AV News 193 - August 2013
At Rochdale CC they meet in a low roofed church hall and Abergele CC has a
high roof where sound can easily disappear upwards, both easily capable of
holding 60 people. At both venues we set up the club's usual large speakers near
to the projection screen but did not plug them in to the laptop. The Music Angel
was on the table next to the laptop and we showed a few sequences using this
as the only sound source. The volume, which is controlled from the laptop, seemed
perfectly adequate for the size of room, and the stereo separation is very good
for such a tiny unit.
When the members were asked afterwards if they had noticed anything
different, everyone thought the sound was coming from the usual speaker system.
Imagine their surprise when shown the tiny speaker that was actually producing
the sound! So this is good news - when we go out demonstrating at a normal club
meeting room instead of having to use their unknown sound system or taking
along our own full sound system - all that is needed is this small unit which easily
fits in your laptop/gadget bag.
A slight negative is the length of the
connecting lead (80cm), but with a
3.5mm stereo audio extension lead
you can position the speaker more
centrally. At 120 hours on a single
charge there is no worry of it running
out of power.
Another slight problem could be the
soft LED light, a strip around the base
of the unit glows blue when switched
on, red when the battery is charging,
and purple when charging
& switched on. But if a problem in a really darkened room it could easily be
masked off with a piece of tape.
Another great use for this speaker is with your digital portable recorder. Instead
of having to wait until you get home to hear your recordings, you can now hear
them whilst out in the field. By plugging in this speaker it is easy to check the
quality of your recording without having to plug in headphones which don't always
give the best sound reproduction.
The unit comes securely packaged in a tough clear plastic box, with the lead
etc. in the base. The carrying pouch has an inner pocket to take the cable, a nice
touch. It is possible to join more than one unit together with a separate (supplied)
connecting lead, but we have not yet had the chance to try this out in a larger hall.
For the price and amazing portability of this speaker we can certainly
recommend it for use at home, clubs and with your digital recorders. It also
works with cell phones, iPod, iPad, DVD and MP3 players that have a 3.5mm
audio jack.
Music Angel Friendz are available in-store or on-line from the Carphone
Warehouse and mobilefun.co.uk for the recommended price of £29.99 each.
You may be able to find them cheaper on the internet although please be aware
that, such is the popularity of this item, similar looking but poor quality counterfeit
ones are starting to flood the market.
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