Shameless plug for consumer boombox

[BevvyB]

I've said this before somewhere in another thread, but here I go again

For ages I was looking for a boombox/consumer portable to play my mixes through. I looked at the pyramid speakers and various Auratone soundalikes. I had great difficulty in finding something that sounded hifi but also tv but also useable - something that I could go to for immediate 'oh the vocal is too quiet' kind of situations.

The problem was the portables I did find didn't have any way of getting into them any more, the use of phono inputs seemed to have died out in the early 90's and the only boomboxes I could find with phono in (or any input for that matter) were useless or too old.

This came out a few weeks ago so I bought one. It's a Philips az2555 boombox. It designed for kids who want to have better speakers for their games pc but also want to be able to play CD's, mp3 CD's and radio, and also have earth-shattering piss-off-the-parents bass.

It has (HALLELULIAH!) phono inputs on the front AND USB INPUT!! About frikkin time...

So anyway, I haven't posted since I first got this thing as I thought I'd actually do some mixing with it first.

All I can say is IF IT SOUNDS GOOD ON THIS THING THEN IT IS GOOD!

Unlike previous other boomboxes and the like which I have used in the past, I am NOT going to this thing to 'hear what it would be like a bit crappy' - what I am doing is going to this thing to see 'What it would sound like on a consumer device' - there is a difference.

I can flick between this thing and my main monitors without feeling like I've stepped in and out of a vacuum - the difference isn't SO different you may as well have eloped and come back again - BUT you get that 'its on the radio/tv' feeling...helped of course by the fact its loaded with your reference CD AND it's tuned into all your favourite local radio stations..

And did I mention

IT HAS A REMOTE

and the remote had A MUTE BUTTON!

£90 well spent.

Highly recommended

(ESPECIALLY for those in less than perfect environments where bass is an issue, being able to turn on the ridiculous super-duper-mega-woot bass is the best thing to check your bottom end out since voluntary gig deafness)

I mixed nearly an entire track on this thing - played it back on my main monitors it sounded GREAT....

[BevvyB]

And it looks cool

[CrazyBeast]

Super cool tip! I gotta find one of those - I need a boom box anyway and the other stuff would be handy.

[kenn.michael]

Nice!!!! Just what I've been looking for! Thanks for the tip Bevvy.

[Jules]

I better pick one up my old one is dying...

Sad, because it was much more discrete looking!

How wide is it Bev?

[BevvyB]

~

[BevvyB]

~~

[BevvyB]

~~~

[Peter Gotcher]

Thanks, Bevvy - great tip. Amazon has them on sale for $85.49.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...80762?v=glance

Just ordered one.

P

[RichT]

Originally posted by BevvyB
~~~

Ooooooooooooooooooh cheap AND sexy.

(Wallet quivers)

DOWN BOY!

[thethrillfactor]

Originally posted by Peter Gotcher
Thanks, Bevvy - great tip. Amazon has them on sale for $85.49.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...80762?v=glance

Just ordered one.

P

I just bought one on Ebay for $59.

http://search.ebay.com/PHILIPS-AZ255...wordredirectZ1

[BevvyB]

Wow, this must be the fastest instant buy item on Gearslutz!

Honestly though, even if it didn't sound any good I'd have bought it 'cos of the phono ins...

[7rojo7]

My old panasonic just got trashed by my kids, if enough people get this it could become NS10s. How many watts is it?
I just saw that Yomama has a series of speakers that look just like NS10s but they have a stained wood veneer finish instead of the black. Closed box paper woofer dome tweeter for home theater.

[drew]

Originally posted by thethrillfactor
I just bought one on Ebay for $59.

http://search.ebay.com/PHILIPS-AZ255...wordredirectZ1

me too. They are Factory Reconditioned but what the heck, $59 and free shipping.

[blackcatdigi]

Thanks for the tip, BevvyB!

I've been looking for a boombox w/line ins for a long time (since my Sony died)...

[jbuntz]

Sony was making one for about $50 years ago and as soon as I was going to pick one up, it was discontinued. Thanks for the heads up!

[RichT]

So I broke and bought one of these too.

£79.99 from Argos (Discounted from £89.99 woot!)

Man, that little sub moves some air.

Nice tip, Bev. Argos in Portsmouth has one left now.

[Jules]

Fugg it

The connections on my old boombox are so crackly they drive us insane I better get one too..

Jules

[ttauri]

Originally posted by BevvyB
Wow, this must be the fastest instant buy item on Gearslutz!

Ordered mine.
(Worth a shot for the occasions where I'm roving with the laptop and isht.)

Peece,
T. Tauri

[Berolzheimer]

Looks like a cool product BUT-

I have to warn you guys, Philips consumer electronics SUCKS. I ordered 2 items from them a couple of years ago- a small CD boombox for my son and a mini stereo for my kitchen. They both arrived not working properly, and getting Philips to do anything about it was basically impossible. The boombox only outputs one channel of the cd player, (great for listening to those old Beatles records which of course are my son's favorites- "papa, why doesn't this song have any drums?")

The CD drawer on the mini stereo doesn't open on it's own, you have to sort of push it up & pull it out slightly before the gear that opens it engages. Philips sent me to 2 different repair shops on different sides of town, both of which calimed to have fixed it- and of course nothing is different about it. I wanted to just send it back for an exchange but Pilips insisted I had to take it to the repair shops, sending me running all over town, for a unit that was defective out of the box! AARRGHGH I don't have time for this.

Don't buy their shit, I certainly won't ever again.

[xqtion]

is this thing 110v only or can it also do 220v ?

[RichT]

Man, it's going to get to the point where these are gonna have to be prominently listed on our equipment lists.

Clients will ask 'do you have a AZ2555?'

[BevvyB]

OK RME now the return tip off is GIVE ME YOUR HORRORTONES YABASTARD!

I really really want some.

P.S. Where you at in London/Where's the studio?

[RichT]

Originally posted by BevvyB
P.S. Where you at in London/Where's the studio?

...breaks out swag bag and crow bar...

[BevvyB]

I was just doing the usual trying to figure out if I'd been there from looking in the background and monitors etc

[kevinc]

Bev the boombox looks cool but I must say your new fat lady avatar is really freaking me out.

Tell you what.

I`ll buy one if you change it.

[A33]

Is the USB usefull for anything?

[kmshroom]

you can use the boombox like a USB soundcard for the computer, apparently. i haven't tried using it that way thou.

[BevvyB]

...which is very cool if you're travelling with your laptop!

[kmshroom]

Originally posted by BevvyB
...which is very cool if you're travelling with your laptop!

but most (if not all) laptops already have a built in onboard output in the form of an 1/8". so if you connect a Y cable that goes from 1/8" to RCA coax, you can still use the az2555 as speakers for your laptop. ..and you wouldn't have to worry about extra drivers that Phillips came up with, coz hopefully the built in output works well w/ your comp (or you have a pretty sketch laptop).