Philips ShoqBox Personal Sound System

List Price: $129.99 Discount Price: $48.95

Features:

• Philips« PSS110 ShoqBox 256MB MP3 player and FM radio, allows you to enjoy superb sound with power
• Savor 60 MP3 or 120 WMA songs in dynamic sound with XSL Acoustics
• Innovative use of high-tech materials like titanium cone and neodymium magnet deliver sound output
• A pair of tiny yet powerful speakers that deliver powerful bass with sound big enough to fil
• Your ShoqBox with built-in speakers is small enough to carry or fit anywhere

Customer Reviews:

PSS115 ShoqBox [Posted on 2006-06-20]
I got this from Sams Club at a considerable savings over the price listed here. This thing is great. I ran into the same problems that others were having and their solutions also fixed mine. When you get it, the first thing you must do it push the reset button on the back. Push it very firmly until you here a click. I thought I was going to push the switch out of the front, that's how hard it has to be pushed. Anyway, once that is done, plug in the charger and bingo, the lights turn on.
Not crazy about the radio. I didn't get it for that anyway. As for storage, I went with this size because you can plug any MP3 player or Ipod into the line in for extra storage. The sound great. I was very surprised at the volume and the clarity. It also has clock, alarm clock, sleep timer, equalizer (limited), and a carry case. Comes with MusicMatch9 which must be used. Do the plugin upgrades otherwise, the box won't be seen by software. Oh, the line in cable is also included. Nice touch. 4 hour charge = approx 10 hrs playback. I've had this for 2 weeks now and I've been using it steadily. I'm on my 6th recharge. They recommend to make sure batteries are dead before recharging.

NOT an alarm clock [Posted on 2007-09-24]
I bought this product looking for an alarm clock that would play MP3s. The sound quality is good, but there are several reasons it's absolutely useless as an alarm clock.

1) Backlight - if you leave it plugged in, there is an obnoxiously bright backlight that lights up the whole room, making it impossible to sleep (and wasting energy). If you leave it unplugged, you have to remember to charge it every few days. According to the Philips helpline, it's not possible to change this.

2) Alarm volume - when the music starts at the specified time, it's at a reasonable volume, loud enough to gently wake you up. But then it gets louder. And louder. Until it's loud enough to wake the whole building. But when you frantically hit the volume button, the music stops! The reason I wanted music in the morning was to avoid the problem of turning off the alarm and falling back to sleep. If you expect to lie in bed, listening to a song or two before you face the day, don't buy this product.

3) Music pickiness - in the rare event that the above two items don't bother you, be aware that the alarm clock has two music settings - artist and album. Conveniently, it recognizes the albums of about a third of the songs I've tried, so everything shows up as "~No Album." But under Artist, songs are played in alphabetical order, not in the order they were intended. For regular listening, you can create playlists to get around this, but not for the alarm clock function. It's maddening!

In all, it's a decent product, but not a decent alarm clock. I get the sense that it was released before going through a proper R&D stage. If the firmware was updated to deal with the above problems, it would be fantastic. As it stands, it's a shiny, pretty piece of rubbish.

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