Electronics : GEAR4 HouseParty II Speaker System with remote control for all iPods - Black

Rating: - rather good
i bought this speaker a few weeks ago and i am very happy with it.
i had been searching for a speaker for ages for my ipod nano and this was a good price for what it is.
it goes extremly loud, so loud that i haven't managed to go to the maximum volume yet as i feared for my eardrums (they do come in useful now and then).
there is one small promblem that it makes a small thud sound before the song starts but it is not annoying and does not affect the music and may only be on my speaker i don't know, perhaps not good for travelling as it would take up quite a bit of space but not heavy at all and very good sound quality.
very good choice and the control works very well, even through windows.

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Rating: - Looks...POP!...great...POP!...Sounds...POP!...cheap...POP!
To the eye, this could pass off as a high end B&O unit. Very minimalist and stylish. So far so good...

POP!

However, the biggest let down (and it's pretty substantial) is the extremely irritating and very loud 'popping' sound that graces the beginning of every track. So, forget it if you want to listen to gentle, classical music or an album where two tracks are segueing into each other as it will be punctuated by this disconcerting dull pop, which becomes increasingly irritating.

Had the manufacturers dealt with this glaring problem and designed a remote control that actually worked beyond a distance of 18 inches (which is pretty much the same distance from which you'd operate it manually), then this would have received a full five stars, as it's a visually arresting unit and very cheap.

As it stands, it's only worth two stars, and one of those is for the physical design.

POP!

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Rating: - sounds good looks good bargain for what you pay for
i purchased this docking station yesterday and it looks great. i feel as if i have made the righ choice.

looks- very apealing looks great in my bedroom and is uptodate

sounds- very good can hear all the instruments very clearly and to a high quality for its size it packs a punch.

problems- this sounds system has one minor problem which annoying people seem to have a problem with which is a slight pop or crack which you get from changing one track to another. this is ahrdly noticable and shouldn't put anyone off GREAT product.

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Rating: - Out of Date
All the problems mentioned in previous reviews are present and correct, although the overall sound is good. I received this as a present (not via Amazon) so won't be returning it, but would warn potential buyers that - besides anything else - the speaker system is now out-of-date and is not fully compatible with the present Nano.

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Rating: - Random noise problems
Similar to another user, I had problems with random noise which seemed to co-incide with the backlight going off and being in the now playing screen.

My wife was quite happy to listen to the unit and would have kept it, but it drove me crazy. I'm not some sort of sound speciallist, but I do like my music to sound reasonably good - and apart from the odd interference, it did sound quite good.

In the end (next day) I took the unit back to the shop and swapped it for another, but in the process, tried my iPod on each display model of every system and this was the only unit which did the odd noise in-between tracks and randomly during tracks.

It may be acceptable to others, but it wasn't acceptable to me - 2 stars only.