Pro Reviews:
"The sound produced by the Outcast Junior has to be heard to be believed. In one word, it is incredible. The volume levels should easily be able to provide entertainment up to a 1000 feet in either direction while the bass levels produced had an awesome kick and are sure to impress audiophiles."
I remember the days when trying to get music to a place not equipped for music used to involve tons of planning. For example, a party in the backyard would involve recording a tape of songs, finding a boom-box loud enough and finally making sure a power connector was present withing a foot. Today, all I need is an iPod and the Outcast Junior from Soundcast.
The Outcast Junior is an outdoor, rechargeable speaker system that can also wirelessly communicate with the iCast transmitter- an iPod docking station with AUX input for connecting anything other than an iPod. Its cylindrical shape stands at about 50 cms with a diameter of 27 cms and weighs 13kgs. Inside this weather proof housing, the Outcast Junior is equipped with four 3” speakers in a 360 degree layout to provide sound from all angles. The four speakers are accompanied by a 6.5” downward firing woofer.
The Outcast Junior is quite small and light to be carried and placed anywhere you want it to. On the top you have buttons for powering up the unit, changing volume levels as well as pausing or skipping between songs. These buttons will only work if you have an iPod connected wirelessly through the iCast transmitter. A 3.5mm input jack above the speakers lets you connect any audio source directly to the Outcast Junior. Finally, the bottom has the power connector that can recharge the ten AA sized batteries, also accessible from the bottom of the unit.
Along with the Outcast Junior, we received the iCast transmitter which, as we mentioned is an iPod dock and a wireless transmitter. Soundcast uses three channels of 2.4GHz technology for interference free audio transmitting for upto 350 feet. The iCast transmitter needs to be plugged in to a power source and can thus be used inside your home while the Outcast Junior sits outside pumping your tunes.
A 3.5mm aux input on the iCast transmitter also allows you to use any other audio source, however, you lose the functionality of pausing or skipping tracks from the Outcast Junior. We tested the Outcast in our office and while I can’t say that we were 350 feet away from the transmitter, it did work very well when placed a little over a 100 feet away from the iCast. I connected my iPhone to the iCast and was able to skip and pause songs from Outcast Junior.
Considering that there isn’t much change in weather during the summer months here in the UAE, we weren’t really able to test this unit against anything but extreme heat. However, the following video by Souncast will certainly lay rest to any doubts about the weather proof chassis of Outcast.
The sound produced by the Outcast Junior has to be heard to be believed. In one word, it is incredible. The volume levels should easily be able to provide entertainment upto a 1000 feet in either direction while the bass levels produced had an awesome kick and are sure to impress audiophiles. Even at the loudest volume levels, we did not notice much distortion.
Soundcast claims the battery of the Outcast Junior to last between five to nine hours. We couldn’t really keep the Outcast Junior pumping audio through our office building for a longer time but five hours should be plenty for a casual party. If you are looking for something more we suggest the senior version of the product that gives you more battery life and even louder volumes.
About the only thing we found lacking on the Outcast Junior is an SD card slot to play your tunes from. By including an SD card reader, the Outcast Junior could’ve become a fully self-contained music system. Other than that, its a perfect outdoor speaker system that we highly recommend.
The Outcast Junior review on T-BREAK TECH.
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The ideal garden furniture for this summer has just been announced by Soundcast Systems.
With the Outcast Jr wireless loudspeaker proving not only tough to the outdoor elements, but also extremely pleasing to the ear, with a 100m range...
The Outcast Jr. sound system will stream music from various transmitters which must be purchased separately. These include an iCast transmitter for streaming tracks from an iPod, and the Universal Audiocast Transmitter, which will stream music from a PC or Mac when plugged in via USB or 3.5mm jack. Use just one of the Outcast Jr speakers, or buy two and use them as left and right channels for a true stereo sound.
The Outcast Jr contains an inbuilt amplifier, down-firing 6.5-inch woofer, and four omni-directional drivers. Plug it in with the 240V power cord, or use the rechargeable 12V NiMh battery and external charging kit for wireless fun.
The Outcast Junior review on T3.
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User Reviews:
Thrashard
A Very Pleasant System!
I recently bought the Outcast Junior and am very happy with the unit. After waiting for the battery to charge up, I turned it on and put my IPhone into a ICT111 wireless transmitter and WOW! The sound was very good and filled the large room. And very easy to set up, no complicated pairing or programming.
When I use it outside, I can not really crank it up because it is too loud for my neighborhood. Even when I crank it, the sound remains good with little distortion. My one complaint is that the transmitter (sold seperatly) does not have a battery feature making it's use at the beach limited. You can still plug in your IPod directly, but lose some features on the Outcast. All in all, a very solid unit with impressively loud sound for such a small unit.
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Benjamin Ballinger
This is the definition of audio legitimacy
This speaker kicks ass, I own two of them. The only thing is I wish it had a soft case you could put it in because the outside gets scuffed and smudged extremely easily and you can't get the marks off. These things can take a pretty good beating. Battery life is great to and the options for wireless/wired ipod and battery/acdc adapter use is just awesome. Totally loud and great bass and knocks the socks off of any competitive product. Actually, I take that back, this product doesn't HAVE a competitive product because nothing comes close to being as versatile and great-sounding.
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Racer230
Unreal..
I am totally blown away by the clarity, simplicity and sound quality of this product. It came complete with all cables, batteries and chargers and even included the remote transmitter! Even when the volume is cranked up, it is crystal clear with great bass and punch. Highly recommend this for anyone that enjoys music outdoors. Reminds of when the Bose SoundDock first came out...this system is THAT GOOD and blows everything away!
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