Product Description

The Steepletone MP3 Street Machine is a high-power moveable MP3 player boom box. Measuring 230x220x450mm it has a tough trolley style cabinet with carry handle, wheels and a retractable pull handle. With a USB port, 30-pin connector for iPods and a Microphone input socket, it has two 5W speakers and a 20W subwoofer, and a rechargeable 12V battery. Bar code: 5025088117001

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13 in Speakers
• Brand: Steepletone
• Model: SM-001

Features

• USB post to connect MP3 and iPod port
• Powerful 20 watt sub woofer speaker PLUS 2 x 5 watt speakers
• Use on the move with its in-built rechargeable battery pack
• Boombox as recommended on Channel 5's The Gadget Show
• Microphone input socket to sing along to the music tracks, buy a wireless mic for added portability (microphones not included)

Customer Reviews

More flash than dash
Good points - easy to maneuver with the 'airline bag' style pop out handle. Connections with I-pods are good. Sound - not bad.

Bad points - Heavy but with (seemingly) no commensurate increase in power (compared to - for example - a Bose i-dock thingy).
The grills over the speakers are plastic and not as strong as they might be (by which I mean that sliding around in a car boot, the grill on one was broken simply under the Steepletone's own weight, so that's not good).
The battery needed to be connected internally before I used it which - if it said that in the instructions - I missed it, which meant it wasn't clearly stated. I was on the point of sending the thing back when I did some investigation and had to resort to a screwdriver to remove an access panel so it wasn't as if it was a casual thing.
And finally I can't seem to both play it and charge it's battery at the same time.
Wish I'd bought a Bose system...

Looks OK but out of date and overrated
Good: Looks OK, sounds OK, they've added a sheet explaining about connecting the battery!

Bad: Not all that loud, disappointing construction, can't charge and use at the same time, only plays MP3 (not WMA, etc), iPod Nano (gen 4) doesn't fit properly, iPOD Touch doesn't work at all.

The Street Machine looks fairly good and sounds OK but that's about it. Whilst the speaker bars are metal the grills are plastic and bend, so don't really protect the speakers from any heavy abuse. The plastic dock 'lid' will almost definitely break off with any sort of use and many of the controls seem rather cheap and tacky. The retractable handle also seems a bit flimsy.

Although the quality of sound is OK I was disappointed with the volume; it's quieter than my 10 year old Panasonic CD player. You have to use a switch to choose between charging and using the unit; once it's dead you have to stop using it to charge it up again.

The Street Machine might have worked with iPods from about 5 years ago, but its obviously not been updated for later models. Although my Nano worked, it didn't fit into the supplied Nano dock adapter so the iPod isn't supported properly. Worse still the iPod Touch just doesn't work at all. The USB and SD ports work OK but play ONLY MP3 files; the WMA files on my Creative Zen just didn't register.

It's an OK piece of kit if you're not expecting anything professional, and have an old iPod. Which, for the price, is probably what you should expect.