Thursday, November 29, 2012

Review of Roland Mobile Cube



I've acquired a Roland Mobile Cube. I tried it before buying and was convinced. The reviews I found on the internet praised the stuff a lot, so I could hardly wait to actually try it.



The device is indeed quite small, 5 pounds with batteries. Compared to the size, the bass is quite good, but I have to say that the simple Genius pc sound set I use with a subwoofer sounds better in this respect.
Using an instrument or microphone input the device provides good impression. The volume is surprisingly high. One can feel that the sound comes from a small box, it suits its purpose well. The mid and high frequencies are explicit and clear, in overall they sound good.
One design decision is quite frustrating: the Aux (RCA jack) input does not include volume control - so if you with your laptop or your phone's headset connector you will get an awful noise. This problem is addressed by the new Roland Mobile BA device, which is more expensive but has less features. However, the Mobile Cube in this form is not well suited for presentations. If it is used with a laptop/phone a Behringer Micromix or similar solution is recommended.
It is interesting that the manual does not recommend the rechargeable NiMH batteries (it asks for alkaline batteries), although they can cope with larger current flows, actually better than alkaline batteries. But due to their lower voltage (1.2V instead of 1.5V) they can not provide the device's maximum performance.

Overall, this little tool can optimally solve the simple goals one should and could try to achieve with it: rehearsals, simple speech sound reinforcement, small street jams.

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