It goes to eleven
by Volker Weber
Last year the TDK brand was resurrected. And they came back with a very strange line-up of products. I never had the chance to look at one, but right before Xmas, it's a good time to try one out. So this is it, the TDK Three Speaker Boombox. It is loud in every aspect. And very, very impratical.
First thing you notice is that this baby is big and heavy. I have hidden an iPhone in the photo above to give you an idea of its size. When you see it in person, it's even bigger. Think 27" iMac but way thicker. As it is with big cars, it needs a lot of juice. You can power it with 12 (twelve!) type D cells. Or with an external (!) 24V/40W power supply. As big as it is, TDK did not find the space for a power supply inside the box.
How do you get music to the speakers? The Boombox has an AM/FM radio with five presets, and the antennas are two separate wires you need to connect. Then there is the ubiquitous line in, both as two RCA cinch and a 3.5mm jack. You can also plug in an instrument, I assume an electric guitar for instance. Don't have one to test. And finally there is a USB port. It serves to upgrade the firmware and it also lets you connect an iPod/iPhone or a USB thumbdrive. With an iPod/iPhone you control playback through the handheld device. If you connect a thumbdrive you navigate a tiny display to select a folder to play, and the boombox will just play from the file you selected to the end of the folder and then stop or repeat the whole folder, depending on the preset. It can also play random.
Time to turn it on. There is a on/off/volume dial in the upper left, and it goes to eleven. In order to save batteries, it will turn itself off, if it's not playing music and you dial back to off and then on again to turn it back on. How does it sound? Too early to tell. It does go to eleven, but I have to compare it to other equipment costing about the same.
You may have got a sense why it is impractical. It's the size of a small TV. It won't be easy to find a place to prop it up at home. And when you take it outside, it's quite heavy, it needs a lot of batteries. And there is no protection for the speakers. So it's quite delicate, even for it's size.
Given all that, it's also very cheap. On Amazon.com you can already get it for $329. In Europe it still lists for 499 €. Be careful with marked-down prices though:
What's missing? No dock. No remote. No Bluetooth. No WLAN/AirPlay.
What an ironic product. No, not iconic. Ironic.
Comments
TDK - a byword for fine audio engineering. Once upon a time...
Did I miss Christmas? Is it 1st April already?!
Hah! This goes to 11!
Das erinnert konzeptionell an die JVC Boomblaster, insbesondere den RV-NB70S. Den hab ich kürzlich mal ausprobiert. Wir haben ihn zurückgegeben, weil er dann doch zwei cm zu breit für den geplanten Standort war. (Ja, wer vorher misst, spart sich den Versuch.)
Der JVC hat aber ein echtes Dock, in dem ein iDevicerecht geschützt hinter einer Klappe liegt. Die Fernbedienung des Boomblasters steuert dann auch das iGerät.
Ja, JVC liefert das hässlicherer Monster-Gerät (666 x 231 x 240 mm, 6,8 kg), macht aber viele Dinge praktischer / richtiger als TDK.
"Hah! This goes to 11!"
Richard, no it doesn't: http://www.whathifi.com/news/behringer-unveils-8-foot-wide-10000-watt-ipod-dock#comment-2677884
:-)
