Gadget of the week / Soundmatters foxL speaker
Speaker packs a wallop with features of Swiss knife
If you are not an iPod fan and want to buy a speaker device to play music in your home or your car, there are a number of options.
You can connect your MP3 player to any device having an auxiliary input. You will not have the functionality of a device with a full iPod interface, but you will be able to use your player to listen to music.
You can also use a miniplugto-RCA adapter to connect your player to a sound system, or even the front audio inputs of your television. The TV’s sound won’t be hi-fi, but it can serve as background music filling the room.
Whenever you use a mini-plug connection from the player’s headphone output, turn the volume of the player up to around 75 percent to provide a good strong signal and then use the device’s volume control to set the master volume level.
The $199 Cambridge Sound-Works Radio 735i has an auxiliary input and would be a good choice for your home. The Cambridge Radio with CD player, the SoundWorks Radio CD 745i, costs $249.
Another compelling choice is the new foxL (pronounced fox-ull) from Soundmatters, maker of the popular MAINstage single-piece surround system I have recommended in the past. The foxL is a portable, battery-powered audiophile speaker that is a veritable Swiss Army knife of functionality.
Less than 6 inches long and 2v inches wide, this small speaker packs a wallop and delivers sound quality that defies its small size. It is powered by a battery that gives 5 hours of listening per charge, or via wall power, which doubles the output wattage.
The $199 foxL is great for adding quality sound to remote laptop computer presentations or as a portable traveling boom-box. It can even be worn around your neck on a lanyard.
The $249 foxL mb adds a noise-canceling microphone and Bluetooth to turn it into a hands-free speakerphone for phone conferencing. The Bluetooth can also be used for music streaming from device to speaker. Either model is a great companion to a computer, an MP3 player, iPod, iPhone or cell phone. In fact, given its portability, it can easily be moved between devices.
The foxL models are not yet featured on www.soundmatters.com, but in the meantime I have posted images and a downloadable PDF info sheet on my Web site (www.soundadviceblog.com) if you want to learn more. It may seem expensive, but that’s only because you haven’t heard how great it sounds yet.
If your car radio has a cassette deck, you can use a $15 cassette adapter with your player. You can also use an FM modulator to send the signal through the radio, but sound quality suffers.
You may want to check if your car’s radio will play MP3 CDs. If it does, just burn MP3s to CD using your music management software. You can fit around 100 songs on a single MP3 CD, so you may be able to carry all the roadgoing music you want on two or three CDs.
