Uncle Ed has excelled himself.
Again.
With help from his sister, I'm now the proud owner of Oops, my son is to be the proud owner of a Lasonic i931 this Christmas. More than enough time for me to run it in for him at work

This thing really is OTT. "Bling to the max" someone much younger than me might say...
To be fair, it doesn't sound half bad either. I think that maybe people's expectations were a little high - it's a Lasonic, after all, not an Aiwa or a JVC. It does exactly what it says on the tin: it looks bonkers & goes loud (I guess. I've not given it the full beans yet).
Again, it's the same old story - if you want hifi sound, leave the i931 alone & plug your iPod into a hifi. This is a boombox, through and through. A portable music player, with batteries, a handle, & a radio. OK, there's no tape or CD, but it'll play MMC/SD cards USB sticks, many iPods & also via the 3.5mm aux-in jack. It even has RDS data on the radio.
One thing I noticed: the EQ presets seem to just set the bass & treble to preset values, so it really only has bass & treble controls. Heigh-ho.
Thank God it has a 12V DC input. I took out half the power in our office yesterday trying to fire up our 220/110V AC converter. A red-faced moment for me there...

Anyway, if you, like me, think the raison d'etre of a boombox is to be impressive, then I'm stuck to think of any other comparably priced iPod system that makes a stronger impression.

IMHO Lasonic are to be applauded for sticking their neck out like this in these conservative times. Let's hope it's the first of many, retro/reissue boomboxes but the way things are in the world right now, I doubt it...

quote:

Originally posted by isolator42:
I'm now the proud owner of Oops, my son

I soo believe you

Lovely story Isolator24!

quote:

Originally posted by isolator42:
IMHO Lasonic are to be applauded for sticking their neck out like this in these conservative times. Let's hope it's the first of many, retro/reissue boomboxes but the way things are in the world right now, I doubt it...

If we elect a president in the US who wants to massively increase taxes (over and above the recent obscenely large financial bailout)I tend to agree ISO.There will be less money for reinvestment and risk taking by individuals and/or the companies,and new product lines.One candidate has somewhere around 1 trillion dollars of new taxes on the table!This terrifies me ( and enrages me ) about the future.

However,you'll remember despite a bad economy in the late '70s the boombox was born .Though I feel this was just a coincidence time wise one can only hope that history will repeat itself if the world economy really tanks in a big way.Often times I wonder what the quality of electronics would be like today if the "energy crises" of the mid '70s (and the cost cutting of the last 30 years) had never occurred.

Congrats, it will be an collectible box one day!
Next day i will get my i931.
I must look for an 12V bzw 220/110V Changer too.
Maybe it´s then the first in good old Austria...

Congrats paul im temted to buy one myself now as there only 80 quid in the uk and if i dont like it i can always use it for target practice .

Nice box, Paul! I'm sure your son will love it!!

...I wouldn't mind one myself actually!

quote:

Originally posted by rimmer36:
Congrats paul im temted to buy one myself now as there only 80 quid in the uk and if i dont like it i can always use it for target practice .

Tim, if your £80 equals the purchase price, you'll end up doubling that to get it shipped to the UK. Then, if it gets damaged (the retailers won't double-box) you're 4rse is hanging in the wind...

Thanks for the write-up, Iso... For the money, I guess one cannot complain. It really is priced right. Personally, I was hoping for Teac to come out with their MP3 boombox, which looked more classic, kinda like a silver Sanyo M9990.

Looks like this is destined to become the only real "modern classic" boombox centered around electronic music storage.

I have a gut feeling the Lasonics are actually selling fairly well. I'd be curious to see some real sales numbers. I do know they are getting some free promo coverage. Were you aware of this US TV commercial?

AT&T Techno Twins commercial

You should show it to your son and see how he reacts to the box. LOL!

Take care...

From the amount of blurb on the web about it, it does seem to be selling well. Not the review stuff, but blogs etc, where someone says "I just bought one of these, it's great" etc.

Because you can buy it new retail, it'll become the default boombox when seen on TV shows & films, for sure.