Griffin Evolve Wireless Speakers Review and Unboxing
Filed Under Gadgets & Hardware, Geek on 2008-03-14, 12:25
A few weeks ago a set of Griffin Evolve wireless speakers arrived. I had been needing to get a decent solution for listening to music when hanging around the house and my laptop speakers weren’t cutting it. I wanted something that would work with my iPod since that’s where my music lived and something that I could use anywhere in the house. The Evolve wireless speakers seemed like just the solution.
What are my thoughts on the speakers? I love them. Being able to come home and pull the iPod out of my pocket and plug it directly into a set of speakers and continue listening to the same song is a nice convenience. In addition to that I can grab one of the speakers and take it into any room I want. They’re small, light, and the sound quality is pretty good. I was mostly concerned that the sound quality would be crap, akin to my experiences with FM transmitters, but I am pleasantly surprised and have no complaints about sound quality. They don’t have a whole lot in the realm of bass, but for their use (background music) they’re fine and I’m sure my neighbors are appreciative. They do get really loud though. For the audiophiles in the crowd that spend hundreds of dollars on cables, these probably aren’t the right solution. But if you’re a casual listener (especially if you’re still using those awful iPod earbuds) that just wants to have some nice background music in the house with the convenience of playing from your iPod, I highly recommend these. The selling points for me:
- They accept my 80gb video iPod in its protective case without needing an adaptor
- I don’t have to worry about screwing up my last.fm stats since all my music plays from my iPod
- They’re black and look nice
- Charging them is simple and easy, just set them on the base
- Range extends to anywhere within 150ft
- Additional inputs on the back so I can use any audio source
- Remote control is wireless and works anywhere the speakers work
- iPod charges while docked
- Switch on the base that changes from Stereo to Mono in case you want to have only one speaker in a room
My only improvements/complaints:
- No way to control song playback other than using preconfigured playlists and Next/Back
- It would be awesome to have a small LCD on the remote to view/control the iPod
- It would be nice to have a 5.1 version for use with my media center too
- A bit pricey
- Not a whole lot of bass
- While they aren’t nearly as bad as my PS3, they do gather some dust well
- I worry that the dock might snap off because I’m not using an adaptor since my protective case doesn’t fit in with the adaptor
All in all, I highly recommend them if you feel like you need a wireless solution for casual music listening. I may even buy another pair of speakers to add to the set in the future. You can find pretty low prices from different sellers on Amazon
Tagged: iPod, Mp3s, Music, Speakers, Wireless