Consumer Electronics Guide | ElectronicsJunkie.com

Archive for May, 2009

After popular demand from a handful of friends and a little additional research, I have come to the conclusion that KICKER car audio speakers are the real deal. I have yet to read a review that has anything negative to say about KICKER speakers or their audio components.

In 1973, the KICKER team began their mission to build the absolute best sounding high-tech car audio system on the market. When it comes to developing their product and technology, it takes the input of a lot of different people. They range from moms and dads to authorized dealers. They take every opinion of their visionary team into account. These people live to make the KICKER car audio systems the best on the market. They bleed the color of sound!

The audio they generate is rivaled by none. It is so unbelievably clear sounding that I’ve personally heard and even a live concert can’t compete against. The decibel levels are equal to that of the space shuttle thrusters and can literally inflict physical harm.

KICKER has earned hundreds of rewards, trophies and world championships in the car audio world, no small task when you look at the amount of businesses they are competing against. Around the world, they are known to dominate in all classes of the Soundoff competitions.

Fellow electronic buzz heads – Use the power of Kicker speakers wisely or you will be replacing some windows. Here is a head-to-head comparison with one of their competitors.

• Kicker KS52 5.25 inch speaker package: 88 db sensitivity, 38HZ-21khz frequency response, 65 power handling rms, and 130 watts of peak handling power.

• Jensen JPS252 (part of Audiovox): Their five and a quarter inch speakers have a 25 watt rms, and a peak handling of 125 watts. Their frequency response is 65hz – 21 kHz.

The Kicker subwoofers are also superior. The square design allows you 20% more surface area than your typical 12” round subwoofer. This translates into more air movement, which of course transfers into more sound.

Here is how the Kicker subwoofer stacks up:

• Kicker S12L5D4: It has a 77.25 oz magnet weight, a 600 watts power handling rms, and a 1200 watts peak power handling capability.

• Jensen JPW142(part of Audiovox): Ferrite magnet weight of 40 oz., 175 watts rms power capability, and a maximum peak power of 875 watts.

Whether buying the Kicker car audio speakers or their subwoofers, they are not really over priced, they are the real deal and you get what your dishing out in cash. They offer more power and the clearest sound for your green-backs. They are well worth the extra cost. They offer a full warranty. So get hooked up, it will completely maximize your car stereo’s capabilities. With the KICKER brand, they offer a three-month warranty from all workmanship defects and a one-year warranty under normal use (you must keep that original receipt). Buzz on with exceptional sound quality.

The 8100 pearl blackberry smartphone is a very popular PDA and and an excellent way for busy-buzzy people on the move to keep track of not only of their calls, but also their emails and text’s. You can browse the internet, text your friends, catch up on your messages and organize your day all with this one small device – you can also receive and download attachments, compose and answer email messages. The  8100 pearl has its own suretype keyboard for you to deal with urgent mail as well as write memos. The  8100 pearl is a lot more than just a phone.

You can keep track of your appointments and tasks for the day and be assured that all your information is in one place. Having used Blackberry for the last couple of months, I have found that it simplifies keeping on top of things, particularly if you have to travel on business. Keeping on top of emails and appointments is made much easier with Blackberry. More to the point, you are not carrying the weight of a laptop – the Blackberry Pearl will fit into your pocket.

Browsing the internet is easy with Blackberry and you can set bookmarks and quickly navigate to your favorite site. The Blackberry Pearl Smartphone has the extra wow factor of a built-in camera. You can take pictures and immediately email them to your friends – no messing about uploading them to your PC – do it straight from your handset. The smartphone comes complete with a USB connector, so transferring files between the Blackberry and your PC just couldn’t be easier.

Like Apple’s new iphone, the 8100 pearl uses Wifi, which gives much quicker data transfer – although, if you’re in an out of the way area, the connection may not be so good, but great if you’re in a densely populated area. The flash memory can be expanded with the aid of a Microsd card that gives you plenty of extra storage for music, photos and other types of data.

It’s difficult to make comparisons because I believe that the 8100 is really in a class of its own. The Pearal is not cheap and the handset could set you back $600. But, boy, is it useful! If, like me, you’re one of those people who spend half their lives rushing from one place to another, not always having the time to sit at the PC and deal with messages, the Blackberry is for you. No more irate calls asking why you haven’t dealt with an email – you’ll be able to pick up those high priority messages as soon as they turn up because the Blackberry will alert you. From my point of view, the Pearl is one of the best and easiest ways of making your life just that little bit more streamlined, as well as enjoyable.

Do you have an aspiring young photographer in your family? You might want to think about investing in a kid tough digital camera specifically for your child. This is becoming a hot market for a lot of the big manufacturers of digital cameras. Young children are becoming more tech-savvy, and they want their own versions of adult devices like digital cameras. Mom and Dad’s digital camera is probably a little delicate for kid use, since little ones are notoriously rough on things, so they need a sturdy version that does the job but can take the rough handling they’ll give it.

The best of the lot for the price is the Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera. It has a binocular view piece so little ones can use both eyes, not just one, to take pictures. For easier handling, it has two handgrips so kids can get a firm grip on it, and it’s sturdy enough to take being dropped. It comes with 8 megabytes of memory and you can buy an SD card to hold more pictures. The 8 MB of memory will store 50 pictures at 640 X 480 resolutions. It comes in pink or blue and uses four AA batteries to run. (One suggestion is to buy some rechargeable batteries, since disposable batteries will need frequent replacing if the camera gets lots of use.)
The Fischer Price kid tough digital camera will cost about $65-70, but it’s worth the price for the tough handling it can take.

The Barbie Digital Camera is sturdy and well built, retailing at about $35. Although its pictures are not top quality and it has no flash (hence a tendency toward “dark” indoor pictures), it’s a good start for kids who are Barbie fans and won’t break your wallet.

The Hello Kitty Digital Camera is very pricey for what you get, retailing at $99, and takes poor quality pictures for the price. The LCD screen is also hard to read, especially at night. Bottom line: don’t waste your money on this kid digital camera.

Finally, if you’ve got a budding videographer as well as photographer in the family, check out Hasbro’s VcamNow, for children old enough to handle slightly more intricate equipment, beginning about age 8. It not only takes 1.2 megapixel digital photos, but also takes video at 10 frames per second. (Fluid motion frame speed is 30 frames per second.) Although the video won’t be smooth at one-third the speed of regular video cameras, it’ll give kids a chance to hone their movie-making skills. It plugs directly into the television for easy viewing, boasts a 4X zoom function, and has 32MB of internal memory and an SD media card slot as well. It retails at $89.