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Gear4 Street Party 4
by SJ2011
I bought the Gear4 Street Party 4 speaker unit a few months ago to use on holiday and for weekends
away camping.The Street Party 4 is a speaker unit and docking station for the Ipod or Iphone but
it has a 3.5mm input socket at the rear of the unit which allows it to be used as speakers for any
MP3 player or smartphone ... although this requires the use of a 3.5mm jack to jack stereo cable. Unfortunately the extra cable isn't included but they are available in most electrical stores for
around £5.
The Street Party 4 is made of glossy black plastic on the back with black plastic grill over the front of
the unit although this looks great when you buy it every finger print shows on it and it scratches really easily after 1 weeks holiday ours looked like it had been kicked around the apartment floor a few
times when in reality it had been carefully packed and sat on a table the whole week!
The only controls on the unit are an on/off switch and a volume rocker so there's no setting up
required just plug in and play. There's a small remote control unit included which you can use for
adjusting the volume or skipping tracks etc but it only works if you are using the unit with an Ipod.
There's a blue light behind the speaker grill which lets you know when the unit is switched on and
the volume automatically resets to zero when switched off so you don't get hit with full blast music
from the night before when you switch it on the next morning.
The unit weighs 580gm and measures 141 x 241 x 33mm and has a plastic stand and Ipod dock
which fold back flush into the main unit when not in use. This makes it perfect for travelling as there
are no random bits sticking out ready to get snapped off when the airport baggage chuckers are
having a bad day and it takes up as much space as a T shirt in your case.
The sound quality is better than I honestly expected and thankfully avoids the tinny grating sound
of many portable speakers which sound like you've amplified your smartphone in a metal dustbin.
On this there's a decent range across all levels, nothing sounds muffled or tinny and the bass is
clear and defined without sounding too boomy or overpowering everything else. While it's never
going to rival a good home or car stereo system it sounds good for a reasonably cheap portable
speaker unit.
There's no mention of the power output anywhere on the box but i'd guess around 2x2.5 watts
judging by other speaker units I've owned. It's loud enough for most rooms although the Street
Party name is definitely stretching the boundaries of reality so don't expect this to live up to it's
name or to do what it says on the tin unless you live in a tiny enclosed lane and don't like loud music.
The unit can run on mains power or 4 x AA batteries and comes with a mains power supply unit and
a handy 2 pin travel adapter for using abroad. The unit will also charge an Ipod or Iphone but only
when it's running on mains power and sadly for those of us who refuse to join the Apple race it
can't charge a normal MP3 player. When we've used this for camping I've found we get around
6-7 hours use when using this on battery power with a new set of rechargeable batteries although
this will obviously vary depending on the batteries you use.
Overall this is a decent sounding speaker unit for the price and ideal for using at home or taking on
holiday. I paid £24 for the Street Party 4 and although the list price is £49.99 I've seen it in Sainsbury
and HMV for £25 so as always it's worth shopping around.
Update!! After owning this for just under 4 months the Street Party4 has decided it no longer wants
to work on batteries which makes it pretty useless for the purpose I originally bought it for although
it still works on mains power it's not a lot of use for camping trips etc that I really wanted it for.
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Behringer MS16
by bskel
I purchased these MS16 monitors to go with a studio set up. Obviously, as they are quite cheap, I thought these would be a great start for the studio.
I have heard a lot of bad things about Behringer products, as they are cheap, but from personal experience, I have never had a problem with any Behringer ... products.
These speakers are very clear, bass stands out, and are very ideal for people who are looking to upgrade from those standard shabby desktop PC speakers. These are definitely the best monitors I have used, especially for the price.
The speakers are very good looking also, very sleek and also very light.
When the speakers arrive, they come with all essential cables, which makes life 10x times easier when it comes to actually setting them up.
On the front of the speaker, there is 3 knobs. One controlling the treble, one controlling the bass and also the master volume knob. Next to the 3 knobs is a microphone input.
So, if you're looking for a cheap pair of monitor speakers, Behringer MS16 monitors are the way to go. You won't be let down!
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Gear4 Street Party 4
by amy1993
I got this docking station in a sale at HMV for £15, and I found out within weeks why it was discounted from its usual price of £30.
I thought it was very handy at first. I could move it around the house, the sound quality was very good. It was impressively loud for a smallish speaker, and the sound was very clear. ...
The front part, where you put your iPod, stuck out. It came with plastic attachments so that not too much pressure was put on the plug, which would break it. It came with different sized attachments, for all the different kinds of iPod. Unfortunately, there wasn't one for the iPhone.
After a few days, the plug started to become loose and I had to put a folded up bit of paper to hold in in place so the docking station would recognise it.
After a few weeks, the plug snapped into my iPhone, almost getting trapped inside and breaking my iPhone, and the docking station was useless.
In the future, I'd suggest paying for a more expensive speaker as you definitely get what you pay for with docking stations.
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