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Hardware Review
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»Arkon Amplified Companion Speakers
"Nice sound, decent price, does the job."
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Portable speakers are becoming more and more
popular lately. With the latest IPod craze, nearly everyone is after
portable aural pleasing. Arkon has these speakers marketed for any
audio product, but the ones we received are “for PSP.” While that
doesn’t mean much, I have to treat them as such. They have some
problems, but overall they seem worth the investment.
Right
away, seeing “Amplified Speakers,” you should realize that these
speakers need a power supply. Arkon’s beefy speakers require 3 AA
Batteries. I’ve been using my speakers on and off for about a week,
with the same batteries. I haven’t had a chance to try them
continuously, but I can honestly say that with a dedicated set of
rechargeable AA batteries, you won’t really have any problems with
power consumption. The one design flaw that I saw was that while the
speakers do allow you to plug in an AC Adaptor, the adaptor required
isn’t the same as the PSP’s. This was kind of a bummer to me, because
with all of the car kits available for PSP and the plug that comes with
them, it’d be more convenient to use them with these speakers as well.
The
design of the speakers is quite simple, yet very functional. The
speakers open like a clamshell, and when closed are about the size of a
closed fist to the wrist. The side has a switch to turn it on, a volume
knob, and a bright power light. The headphone cord wraps around the
body of the unit, and fits in a hole next to the power light. Being
next to the power light is really convenient for me. When I go to put
the plug away, I see the bright light and remember to turn the darn
thing off. I don’t like wasting batteries, and this is an easy
reminder. The outside of the unit is a glossy black, the inside is a
dark shiny gray, and the speaker covers are a bluish gray. Dark colors
go with almost any décor, you know!
The Amplified Speakers also
come with a cheap little carrying case, and a 3' audio extension cable.
The extension cable might have been more convenient if it was attached
and somehow wrapped around too, but it fits in the little cheap
carrying case with the speakers just fine. I say cheap because it’s
really just a thin “genuine fake leather” pouch that closes with
Velcro. The fit isn’t perfect, but it gets the job done.
The
sound quality blows my PSP, my DS, and my laptop out of the water. My
computer’s speakers hold up, but they also have a mini-subwoofer
backing them up. The easiest comparison I can make to the volume of
them is the 2 free speakers that come with low-budget computers. They
don’t have the bass that some people love, but for Rock or any other
non-digital music, they sound great. They don’t exactly stand up to the
heavy bass of rap, or techno, but they do the job a lot better than the
PSP’s speakers. That’s to be expected with most amplified speakers
because bass needs more power. The speakers certainly fill a small room
easily, but definitely won’t replace a home entertainment unit.
Like
the Sound Feeder, everything sounds better when the volume of the PSP
is down slightly. For this, I’d say only a few bars, otherwise the
speakers are too quiet to enjoy. Keeping the PSP at full volume makes
the speakers sound terrible and fuzzy, but for the most part, it’s
great.
One thing that I really have to address is using these
while playing the PSP. You have to have somewhere to set them in order
to enjoy them. You can keep them in your lap, but ideally, you’re going
to want them on a table or something. It’s not the most ideal situation
for a portable console, but it can be good if you want to watch a movie
on your PSP from an armchair in your room.
The Arkon speakers
are on sale for $27 now. They’re pretty convenient, and sound great for
most rock or acoustic music, but heavy bass doesn’t really transfer
well. It’s kind of obvious these speakers weren’t intended for the PSP
originally, but they work well with the system. Besides my power supply
issue and the bass (or lack of), these speakers are pretty solid.
Article by: Knives
Posted on: Dec. 6th, 2005 |
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