Paladone My Amp Retro MP3 and Computer Speaker with USB Lead

A fun novelty item, this speaker only delivers mono, and won't replace proper stereo speakers for purists or movie watchers on their PC.. however, the sound you do get is robust enough, and design appears sturdy and durable, and of course - fun.

LOOKS: The amp design is the selling point, and this really does look like a mini amplifier, with 3 dials - for volume, bass and treble, as well as an on off button and red LED light for power on. The jack plug sticking in the front somewhat detracts from the effect.. shame it oculd not have gone in the back, next to the USB port.

SOUND: The sounds does deliver - but in mono only. Or, frustratingly, actually one half of stereo. This can make watching a movie on your pc a little odd if the stereo on the movie is marked, or on some particularly older songs where different instruments are very distinctly on the different tracks, rather than today's stereo which tends to be the same set of instruments - from a different point, making more modern music more suitable. Frankly, how it sounds depends very much what you want it for. I bought it to watch movies while travelling with my laptop.. for this purpose it was not ideal, and there are alternative portable stereo speakers out there that do the job better. As an extension to play your ipod podcasts or music, it does a better job, but might not be powerful enough to deliver a quality sound if there is the hubbub of a party going on.

FUNCTIONALITY: Takes 3 AA batteries, however this requires a small star screwdriver to get into the battery loading bay.. so if taking this on the road, you might be stumped. This was a poor design choice. Much more satsifactory is the USB port to charge from a computer, for which the cable is provided. It is possible to purchase separately the power point to USB cable if you want to power this from mains. Jack to jack cable is also provided making this useful enough for most portable devices you might want to listen to, and the cable seems robust enough to last.

OVERALL: Depends what you want it for - if you remember this is mono only, and that doesnt bother you, and if your expectations for room filling or party competing sound is low, this is a fun item to meet your need to plug into an ipod or whatever. Fun to look at, awkward to replace batteries, sounds decent.

I should quickly mention before I talk about the general aspects about this item that the speaker outputs in mono rather than stereo, which is obviously no bad thing as this speaker produces a stunning, clear sound with a great deal of realism in the vocals and instruments. But what it does mean, however, that whereas with a stereo speaker or headphones, which play both the left and right channels of a music track, the MyTunes MP3 Amp will play the music through the left channel. I discovered this after listening to various songs from The Monkees, (which have huge stereo separation between both the right and left channels), and so when playing the songs through the MyTunes speaker, I noticed the various instruments, accompaniment and vocals which made up the left channel.

You may think because it only delivers sound from the left channel of a music track, that parts of the detail in the music or video audio is lost. For most music tracks, this is not really much of a problem in my opinion, as the stereo separation (the difference between the music on the left and right channels) is often minimal. As such, you should find that most music and audio tracks play a near "full" sound, and sound much alike a track played in stereo form. I think it is also fair to say that a high-quality mono speaker is better than a stereo speaker with piteous sound, and I understand not everyone will be after a stereo system. However, should you be one of those people who prefer to listen to music through a speaker, then their are various options on iTunes and other audio programs (like GoldWave) where you can convert or re-save a stereo track to mono form. In this case, both the left and right channels of an audio track combine into one channel, so you get a full sound when outputting the music onto the speaker. Personally, I would only do this with tracks that have a huge stereo separation.

Inside the decorative cardboard box that comes with the speaker, which I should also say is very well labelled, you have an audio cable, a USB cable and a set of instructions. The audio cable provides a lot of flexibility as it fits any device, or MP3 player that has 3.5mm jack. You can use the USB cable to power the MyTunes Amp(although make sure you turn the speaker on by the black switch, too). Alternatively, the speaker can be powered using three AA batteries (not included with the speaker) and these will last a good while; perhaps six to twelve months depending how often the MyTunes Amp is used. When the battery gets low the red light on the speaker will usually dim and the music will become distorted. The use of batteries is very useful should you want to take your Amp anywhere with you. If you still preferred to power the speaker via the USB cable, but did not fancy using the USB ports of a computer/laptop, you can buy a USB charger - these plug into a spare socket, and they contain USB ports which will let you charge or power a USB device that way.

Design-wise, the speaker looks just like an actual amp and the attention to detail is fantastic. With its prodigious size, the speaker produces a wide frequency range of 200Hz to 20KHz and at a great volume, more than adequate for most situations. The dark casing, the placement of the dials, the stylistic MyTunes logo and the general robustness of the product all add together to make a speaker that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. And should look great in any area of your house/flat. Or even anywhere in the garden!

When it comes to sound quality (including the elements I mentioned in paragraph one), the speaker produces an excellent strong sound with good details in the music. Classical and rock music, in particular, really jump out at you and have ambience and presence. I would probably say that the bass is a tad weak, but there are dials placed conveniently on the top of the speaker, where you can ajust the bass and treble levels. There is also a dial to ajust the volume allowing the speaker to reach high levels, although this will depend on the source you have the speaker connected to. For the best results, though, I would urge you to turn the volume on the input device, such as an MP3 Player, to full and use only the speaker to ajust the volume, otherwise you will find that if you have the volume lower on the input device than on the speaker, you will find that the music will begin to distort. This is particularly true if the volume of the speaker is high, but the volume on the input device is low.

I have to say I am very pleased with this speaker and will continue to use it for a while to come. So if you are looking for a speaker, which is portable, but do not want to spend too much money, I would recommend this product. Great sound, great appearance and not too heavy to carry around.

Well, I'm going to keep it short: I originally saw this on play.com and thaught "yea, that'll be cool around the house and for the summer'. At some point over xmas, I mentioned it, and the rest you can guess.

The first thing that hit me was the authenticity of it! From the metal grill on the front to the texture and the protected corners, it looks every bit the real amplifier (this is coming from a guitarist / bassist). It is clear with effective bass and treble control. It's 5 watts, which is perfect for camping, festivals or just student digs.

I would recomend it to any one who asked me about it. The one gribble I have with it is the lack of mains power. It can be powered through USB or by 3 x AA batterys. Still, you can buy usb to mains adapters damn cheap these days, so i'm not knocking marks off for that.