external speakers for mp3 player

[Tim Allwood]

Watcha

does anyone have any experience/recommendation of a decent external speaker that can be connected to an mp3 player.

Tim

[Keith Dickinson]

Hi Tim
I have a pair of Ross speakers, got them from Argos for about £20.00.
Bass response is pretty good, take 3AA batteries and I get about 30 hours of playback with them.

[Tim Allwood]

Hi Tim
I have a pair of Ross speakers, got them from Argos for about £20.00.
Bass response is pretty good, take 3AA batteries and I get about 30 hours of playback with them.


cheers Keith
sounds good

can they be 'split' so i only have to carry one?

Tim

[Steve Babbs]

Watcha

does anyone have any experience/recommendation of a decent external speaker that can be connected to an mp3 player.

Tim

Tim

What you need to do is find someone going to 'the states' as get the to get you a radioshack mini-amplifier-speaker cat no. 277-1008C. About the size of a packet of fags, unbelievably loud. I used one in peru and it worked a treat for calling out birds - which I presume you want it for. It was about £10. They do not seem to be available in the UK.

Before i got this I used some folding sony speakers which were fine, but larger, more expensive and not as loud. Though they were stereo and gave a better sound quality to were better for playing music in your hotel room, while chiling out after a hard days birding.

It might be worth someone who can do such things moving this thread to the sound recording forum.

Cheers

Steve

[Keith Dickinson]

cheers Keith
sounds good

can they be 'split' so i only have to carry one?

Tim
No they are linked, they open like a clam shell.
Total dimensions are 130mm x 85mm x 55mm. The lead is only 250mm long but stowaways around the closed speakers. Total weight inc. batteries 250gm

[Tim Allwood]

cheers boys

sorry this is in wrong thread mods

Steve, I'll see if i can arrange something U.S. wise... sounds the biz.

Tim

[scampo]

Watcha

does anyone have any experience/recommendation of a decent external speaker that can be connected to an mp3 player.

Tim
One that would suit you, Tim, I'm sure, is what my son has - JBL Creature 2: look amazing, sound brilliant. Matt listens mainly to classical but I know punk would come through clear and loud! My other son's are even better sounding but I forget the model number - they are Creative and cost c. £70-00.

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I've got a JBL 'On tour' speaker. It's a one piece thing that folds out, so is fairly compact when folded up. It costs about £70 so not that cheap but very good sound. It runs off both batteries and mains.

[scampo]

One that would suit you, Tim, I'm sure, is what my son has - JBL Creature 2: look amazing, sound brilliant. Matt listens mainly to classical but I know punk would come through clear and loud! My other son's are even better sounding but I forget the model number - they are Creative and cost c. £70-00.
Sorry - didn't think you meant portable!

[James Eaton]

Timmo,

As you know, I just use the master speaker from my Sony SRS-27 (£20). Though it isn't that powerful (1w), the quailty is excellent. I've used a few over the last few years, but all others have failed at the highest volume in terms of quality. I know a couple of people who have recently purchased the compact twin-speaker Creative Lab, not sure on it's quality, but it is powerful.

Those Radioshack ones are excellent, real shame they aren't available in the UK, I've been after one as a spare for a while now. One big problem with them though, the batteries they take aren't ideal, meaning you could struggle to get new batteries in the tropics for it (ie, it doesn't take AA or AAA).

[Andrew Whitehouse]

A couple of sites with info for the 'On Tour':

http://www.jbl.com/home/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=ONTOUR&cat=&ser=

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1639339,00.asp

http://reviews.cnet.com/JBL_On_Tour_Portable_Music_Box/4505-6467_7-31107454-2.html?tag=nav

It certainly plays music well enough and I suspect it would be more than adequate for playing back bird calls. There are perhaps cheaper and more compact options around but this is a pretty good buy.

[griffin]

Watcha

does anyone have any experience/recommendation of a decent external speaker that can be connected to an mp3 player.

Tim

Hiya Tim,

I use Active Sony jobbies from Argos SRS-A5S. They do split but only for stereo effect ! They are however linked together in a way that makes them portable and easy to hold in one hand.

Will draw in crossers from about 100 yards, maybe more if they are interested. Puny in comparison to RSPB system which is a home made mini megaphone/clacston thingy. Range is reputedly 200 yards, but I reckon 1/4 -1/2 mile ! Nearly s**t myself the first time I heard it go off :'D

Linz

[Steve Babbs]

Hiya Tim,

I use Active Sony jobbies from Argos SRS-A5S. They do split but only for stereo effect ! They are however linked together in a way that makes them portable and easy to hold in one hand.

Will draw in crossers from about 100 yards, maybe more if they are interested. Puny in comparison to RSPB system which is a home made mini megaphone/clacston thingy. Range is reputedly 200 yards, but I reckon 1/4 -1/2 mile ! Nearly s**t myself the first time I heard it go off :'D

Linz

These are the ones I used before the radioshack one, not as good but a reasonable second best.

Steve

[griffin]

These are the ones I used before the radioshack one, not as good but a reasonable second best.

Steve

Something I thought about, and is similar to what you describe Steve, is something we guitarists use called "Smokies" they are literally a guitar amp in an old pack of fags ( Marlboro, Camel etc ).The are pretty loud..........stuck one through my Marshall and it nearly blew the roof off !

Don't have one myself but some of my students do and they cost about £25 quid.On louder settings they do "distort" though..........cool ! :smoke:

Linz

[griffin]

Is Maplins not the UK version of Radioshack ?

L

[Tim Allwood]

I thought Maplins was the home of Hi-De-Hi?

thanks for the advice so far folks... great stuff

Tim

[ermine]

Puny in comparison to RSPB system
any web references - this doesn't sound like a classically RSPB thing to do. And does this thread mean that playback is coming to the UK and I can no longer trust my ears to find out what's about? I've never run into playback in the field here...

[fynnon]

Watcha

does anyone have any experience/recommendation of a decent external speaker that can be connected to an mp3 player.

Tim

Tesco extra!!! cant remember the brand name but were 9.99 and were ok.

[griffin]

any web references - this doesn't sound like a classically RSPB thing to do. And does this thread mean that playback is coming to the UK and I can no longer trust my ears to find out what's about? I've never run into playback in the field here...

It is used scientifically for surveying and species classification, not casually, ok ?

Linz

[Rob Smallwood]

Tim,

Try an Ebay search on "mini amplifier speaker" but on a world search rather than UK - seems to come up with some similar looking set-ups to the ones Steve refers to.

[Tim Allwood]

Tim,

Try an Ebay search on "mini amplifier speaker" but on a world search rather than UK - seems to come up with some similar looking set-ups to the ones Steve refers to.

cheers Rob

could be useful, that.

many thanks to all the folks above. Wasn't expecting quite so much quality advice.

I'm sure it will be an improvement on the dictaphone that I've used for playback for toooooo long!

Tim

[iporali]

Tivoli Audio iPAL. Great sound quality and a good portable radio. :t:

Ilkka

[snowyowl]

I have pair of speakers from Radio Shack that open like a book (or clamshell). They have their own batteries so I expected them to have abit of volume but they are much too quiet. They are made by Nexxtech.

[lachlustre]

I work in Carel ten Cate's bird song lab at Leiden University, where we do a bunch of playback experiments in the field, and in the lab.

I bought a "Creative TravelSound" speaker for a playback experiment in the Azores on chaffinches last spring (space was already limited). These are the white things in one box, about 1" deep x 1.5" height by 6" wide, weighs very little, cost about 80 Euros if I remember correctly. The speakers and amp are housed together in one box. The sound quality was fairly decent for my needs. One fairly large annoyance: this is meant to be for laptops, and powered by the USB port. If played through an mp3 player or something, there is a separate battery back (takes 4 AAA as well which sucks). We duct-taped it together, and it worked fine, but I was kinda annoyed when I opened the box to see this, because it wasn't obvious beforehand.

For most field playback experiments we do here in Leiden, we use a custom-made set-up based around a car-speaker: Blaupunkt 100-W CB speaker 4500 with a Kemo MO34 amplifier. This set-up is also really quite heavy, and can be difficult to use if you want to do playback from a realistic height in a tree (this is the recent fad in our group: sticking small speakers on poles, and placing them near realistic-looking song-posts).

To be honest: playback has worked quite well with almost any speaker set-up we've tried here. Quality will be more of an issue if the songs/calls are harmonic/noisy: the apocryphal story being how nobody believed that zebra finches would learn songs from tapes (ie everyone thought they needed social interaction to learn) until someone improved the audio quality in their set-up. However, we have had numerous cases of equipment breaking in the field: getting wet, loose connections etc. This can suck, espcially if you're doing field work in Africa, S. America etc. I would invest a bit more in sturdy speakers if I was travelling: in this regard I can report that the creative speakers survived a couple of months of being dragged through Azorean scrub on the end of a pole by me and my students.

Rob

[lachlustre]

I've just been re-reading through this thread, and I have a question: several posts emphasize the volume of the speaker set-up for attracting birds. From my perspective - using playback for animal behaviour experiments - this is relatively unimportant. It has often been the case that you can set the volume too high (a value of 85dB at 1m is what we use for chaffinches, for example). If the volume is too high, we get a much more circumspect response from the bird: probably because the playback sounds like it comes from a monster!
We mostly playback songs, which are partly an aggressive signal. I can imagine that with contact calls you might get different results. Is that what I'm missing here?

[sclateria]

Thought I'd chime in rather late with my thoughts on the issue...

I've used the much-acclaimed Radio Shack speaker/mini-amp deal, and though it did OK in drier conditions, it eventually packed it in after several weeks of prolonged exposure to high humidity in the brazilian amazon, a complaint I had not encountered prior to my experience, but one I did hear from a couple of folks I ran into in those very same conditions.

I've since replaced it with the Creative Travelsound 400 speakers, pretty good on size (fits in a pocket) and thus far resistant to rainforest birding. A nice thing about them is that it's almost impossible to leave them turned on by accident, thus avoiding inadvertent battery rundown.

They run on 4 AAA batteries, the website says for 35 hours - i haven't replaced the batteries yet in a month and a half of use though. And unlike the Radio shack speaker, they don't distort the sound at the highest volumes possible (that said, not as loud as the Radio Shack)... I must agree with the previous comments that volume isn't as important as some people appear to believe. Up to this point I've been more than happy with the clarity of the sound coming from these speakers...

good birding, recording, and (if you're so inclined) playbacking..

Brad

[hannu]

I bought this very compact combination : Creative Zen V Plus and TravelSound ZEN V. These are really good....
http://asia.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=29&product=15851

[mark pearman]

Tim,

Best I've come across and the one I currently use is the Panasonic RP-SPT70.

You could compare the spec and cost.

Mark
(Birdquest)

[horukuru]

im using philips portable speaker system SB40 and uses 6 AAA batteries together with my ipod :) check my blog about my birding setup

[Pinewood]

Tivoli Audio iPAL. Great sound quality and a good portable radio. :t:

Ilkka

Exactly what I use for portable music without the earphones.

Arthur

[Vectis Birder]

I bought a pair of foldaway powered speakers from Maplins the other day for £9.99. At that price you can't go far wrong, even if they do turn their toes up a year down the line. The sound quality's not bad, either.

[John Watson]

Hi guys and gals,

I'm looking for a good small speaker for my MP3 player for a forthcoming trip to South Africa.

Been looking at the options mentioned in this thread, but any updates or recent additions?

Thanks.

[Steve Babbs]

I bought the often recommended radio shack speaker and, although the sound quality is poor, it is very loud for such an amazingly small speaker. However I used it on one trip (admitedly a 5 week trip) before it started playing up and would sometimes not work. So I would be reluctant to buy one again. Now use Sony ones which are ok but I wouldn't rave about them.

[Darrell Clegg]

I take it you're looking for something to play bird calls on

I got a fold-up pair from Amazon for £0.01p (+£4.50 p&p) and they work perfectly. They won't win any hi-fi awards, but I don't suppose the birds care, and the volume is not that loud but it's certainly loud enough to attract birds, even over traffic.

Just type in iPod speakers in the search box. They all use the standard headphone jack so are not exclusivly for iPods.

Darrell

[Andrew Clarke]

Greetings bird sound people

Just bumping this thread to see if there have been any incredible technological developments in the last few months - I don't really keep up with all this techy business but...

I'm looking for decent quality (whatever that means - non tinny?), small, lightweight, robust, cheap-ish speakers for a minidisk I'm acquiring. Presumably I'll upgrade to a mp3 recorder/player sometime in the future so it would be good to be able to use them with any future device (presuming the jacks/leads are universal?).

So - are you recommending the same kit? Anything died in the field? Anything new worth checking for?

I nearly gave myself a sore throat pishing last autumn so it's time to let the batteries take the strain rather than my vocal chords!

Thank you

Andrew

[tom tams]

I use an Eagle waistband amplifier, bought from Amazon uk for £25

Tom

[shandyjack]

Heya

Just a thought, you can get 'omnidirectional' speakers, wouldn't these better for playing stuff at wildlife? The sound won't be focused in a single direction.

[Andrew Clarke]

Thanks for the comments!

[Steve G]

Recently bought an Altec-Lansing Orbit speaker to go with a mp3 player (Creative Zen) > very impressed with the sound output in both terms of quality & volume. The speaker is small & compact running on 3xAAA.

[Henry B]

Recently bought an Altec-Lansing Orbit speaker to go with a mp3 player (Creative Zen) > very impressed with the sound output in both terms of quality & volume. The speaker is small & compact running on 3xAAA.

Where did you buy it from was it reasonably priced. thanks...henry.

[Steve G]

Where did you buy it from was it reasonably priced. thanks...henry.


Hi Henry,

I bought it from a company called Advanced mp3. Their mail-order sales page for the speaker is here: http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/Speakers.16/Altec_Lansing.86/ORBIT360/Altec_Lansing_Orbit_360_Degree_Portable_Speaker_Sy stem.2716.html

The speaker gets fairly good reviews with the major criticism being the lack of an on/off light & a fiddly on/off switch (involves rotating the speaker unit rim -a task that would be troublesome for anyone with arthritis or poor manual dexterity). Currently it's on special offer -presumably to shift the stock as Altec-Lansing are due to bring out a new model shortly which will have a power-on light & a much easier-to-use on/off switch.

I needed mine for next month so bought it now. You can buy now getting the old model at a reduced rate or wait a few weeks & expect to pay £30+ for the new version.

Sound quality is good with 360 degree sound output & reasonable base/good volume. Volume is controlled by the input device & the speaker uses 3x AAA batteries.

I'm impressed & happy with mine.

Cheers,

Steve

[Henry B]

Thanks Steve , I,ll have a look.B (:

[David Caudwell]

On a slightly different tack - I've used my walkman phone loaded with bird song mp3s with great success just using the built-in speaker. Seeing as I'm carrying the phone anyway it saves having to also carry an mp3 plus an external speaker plus batteries! ...just an idea!
Dave C

[horukuru]

On a slightly different tack - I've used my walkman phone loaded with bird song mp3s with great success just using the built-in speaker. Seeing as I'm carrying the phone anyway it saves having to also carry an mp3 plus an external speaker plus batteries! ...just an idea!
Dave C

im using my cellphone as a backup to my ipod and also the built in camera quite good for hand held digiscoping too :king:

[Steve Babbs]

The Creative Zen mosiac has a built in speaker anyone know if this is loud enough to be any use? Sorry I know I'm going a bit off topic here.

[Lorne]

Hi there, I just found this thread and will say that I got that Altec-Lansing Orbit speaker a couple of weeks ago, to use in South Africa with a portable CD player. The sound quality seems to be realy good but the on/off switch is not easy to use.

[Barred Wobbler]

The Creative Zen mosiac has a built in speaker anyone know if this is loud enough to be any use? Sorry I know I'm going a bit off topic here.

It's just the job for close stuff, but you won't be bringing anything in from half a field away.

[SiG]

Recently bought an Altec-Lansing Orbit speaker to go with a mp3 player (Creative Zen) > very impressed with the sound output in both terms of quality & volume. The speaker is small & compact running on 3xAAA.

I've just ordered one of these, also from AdvancedMP3Players.co.uk - the price dropped a further few quid since I first looked at them a couple of weeks back, now under £20.

[SiG]

I've just ordered one of these, also from AdvancedMP3Players.co.uk - the price dropped a further few quid since I first looked at them a couple of weeks back, now under £20.

And it arrived today: currently freaking out my co-workers with Kruper's Nuthatch apparently calling from beneath my desk ... Impressive service, and gadget.

[Joe Doolan]

The Creative Zen mosiac has a built in speaker anyone know if this is loud enough to be any use? Sorry I know I'm going a bit off topic here.

Hi Steve.

I got a Creative Zen Mosiac and a X-mini external speaker as a present. The X-mini has a built in battery that lasts about 8 hours. It's superb. The built in speaker on the Mosiac works extreamly well, almost as good as the X-mini speker. I tried the Mosiac without the X-mini locally and in Spain with better than expected results.

Regards.

Joe

[lewis20126]

Hi - just bumping this up in the hope of any recent updates - just about to buy (yet another) new speaker ahead of a trip.

cheers, alan

[lewis20126]

Oh well, just ordered a Altec-Lansing Orbit speaker anyway - at £20 I just hope it lasts the trip.

Are there any truly good portable speakers out there? Think trawling for eagle owls and hummers - I'm not asking for much really!!

[Mark43]

Anyone tried the Samsung YP-K5 out at all.....wondered what the built in speakers were like.

Comes in either 1,2 or 4 GB storage i think.

About £50 for the 1GB.

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/10/samsung-ypk5-review.php

[Steve Babbs]

Was thinking of buying one of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/XMI-X-Mini-Capsule-Speaker/dp/B0012IPLNA/ref=sr_1_35?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1242593377&sr=8-35
but bought a very similar thing from Aldi for less than a tenner and it's awesome. It's tiny, about the size of a flattened golfball but more than loud enough and, although I won't be getting rid of my hi-fi, surprisingly good sound quality.

[Mark43]

This looks like an interesting speaker

http://www.orbitsound.com/products/t3/specifications.aspx

[Two Jugs]

Look for the IMainGo2 speakers. Very good sound and really portable. Certainly available in North America, and Maybe also in the UK.

Two Jugs

[dacol]

Oh well, just ordered a Altec-Lansing Orbit speaker anyway - at £20 I just hope it lasts the trip.

Altec-Lansing has launched a new version of this good speaker, correspondingly MacMall in the USA is selling the old models at a very good
price (US $ 9.99):

http://www.macmall.com/p/Altec-Lansing-MP3-Players/product~dpno~7364300~pdp.ecjgjhf?store=macmall&source=MWB23255

Dalcio

[COLOMBIA Birding]

Hi.. best for me is http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062620
we use it everywhere all time in our birding trips!
Diego.

[jurek]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062620

Also found it good. Sturdy. One minor problem is that changing battery requires a screwdriver. Also, easy to forget to switch it off.

[Hanno]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062620

They are great but I always carry 2 for the reasons jurek mentioned: easy to leave switched on, and you are buggered if you forgot to bring a screwdriver. Also, the particular type of battery required is not easily available in rural Cambodia.

[J. Moore]

Look for the IMainGo2 speakers. Very good sound and really portable. Certainly available in North America, and Maybe also in the UK.

Two Jugs

I'll second that recommendation. It's a single speaker that can be carried in a coat pocket and doubles as a case for your iPod/MP3 player, yet it's powerful enough for owling, etc. See here: http://reviews.cnet.com/portable-speakers/imaingo-2-black/4505-11313_7-33060591.html I'm not aware of anything that would be more convenient for birding purposes.

Best,
Jim

[Rob Hutchinson]

Phillips SBA 290 speaker is excellent, just 20 quid on Amazon. I have been using mine for about 18 months will no problems at all, great sound quality, plenty load enough and the included pouch attached nicely to a belt.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-SBA290-Portable-Speaker-System/dp/B000ALVUOY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1256809519&sr=1-1-spell

[Richard Scott]

The XMI X-mini II (http://www.amazon.co.uk/XMI-X-mini-II-Mini-Speaker/dp/B001UEBN42/ref=dp_cp_ob_ce_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1256809519&sr=1-1-spell) is a bargain at £14.99

Its compact, its got a decent volume and the built-in rechargeable battery gives 11 hours playback.

[COLOMBIA Birding]

http://www.amazon.com/JBL-Portable-Speaker-System-Black/dp/B000BQ57BU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1256844161&sr=8-2-fkmr0

JBL On Tour Portable Speaker System !!.. I have worked with it (even tough I use the small Radioshack) but guiding our tours in Venezuela (http://www.ascaniobirding.com/html/en_05.php?o=5&l#3) this speaker proven to be SUPERB!!!!
Diego.

[temmie]

They are great but I always carry 2 for the reasons jurek mentioned: easy to leave switched on, and you are buggered if you forgot to bring a screwdriver. Also, the particular type of battery required is not easily available in rural Cambodia.

As Hanno said, I also leave the switch more on (accidentally) than off after usage. But the other problems you can overcome:
1. Thighten the screw with your swiss army knife, and you can unscrew the same way; no need for a screwdriver.
2. Yhere are plenty rechargeable 9V battery on the market, and as many compact chargers that will do anywhere in the world. I tend to have half of my luggage packed with just battery loaders (flashlight, gps, sound recorder, AA charger, camera battery, etc) + necessary adapters, but it seems to work :t: