Product ReviewsMultimedia hardware
What the world needs now is... not another iPod speaker system. Yet that doesn't stop manufacturers from churning them out with alarming alacrity. Thus we have the third revision of Gear 4's HouseParty system. The HouseParty III has features to commend it: an FM tuner, an LED display that's hidden behind the speaker grille, a retractable dock and speakers that are rated at 15W each. It also looks pretty good - in pictures, at least. First impressions fade, however, as soon as you take the HouseParty out of its box. What looked slick and glossy in print feels cheap and plasticky to the touch. The iPod dock is a prime example. It's retractable, which should be a point in its favour - push it in and it locks, flush with the
There's only one supplied iPod dock adaptor, for 10-30GB iPods. If you have a different iPod model, you need to use your own adaptor or suffer the consequences of having the iPod resting on the speaker grille - that is, vibration and rattling at high volumes. At least the FM tuner works well, although you can't preset stations. There's an auto-tune function that scrolls through the frequencies until it hits on a broadcast, and the frequency itself is displayed in a large red LED above the iPod. It proved to be a very capable tuner in our tests. Audio quality from the iPod, however, was disappointing. At lower frequencies, it sounded like we were listening to something that had been dropped in a bowl of thick broth. Mid and upper frequencies were better, although not great. The snare drum in 'Dance of the Knights' from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet lacked crispness and was barely recognisable. While the Gear 4 HouseParty III isn't without merit, there are better-sounding and more robust alternatives to be had for the £80 price tag. By Kenny Hemphill
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