found a review here
http://www.audioreview.com/VirginReviewcrx.aspxPortable Party
By Eric LoBue
Date: May, 2005
I travel a lot. I find that more weekends than not, I am somewhere other than my home, away from my precious stereo. Sometimes I’m in a hotel room at a tradeshow, on vacation in Latin America or Asia, or visiting family and friends all over Cahleefornee-ah. iPods and Discmans have made music portable, but you still have to listen to it on your headphones, which isn’t always convenient. Sometimes you want to listen with your friends, in the hotel room, at the beach, at that impromptu party, or wherever, without having to be tethered to headphones and the player. There’s always a boom box, but they don’t pack up into suitcases very well. I’ve been wishing for something that I can easily pack into my bags for years.
It looks like Virgin Electronics has answered my audio geek prayers. With their new Boomtube, Boomtube EX, and 5gb Player, they have identified this potential portable niche and tackled it in a most effective way.
The Package:
The Boomtube and Boomtube EX are two sibling portable speaker systems. They are based on the new switching or “digital” amplifier technology from Tripath, which squeezes a high-powered amplifier into a light, tiny and energy efficient chip. High-end and home theater manufacturers have begun incorporating these little chips in their home amplifier designs, but their small size also makes them ideal for portable applications. Virgin has built an awesomely portable speaker system around this chip, using a nice sturdy aluminum tube design. The speakers attach to either end and pack up nicely into a provided travel bag.
The Boomtube EX is the top model, featuring two satellites and a powered subwoofer. The EX also boasts an internal rechargeable battery, and comes with an AC adapter to plug into the wall. When plugged in, the speakers use wall power and the battery charges. The regular ol’ Boomtube omits the bass module, the rechargeable battery, and the ac adapter. You can purchase an AC adapter to go with it; otherwise you must buy your own AA batteries to power the smaller Boomtube. You can also upgrade your regular Boomtube to EX status by purchasing the bass module separately for $99.
They didn’t stop at the speaker system. They knew that to complete the package, they had to provide a player. The Virgin 5gb Player (love that creative name) is a five-gigabyte digital music player designed to compete with the iPod mini. It is your typical digital music player with a few extra neato features it adds over players like the Mini: a second headphone jack for listening to music with a friend, and an FM tuner. Other than that, it is your standard digital music player, using Windows Media Player to manage your music (cue ominous horror music). All three items are sold separately.
Operation and Performance
Boomtube and Boomtube EX
I used the speakers in all manner of situations: at home and in the office as desktop computer speakers, outdoors and while traveling, using my computer, CD Player, iPod or the Virgin Player as a source. Both boomtubes sport a mini line input for your sources and come with a mini-to-mini cable for connecting your source components.
First thing, obviously, this is not an audiophile home speaker system. This is a portable party system, like an extra portable boombox. In that regard, it does quite well. This thing can crank. It does, after all, go to 11. It is just amazing how much clean sound these little digital amps can put out. The Boomtube will play very loud without breaking up, and the bass module on the EX does very well for such a little guy. Definitely not a true subwoofer, but it does fill out the music on the low end – something usually missing from such portable systems – giving the music more body and a fuller sound.
The sound wasn’t perfect. With their small size, you’d be tempted to use these as desktop computer speakers, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I used them in this configuration for a few days, but after a short while I found the sound very strident and grating; I couldn’t listen for very long. Aggressive music like rock and hip hop was especially difficult. This may have something to do with the simple fact that these are tiny little speakers voiced to play really loud. This makes near-field listening inadvisable. Don’t get too close to the speakers when they’re blasting, and you’ll be alright.
They are however, ideal for outdoor party type situations. At a picnic, the beach, in your backyard etc, they provide a loud and clear soundtrack to your good times.
5gb Player
The first step before you can load music onto your player, you are sent through the install process. It’s fairly easy. Virgin includes a simple startup guide which directs you to connect the player to your computer. The player appears as a drive on your computer (which also enables you to use the player as a portable harddrive for whatever type of files you need to transport – nifty). Stored on the player is the installer, which installs drivers and the latest version of Windows Media Player if you don’t already have it. Windows Media Player is the required software used to manage music on your player. This is where things go downhill.
As soon as I connected the player to my computer via the supplied USB cable, Windows Media Player launched. I selected “Copy to CD or Device” on WMP. At this point the Media Player becomes unresponsive, and you realize the reason for the nickname “Windoze.” Attempting to execute simple commands cause the player to become unresponsive for very long periods, and sometimes crash. Sometimes you can’t get music onto the player, and sometimes, Windows Media Player is just too unresponsive to do anything at all. Getting music on and off the player can be confusing, and the poor functionality of the software make this process even worse. When I finally got it working, it took about an hour to get the two gigabytes of music on my work computer into the player.
I tested this on my work computer, which is a terribly slow and old windows 2000 machine. I thought it could be that my computer just wasn’t up to the task. I took the player home where I have a faster, more competent machine running on Windows XP. Windows XP also uses a newer version of Windows Media Player. I was hopeful that performance of the player would improve, but no luck. It was the same terrible performance on a very new, fast computer as it was on the old clunker at work.
I updated the firmware. I reinstalled the drivers. I updated Windows Media Player. I contacted Virgin support and went through a restore process for the player. This improved things a bit, but the issues with Windows Media Player remain, making it a real pain to use.
There were more software issues on the player. Sometimes the player would just ignore my commands. There is a “lock” switch, meant to lock the player into whatever mode you have set – play, off, etc - so that the player doesn't accidently get turned on or off when in your pocket or backpack. This mode seems to do nothing, as you can power the player on and off with no problem, whether the “lock” switch is engaged or not.
In my previous job I worked as a Software Quality Assurance engineer, meaning we tested software for quality, and worked with the developers to build a stable and usable product before releasing it to the public. At the beginning of each software development cycle, when software developers first hand off their software to QA for test, we have what we call “Fish in a Barrel Day,” so named because there are so many defects in the software that finding them is like shooting fish in a barrel. Windows Media Player’s player management components and the internal software of the Virgin Player both seem to be in the “Fish in a Barrel” stage.
This is a shame, because once I finally got the music playing, I was happy. This player has really great sound with nice bass, which is my biggest complaint about the iPod. It was fairly easy and fun to use – when it worked of course. Some of the sunken buttons can be a little difficult to press, but aside from that the user interface is pretty easy.
Summary:
The Boomtubes answer a gaping niche in portable music. The ability to pack up a nice portable speaker system was long overdue, and Virgin seems to have done it in style. Slightly grating sound quality when listening too close to the speakers is the only complaint about this little unit. For its intended uses – traveling, beach days, camping, you name it; the Boomtube excels and should become a required accessory to complement your iPod. Music starved travelers should be stoked.
The Virgin 5gb Player, unfortunately, is a decent little player that suffers from some fatal flaws. Poor software in the player and from Windows Media make this player a nightmare to use. I did everything I could to get it to work properly but it was still a disappointment. My advice to Virgin would be put out some patches to their firmware and look long and hard for a different music management system.
This really made me appreciate the importance of a players’ music management software. I had been accustomed to Apple’s iTunes, which is slick, stable, and easy to figure out. It is also absent of very basic software defects affecting usability, which cannot be said about WMP. This is quite a disappointment, as the player itself has nice features, good sound quality, and is fairly easy to use.
Boomtube/Boomtube EX:
Strengths:
Super portable; can easily fit in a suitcase, back pack, or carry on luggage
Bumpin’ sound for such a tiny device, perfect for outdoor activities
Fills a real niche in portable audio
Very solid construction; feels indestructible
It goes to 11
Weaknesses:
Somewhat strident audio quality can sound grating at times
A bit expensive for a portable speaker system
5 GB Player:
Strengths:
Great sound quality
Easy to use player interface
Two headphone jacks are great for listening with a friend
Decent FM tuner
Plenty of storage space
Small size
Weaknesses:
Windows media player software is nearly unusable
Somewhat sensitive player firmware is easily scrambled
Many bugs in players’ firmware
No line output to help sound quality when used with Boomtubes
Tiny inset buttons can be difficult to press
Boomtube $99
Boomtube EX $199
Five GB Player $249
Virgin Electronics
Topic: Virgin VS2100 Boomtube EX Portable 40 Watt Speakers (Read 5889 times)