This is one accessory that I had heard about around the same time as I heard about Logitech's Playgear Amp, and I was looking forward to this one just as much. It boasted to have built in speakers in a case, so you could carry your PSP anywhere and have theater quality sound for it. It also has a built in battery that extends the PSP's battery by more than 5 hours.
First, I was happy when I hooked this thing up and let it charge. The internal battery, though that is all I hear about this product as far as good words go, is a very welcome feature. Having a backup battery in the form of a case means you never have to lug another external battery or have another internal battery in your pocket all the time. The PSP fits wonderfully in the case, with no movement when inside. Even as a test of my own PSP, I put it in the cradle, closed the case and shook it violently. Though I would not advise anyone to do this test, I did not hear or feel any sliding or shifting of the PSP inside, showing the custom fit of the case is really well done.
Now I will get to the sound of the Theater Experience, which is a totally different ball game entirely. The speakers, to put it bluntly, are very poor. For starters, a system should never cause buzzing, squealing, or noise of any kind when you have them on. This can damage speakers and should immediately be turned off when this is heard. Since the Theater Experience makes these types of sounds the instant you put your PSP in the cradle and turn it on, that leads me to believe that Nyko intended the PSP to never use the speakers while in the cradle, thus defeating the point of the feature entirely. The 2 headphone jacks on the front of the case are a good feature, but sadly they suffer the same fate as the speakers. Plug in headphones and turn on your PSP and you will hear the same loud squealing sound that was produced by the speakers, rendering the headphone jacks useless. The two flaps on the front of the case to protect the headphone jacks, AC in, DC out, and audio in are very cheap. They never stay closed when you try to push them shut, letting dust and hair and anything else get into the outlets and cause damage. They should have had some type of latching covers or a button like the one to open the case itself for these covers as well. Once again, cheap and shabby development and lackluster thought went into this idea.
To be honest, when a company comes out with an accessory, an "accessory" that we DON'T NEED TO BUY at all, they should put lots of things into consideration. Is it just gonna be another case for the product, or the "Case to rule them all" to the consumer's eyes? Will all the features of the case be usable, in tip-top shape, and worthy of a $80 price tag? How many people does the company feel will be disappointed with this product and return it for their money back? How many will claim to the company that the product is defective due to the problems? Well, Nyko obviously did not take any of these questions into consideration. My synopsis: If you plan to buy the case to have a good case with an internal battery that will charge your PSP, then this case is probably a pretty good investment. If you are buying it for the speakers, for traveling, or for watching movies in a car with a friend, do not buy this. It will empty your pockets of your earnings and replenish them with disappointment.
The speakers are poor, the headphone jack noise and speaker noise is unacceptable, and almost all the features this thing boasts are turned to toast by all the problems with those features. Nyko, I know many companies don't do this, but I beg of you, please do a recall of this product and fix all these problems, and redevelop it to be better next time. This case has the potential to be the best case for the PSP, maybe of all time. As of right now, it is a $80 protective case/battery charger. I'd be better off getting a charger from another company and using my regular PSP battery, which I have. I also advise anyone wanting speakers for their PSP to get Logitech's Playgear Amp, which does not have the same amount of volume as the Theater Experience, but causes no noise while connected. Nyko lost $80 here today, as well as created an unsatisfied customer.
I posted this after another review - but thought it may be helpful to post it here since I concur with every aspect of this review.
For those interested, I purchased and returned 3 units from 3 different Circuit City's, hoping that I was just having some bad luck. There is an inherent problem with the circuitry of the product in that it causes an extremely annoying and quite noticable 'buzzing' when the PSP in plugged in and 'on'. To have the volume low, or to try and listen with headphones is a really quite impossible. Since I liked the concept as much as I did (7 hours of charge time, decent travel case, speakers), I contacted NYKO directly. Much to my surprise, not only did the Director of Marketing reply, but so did the manager of Quality Control. They both admitted that there was in fact a problem with the wiring, and that in 3-6 weeks the new products would be released. This new unit would also include an on/off switch - currently it is automatically 'on' once the PSP is connected. Being somewhat sadistic, I purchased a 4th unit (oh yes, same problem), and they instructed me to ship it to them directly, and once the new ones have passed quality assurance (what in hell happened with the first ones, but thats a different story) it would be shipped to me. I am quite happy to hear this as I had also purchased (and yes returned) the Logitech Amp, which does sound very good, but is not very portable, it needs its own adapter (or 4 AAA batteries) and overall is just clunky to set up and pack away. Hope this helps would-be buyers, it looks to be a decent idea, and this re-release should make it a decent product as well.
This is cool news but sad to hear that they released the product after much delay and they still knew that it would have problems. I went out and got the Logitec and am very happy but yes, it's not portable. MAYBE if Nyko can get there act together and releases the IMPROVED Theater Experience then I might end up trading in the Logtec. We'll see.
you know what you can do to save money? hook your damn psp to your computer speakers! and plus are u actually going to be carrying that humongus crap around?
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