 Metres of Oxygen Free cable to wire it all up (Believe it or not, 60 metres was only just enough !)
So yesterday they arrived, and I spent the night placing the speakers and wiring everything up….it seemed to take ages but so worth it !
Below are the before and after pics, as you can see they are a tad bigger than the Technics ones.
Left Front
Centre
Front Right
Rear Speakers Right
Left Rear Speakers
I decided to do away with the sub, as the bass I get from the Eltax Liberty 5+ speakers is more than sufficient, and I really don’t want to annoy my neighbours any more than I have too, so assumed that this would also be fine with the Eltax CONCEPT 400 speakers in place too.
I really wish I could post a sound clip, showing you the difference between the sounds, but it wouldn’t really work, as the sound would only be as good as your speakers
I can however say, that the sound quality has a lot more range to it, before the centre and rear speakers were only a single speaker, as they all now have independent tweeters, the sound is now very crisp.
The front Eltax CONCEPT 400 speakers are 400 watt speakers, have a tweeter, a midrange and 2 lower end cones, making the range sound fantastic !
Thanks to the Audyssey 2EQ Dynamic EQ the speaker setup was a breeze, just plugged the microphone into the front of the Onkyo TX-SR606, ran through the setup, and 5 minutes later, the speakers were setup perfect !
Now granted this kit is very much middle to bottom of the range of the whole home cinema setup spectrum, but it works perfect for me !
This will hopefully be my last major purchase of the year, as the savings are becoming quite depleted :)
