Speakers Reviews

I've had my Advent speaker for a couple of years now. It gets used about once a year. No matter how close it is to my antennae and stereo, it constantly loses its connection resulting in screaming white noise. I have to twiddle the tuner knob every five minutes or so to hold the connection.<br /> <br /> Awful!

I'm a big electronics geek and usually can figure out things quickly w/o reading the instructions. I fiddled with my AW810 Wireless speaker for a good 10-15 mins and had no luck getting good receptions. I finally broke down and got the manual out. After reading the instruction, it only took 5 seconds to get the speaker working perfectly. Here's how to do it:
1. Read the manual!
2. Hook up the transmitter to your music source (amplifier or cd player), via the headphone output jack.
3. IMPORTANT: Turn the "volume" dial on the back of the transmitter until the little red light on the front flashes intermittently. If you get a solid red or a fast blinking light, you have the volume set too high. Ease back until it flashes slowly.
4. Turn the power on on your AW810 speaker.
5. Turn the "tuning" knob on the speaker until you get a "Green" light.

And that's it! I put batteries in mine and take it out to the back yard. It's the best toy I've gotten this Summer!

I bought this speaker today and it works just fine. I was bit worried about the quality of the sound, but it is just like a normal stereo speaker. Only one downside is that the design of the speaker is utterly ugly. It really destroys the entire interior decoration. (Eventually I am hiding it under a side table.) Other than that, I am very happy about the product. Also, it is CRUCIAL TO READ THE MANUAL VERY CAREFULLY, as some of other reviews mention. It is kind a tricky, but if you sit down for five minutes to read it through before actually setting it up, it should be no problem at all.

Well first the description is very overstated. I went out looking for some surround sound speakers to replace my ones i have now (which arent bad), and found something that looked good on paper (the box), but dont sound nearly as good. I didnt set it up in the room, I noticed the wires are very short, I like to atest the speakers just out of the box rather than set it up and be dissapointed, i put on one song (rap), and it sounded at first like a pleaser, but when I turned the volume up, the bass distorted. The flat panel (and somewhat heavy) speakers aren't really that bad, but the sub isn't that good. It distorts very easily and I dont reccomend this to music- people. The bass isn't bad at low volume though, but you really can't push this system far without it interfering with you (attempting) to enjoy your music.

subwoofer should not be called that: it's tiny, and distorts if the slightest bass is put through it. Not good for music, not good for gaming. Steer clear.

Its Not the Greatest System out there, but for $40 what do you expect. The sound is loud and the bass isn't bad, but if you want hard hitting bass for your music youd be better off with a real subwoofer. I cannot complain about this system I have had it for a week and think it is a very nice system on my desk. The 4 speakers are small and hardly noticeable which i like and the sub just goes below my desk. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars is because I expected flatter speakers (they are about .75" thick) and I expect just a tad bit more from the sub. Other than that its great for games and movies and music, and what not. So if you think this is the equivalent of a $150 speaker system then you are lost and mistaken. If you want good bang for your buck this is a great system to get.

There is not much to say about these wireless speakers. Their sound quality is very poor and represents an excessively high price to pay for the convenience of avoiding the installation of wires.

I bought these in the hopes of using them both in my home office and for picnics--just bring along a walkman, plug it in, instant outdoor concert.

Well, not quite. Although the speakers can be battery-powered (requiring 8 C-cells each), the transmitter cannot be, unless you are adventurous enough to splice a power jack into the power cord and build a suitable battery pack on your own time.

I found the sound from the speakers to be OK but nothing special. I often thought there was some barely perceptible fuzz. Tuning has not been a set-and-forget affair: people moving nearby can knock the signal out. And 900 MHz cordless phones produce really bad interference.

The industrial design on these is pretty stupid, with the battery hatches actually screwed in place--making them very inconvenient if you plan on running them on battery power with any regularity. They would also benefit from more smarts, so that you only needed to set one volume knob (instead of three) and with automatic frequency hunting (my phone can do it, why not the speakers?). This would all drive up the cost, but it would be worth it.

I'd recommend these for people who want a set of speakers they can haul out on the deck once in a while for barbecues and as a remote set of speakers for the bedroom or office, or for situations where it would be really inconvenient to run a speaker wire (but you'll still need a power outlet nearby, really).

The sound quality is below par. NO base and there is a constant hissing sound. When the volume is increased the sound gets very distorted. The advantage is that it is very easy to set up any where to about 150' away without runnig wires. Good additonal set of speakers to setup in different locations outside/indoor in a small area for parties but not a good set of speakers to listen too as your main speakers.

I bought these speakers hoping that they would produce sound better than the internal speakers on my HP laptop. It turned out that these pretty speakers were far worse, having no bass at all and lots of static. After having the speakers turned on for more than 2 hours, the battery life was nearly wasted, as was indicated by the waning clarity and volume of the music. If you want to spend $40 on a decent-sounding pair of speakers, I would recommend going for the conventional ones made by Creative or Altec-Lansing. I personally returned these, and went for some $80 speakers made by Creative, which are just phenomenal.

I've tried listening to my laptop speakers, and other supposedly portable speakers before now, and I've always got bored or tired of listening to them really quickly... They're always tinny and distant sounding.

I got my Loudman last week, and immediately took them with me on a trip to the US for a few days... I have to say that whilst in the hotel I never got bored or tired of listening to them once! They seem to work well with all types of music, and the volume for a hotel room is perfect. They're very compact, and went in my laptop bag easily.

Before I left, I compared the way they sound with a much more expensive pair of conventional Discman speakers that I had bought previously. The Loudman blew them out of the water! If i still had the receipt for the others I'd be taking them back for a refund!

The only reason I didn't give the Loudman five stars is because it's a bit fiddly getting the batteries in, but once their in, they sound so good you cease to care.

They'll be one of the first things I pack on my future travels!

Great product for portable music players. I have one and the sound quality is very good. Even better if you have an MP3 player with a graphic equaliser as it allows you to fine tune the sound.

Much less tiring to listen to than other alternatives I have tried. Battery life is very good as well.

They are very good value for money.

I bought these speakers hoping that they would produce sound better than the internal speakers on my HP laptop. It turned out that these pretty speakers were far worse, having no bass at all and lots of static. After having the speakers turned on for more than 2 hours, the battery life was nearly wasted, as was indicated by the waning clarity and volume of the music. If you want to spend $40 on a decent-sounding pair of speakers, I would recommend going for the conventional ones made by Creative or Altec-Lansing. I personally returned these, and went for some $80 speakers made by Creative, which are just phenomenal.

I've tried listening to my laptop speakers, and other supposedly portable speakers before now, and I've always got bored or tired of listening to them really quickly... They're always tinny and distant sounding.

I got my Loudman last week, and immediately took them with me on a trip to the US for a few days... I have to say that whilst in the hotel I never got bored or tired of listening to them once! They seem to work well with all types of music, and the volume for a hotel room is perfect. They're very compact, and went in my laptop bag easily.

Before I left, I compared the way they sound with a much more expensive pair of conventional Discman speakers that I had bought previously. The Loudman blew them out of the water! If i still had the receipt for the others I'd be taking them back for a refund!

The only reason I didn't give the Loudman five stars is because it's a bit fiddly getting the batteries in, but once their in, they sound so good you cease to care.

They'll be one of the first things I pack on my future travels!

Great product for portable music players. I have one and the sound quality is very good. Even better if you have an MP3 player with a graphic equaliser as it allows you to fine tune the sound.

Much less tiring to listen to than other alternatives I have tried. Battery life is very good as well.

They are very good value for money.

I bought these speakers hoping that they would produce sound better than the internal speakers on my HP laptop. It turned out that these pretty speakers were far worse, having no bass at all and lots of static. After having the speakers turned on for more than 2 hours, the battery life was nearly wasted, as was indicated by the waning clarity and volume of the music. If you want to spend $40 on a decent-sounding pair of speakers, I would recommend going for the conventional ones made by Creative or Altec-Lansing. I personally returned these, and went for some $80 speakers made by Creative, which are just phenomenal.

I've tried listening to my laptop speakers, and other supposedly portable speakers before now, and I've always got bored or tired of listening to them really quickly... They're always tinny and distant sounding.

I got my Loudman last week, and immediately took them with me on a trip to the US for a few days... I have to say that whilst in the hotel I never got bored or tired of listening to them once! They seem to work well with all types of music, and the volume for a hotel room is perfect. They're very compact, and went in my laptop bag easily.

Before I left, I compared the way they sound with a much more expensive pair of conventional Discman speakers that I had bought previously. The Loudman blew them out of the water! If i still had the receipt for the others I'd be taking them back for a refund!

The only reason I didn't give the Loudman five stars is because it's a bit fiddly getting the batteries in, but once their in, they sound so good you cease to care.

They'll be one of the first things I pack on my future travels!

Great product for portable music players. I have one and the sound quality is very good. Even better if you have an MP3 player with a graphic equaliser as it allows you to fine tune the sound.

Much less tiring to listen to than other alternatives I have tried. Battery life is very good as well.

They are very good value for money.

I got this in the hopes that it would substitute external speakers for my laptop; the ones in the laptop don't get loud enough for my tastes. The Soundbug *does* make sound loud enough, but only for some frequences, and it's so tinny and distorted, the sound is too unclear to be of any use!

Long and short of it is, it's a neat concept and yay to the engineers at Olympia who thought of it, but it's not terribly effective.

There are generally two things to consider when purchasing this little gadget. The first thing to consider is how it sounds. Unfortunately, it isn't very hot. Sure, at standard volumes with no heavy bass being fed into it you will find that the SoundBug performs well enough, but once it starts to get very loud the quality degrades... FAST. Best comparison I can make is to that of a stock set of headphones that comes with a portable CD player.

Of course, the reason I was looking at this wasn't really for the sound qualiy, I wanted yet another little gadget to add to my collection. Yes, this makes a great conversation piece, it's fun to mess with and overall I think it has been worth the money.

This device can attach to almost anything. Glass works the best, but I've also attached it to the back of a laptop and it worked very well. The sound isn't the greatest, but the cool factor makes up for it.

I originally purchased this phone because of its ability to act as a pbx system at a low cost. It would have been ideal for small businesses or offices.

The drawback is simply the sound quality. For a phone with such great potential, Casio should have put a little more work into this "small" detail.

While on the handset the volume was always too low no matter how high you had the volume. The speakerphone was useless. There is an additional jack (rj-11) for a headset however it was geared for the older style headsets which are expensive...

More importantly, while using this phone I was always asked to speak up by the party on the other end.

If you don't mind lacking sound quality in your phone system then this may be a good purchase. For me I would choose to go with a system with fewer features rather than not be heard.

This phone will not work on it's own power, and requires a proprietory power supply made by Casio, which is a 120 v, power driven, wall wart type adapter. It isn't very long, so you can't go further away from the AC wall outlet than the length of that cord. It does have a battery backup so if your building power (120 volt A.C.) goes out, then your phone will still work, but I worry about battery corrosion harming the phone upon long periods of time with the batteries in the phone. Also, the volume on the handset seems to pick up alot of noise when you turn the volume up. It seems hard to hear your party on the other end of the phone conversation. This phone is fragile. I had the phone 2 weeks and it fell to the floor due to the tangled mess of cords running from the phone. It requires 3 wires to the phone. Two RJ-11 phone wires - one for each of two lines - and the power cord. The phone electronics inside the phone broke, and I had to send the phone in for repair (not covered by warranty). All in all a disappointing purchase.

Phone received withing 3 days!Look and works like a new one.
Instructions are included with it.

Great service and gread Product.

Thanks.

This review is for the Advent AW720. Don't buy it.

1. Very weak battery life.

According to the manual, it takes 12 hours to completely charge the Ni-Cd battery and a completely charged battery yields 4 hours of playtime. 12/4 is unacceptable. The weakest of Sony headphones have batteries that charge for 24 hours but yield 30 hours playtime. So if you charge the weakest Sony headphone battery for 12 hours, you get 15 hours, or 3 times the charge! That's more like it! The Advent battery makes you feel limited and I don't like feeling limited. Second, this may sound silly, it costs you to charge the headphones. If I didn't live in a dorm, I'd care! Those nickels can add up!

2. Poor clarity for anything except music (no dvd, videos, etc.)

Really, when I'm not using my headphones, I always have them charging! I always start off with 100% charged battery. And I play around with tuning knobs on both the headphone and the base. I do everything yet I cannot get rid of the "audio scratches" when watching a DVD on tv or watching a video on my computer. True, the careful tuning can get rid of the "hiss" but the "audio scratches" will be there at least every ten seconds no matter what you do when using the headphones for anything but music.

I tried to use the "special connection" (for my dvd player)that they give you rather than the typical headphone jack connection. Batteries were 75% charged. As usual, with proper tuning, the hiss was gone. But the "audio scratches" stayed! Those scratches totally ruin your movie watching experience! Second, I had to crawl down, disconnect the tv audio input nad then connect the headphone input to the dvd. When I finished trying to use the headphone, I had to crawl done again, disconnect and reconnect the tv audio. Who wants to go through that trouble for a "special connection" that doesn't really work? And how is it even possible if the battery is so weak that after half way through the movie it is signifcantly uncharged? Pathetic!

That being said, the sound quality of this headphone is great for music from my computer. No doubt about it. There are very few "audio scratches" there and with proper tuning the hiss will go down. Also, contrary to some reports, these headphones can be very, very loud indeed without being harsh!

3. Not very durable (then again, how many are?)

Close to the ear cup, there is a strip that is very easy to wear and tear. The ear cups themselves are of hollow plastic (although this is OK). Every time I put on the headphone, I feel afraid to break that part. Even the ear cups are poorly connected to the stem (this doesn't seem to be trouble). I admit it is easy to reinforce that weak area near the cup with duck tape and it won't trouble you at all, but who wants that! But then again, how many durable headphones are there? I wouldn't put my money on the RCA 160 Whip or whatever. I'm sure you can find something better anyway.

4. Range is very good!

I live in a dorm where there are thick walls. I can get out of my room and up to 30 (not 300) feet in the hallway and I can listen to music with no trouble. Hey, that's not bad is it, considering the fact that some headphones promise only up to 24 (of course, you know what they promise isn't the same as it really is, so factor that in). I still think 30 feet near thick walls is very impressive. And I'll bet that if it was a more open area, I'd get even better range. Impressive for that and probably top notch!

Conclusion:

Don't buy it. The battery is unacceptable. Very limited play time. And you are limited only to music. You can't watch movies or videos or watch tv with this headphone! Oh no you can't, not without getting an annoying "audio scratch" every the seconds even if the battery if fully charged and you use the optimum connection they tell you on DVD! And that is unacceptable because it ruins your movie experience!

I paid 17 dollars for these headphones right here at amazon (I hear the current price is 64!). I'd say you cap your price to 40 dollars (be patient, there'll be some merchant selling for a 40 dollars or less) and buy a Sony. I hear that even the Sonys are very poor, but at least you get a stronger battery?

Good luck.

I shopped all around!! The AW791 Dolby Digital are the best value on the market. The sound is great, you have the freedom to move from room to room with only minimal sound loss. No "line of site" restrictions like the IR wireless headphones. Two "Digital" inputs and one analog means you can plug in an array of sources. Battery life exceeds all others. They are comfortable to wear for extended periods for the real long movies. The ONLY thing to look out for is the pivot point on each ear piece. It is a weak joint that can break if twisted wrong. Make certain to put on and take off with ease.
All around a great product and if you shop around you will NOT find an exact product like it. Way to go AR!

some of the reviews above are in-accurate.
First off: there is no tuning knob on the base so they (other reviews) must be referencing another model. (aw721?)
This model has three channel selectors

I got mine off ebay for $50.

pro's:
-works great, little hiss when its turned on, but this is because it is auto tuning ( 3 seconds)
-takes digital inputs (optical too)
-volume goes way up.
-comparable if not better than my Sony MDR-CD380
-freedom from my mp3 player, pc, etc
-? interferes with my cell phone's incomming signal. (side-effect, but nice "Feature" ;)

con's:
-feels weak. dont think it will survive a drop or sit-on

-the light on the base when charging does not glow. (I dont know if it should, I must call them)
-Batteries dont seem to charge. Maybe this problem is limited to my set.

i can't believe the people at sony are producing this junk. The only place this thing works is right next to the transmitter, with static and hissing. it doesn't even work in the next room 15 feet away. this thing blows - don't even bother with it. i'll be sending it back asap.

I don't think there can be much of an argument that the sound quality is well below a wired speaker system but its not an unreasonable tradeoff to give up a little sound quality for the freedom to put the speaker anywhere.

I'm going to send it back for three reasons:

1.) There is an audible hiss which, depending on how far away from the base station you are and how much wireless interference there is can be extremely loud. For me, the sound quality tradeoff is too much. I tried the noise reduction feature and switching betwen the 3 channels the base station offers but couldn't get an acceptable audio result. It could be my crazy neighbor who has a massive HAM radio polluting the airwaves. Your mileage may vary.

2.) Needs more speakers. There is only one speaker and when you place it in a room the first thing you notice is the lack of a stereo sound. I think the speaker itself may actually be stereo and the curvy plastic piece is attempting to spread the sound around but it fails for me. I wanted another tower.

3.) The battery life on the speaker is really poor. It charged all night and worked for all of 15 minutes before I had to plug it in. Maybe there is something wrong with mine because this seems impossibly bad.

Its too bad because this is a great idea and if you're like me and all your music is now stored on the hard disk of your computer, it would be a great way pump music anywhere in the house.

The prouct itself is really quite beautiful and has this blue light that makes it look like a piece of art but I was looking for a higher quality audio result.

I don't want to totally discourage you from trying it out especially if you have a small place and you're not a total audiophile but if you like your high quality sound, beware.

I've researched these and found Amazon to have the best price. (including shipping.) The system sounds great and had really notable seperation and rich sound. I was very pleased.