Went out and purchased the ION Boombox Deluxe today from Best Buy for US $69.99 plus tax. I was skeptical at first and when I saw how small it was, I was pretty sure the bass would sound like an ant stamping his foot on the tile floor of my kitchen. I was pleasantly surprised. I've had a few hours to play around with this little machine and I must say, this is actually the first reproduction boombox with cassette that seems to have gotten it right.
It has a powerful sound for the size and offers multiple ways to power it. Internal rechargeable battery, 6D batteries or AC mains. Despite showing tweeter grills, this boombox is only a 2 speaker setup with a condenser mic for open air recording. The speakers are 8 ohm drivers and have a decent \\throw// to them with a sensible magnet size. This gives them the ability to produce a warm low frequency. I would say that they are on par bass wise with a mid sized old school Panasonic. It truly gives a warm depth that surprised me and out performs the GPO in bass despite being twice as small. The bass radiates out the rear vents just like the good old days so placement is important as usual. The power to weight ratio is such to where it will literally move itself across a smooth floor or table on bass heavy songs. I would suggest adding rubber feet to keep it planted.
The radio picks up stations very well and has a true analog feel to the tuning adjustments. It has an AM/FM receiver with the option of Mono, Stereo and Stereo w/ Bass Boost. The radio performs as you would expect and has a stereo indicator light. Channel separation is very noticeable from Mono to Stereo on FM broadcasts.
The cassette deck is about as basic as you can get. It does not auto stop when Rewinding and F. Fwding but does auto-stop at the end of playback. It will shut itself off after playback is done however, you cannot use the cassette as a sleep function on radio. On the plus side, it records and plays cassettes in STEREO. Also, unlike the GPO, you can Rewind / F. Forward while on other functions (radio, Bluetooth, etc..). The only let down is the erase head which is a fixed magnet. This tends to introduce more background hiss and noise when recording but it seems to record as you would expect from an inexpensive boombox. You can record to cassette from open air (mono), aux (stereo), MP3 via Micro SD and USB (stereo), Bluetooth (stereo) and Radio (FM - stereo). Likewise, you can play a cassette and record it onto Micro SD / USB as an MP3. I found the tape head and motor adjustments on my model to be spot on. Treble was even and crisp on both channels with all of the cassettes I played through it.
Bluetooth was easy to pair and produces a more powerful sound than cassette. It allows you to be able to take advantage of your phones EQ settings for a more dialed in experience. I was able to coerce more volume, bass and treble out of my box using my phone as the playback source. The BT range is quite well. I walked from one end of my house to the other (one level approximately 55ft away) and the sound did not drop out or stutter at all. It is important to note that while in Bluetooth mode, the source determines whether you are stereo or mono. You can switch the selector on the radio to Mono but if your BT source is stereo it will continue to play in stereo. The good news is Bass Boost will still operate while streaming Bluetooth audio.
Micro SD / USB and MP3. I was fully expecting this boombox to record from all sources at a sample rate of 128 kbps. While playing Bluetooth I decided to record onto USB. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the sampling rate was 160 kbps! That is an improvement over the DJ-Tech, GPO and the Bumpboxx which are all 128 kbps. Its not the 192 kbps + I was hoping for....but 160 will definitely do and produces a recording that is desirable to listen to. MP3 Playback and Recording is fairly straight forward with the controls on the right side of the boombox.
The LEDs and Analog VUs scratch that itch regardless which way you prefer. The good news is that they aren't just a gimmick. They actually follow the audio output and are relative to the amplifiers output. You can also use them as a reference when recording.
Power is via AC, built in Rechargeable battery and/or 6D Batteries. There isn't a selector switch for the internal to external batteries so I assume the radio knows internally when batteries are inserted and will use those to power the box. The instructions were not too clear on this. I know you have to flip the AC switch on to charge while on mains. You can listen to the box while charging but the amplifier seems to pull current away from the charging circuit. When the bass hits the charge indicator practically goes out so not sure if that is disrupting charging or not.
If you want a compact lightweight boombox that's portable and won't break the bank, I recommend it. These look like one of those one off deals like the DJ-Tech that may be gone when they're gone.
I hope this was helpful for anyone considering purchasing one of these.
It has a powerful sound for the size and offers multiple ways to power it. Internal rechargeable battery, 6D batteries or AC mains. Despite showing tweeter grills, this boombox is only a 2 speaker setup with a condenser mic for open air recording. The speakers are 8 ohm drivers and have a decent \\throw// to them with a sensible magnet size. This gives them the ability to produce a warm low frequency. I would say that they are on par bass wise with a mid sized old school Panasonic. It truly gives a warm depth that surprised me and out performs the GPO in bass despite being twice as small. The bass radiates out the rear vents just like the good old days so placement is important as usual. The power to weight ratio is such to where it will literally move itself across a smooth floor or table on bass heavy songs. I would suggest adding rubber feet to keep it planted.
The radio picks up stations very well and has a true analog feel to the tuning adjustments. It has an AM/FM receiver with the option of Mono, Stereo and Stereo w/ Bass Boost. The radio performs as you would expect and has a stereo indicator light. Channel separation is very noticeable from Mono to Stereo on FM broadcasts.
The cassette deck is about as basic as you can get. It does not auto stop when Rewinding and F. Fwding but does auto-stop at the end of playback. It will shut itself off after playback is done however, you cannot use the cassette as a sleep function on radio. On the plus side, it records and plays cassettes in STEREO. Also, unlike the GPO, you can Rewind / F. Forward while on other functions (radio, Bluetooth, etc..). The only let down is the erase head which is a fixed magnet. This tends to introduce more background hiss and noise when recording but it seems to record as you would expect from an inexpensive boombox. You can record to cassette from open air (mono), aux (stereo), MP3 via Micro SD and USB (stereo), Bluetooth (stereo) and Radio (FM - stereo). Likewise, you can play a cassette and record it onto Micro SD / USB as an MP3. I found the tape head and motor adjustments on my model to be spot on. Treble was even and crisp on both channels with all of the cassettes I played through it.
Bluetooth was easy to pair and produces a more powerful sound than cassette. It allows you to be able to take advantage of your phones EQ settings for a more dialed in experience. I was able to coerce more volume, bass and treble out of my box using my phone as the playback source. The BT range is quite well. I walked from one end of my house to the other (one level approximately 55ft away) and the sound did not drop out or stutter at all. It is important to note that while in Bluetooth mode, the source determines whether you are stereo or mono. You can switch the selector on the radio to Mono but if your BT source is stereo it will continue to play in stereo. The good news is Bass Boost will still operate while streaming Bluetooth audio.
Micro SD / USB and MP3. I was fully expecting this boombox to record from all sources at a sample rate of 128 kbps. While playing Bluetooth I decided to record onto USB. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the sampling rate was 160 kbps! That is an improvement over the DJ-Tech, GPO and the Bumpboxx which are all 128 kbps. Its not the 192 kbps + I was hoping for....but 160 will definitely do and produces a recording that is desirable to listen to. MP3 Playback and Recording is fairly straight forward with the controls on the right side of the boombox.
The LEDs and Analog VUs scratch that itch regardless which way you prefer. The good news is that they aren't just a gimmick. They actually follow the audio output and are relative to the amplifiers output. You can also use them as a reference when recording.
Power is via AC, built in Rechargeable battery and/or 6D Batteries. There isn't a selector switch for the internal to external batteries so I assume the radio knows internally when batteries are inserted and will use those to power the box. The instructions were not too clear on this. I know you have to flip the AC switch on to charge while on mains. You can listen to the box while charging but the amplifier seems to pull current away from the charging circuit. When the bass hits the charge indicator practically goes out so not sure if that is disrupting charging or not.
If you want a compact lightweight boombox that's portable and won't break the bank, I recommend it. These look like one of those one off deals like the DJ-Tech that may be gone when they're gone.
I hope this was helpful for anyone considering purchasing one of these.
