Technika MA-309 Portable MP3 Speaker > Reviews (2)

I mostly use my headphones when listening to music via my mp3 player due to sound quality and ease of use. The fact that I am not disturbing other people in the house is also a benefit, but sometimes I like to just play my music out loud in my room or when the house is empty I will use them with the laptop. The Technika MA-309 portable speakers are handy for connecting to anything with a 3.5mm input but unfortunately they require 3 x AAA batteries which is a negative. Obviously this does prolong the battery life of the mp3 player and with a battery life of around 4-6hours I would strongly recommend getting some rechargable batteries.

These trendy little portable speakers are ideal for using with your mp3 player, any sorts of media players (using a 3.5mm input) and also for things such as laptops and notebooks. The speakers are flying saucer shaped and are black with silver bands on them. They are quite striking, but their output isn't the best I have heard. Now, this is considering I have listened to some of the top end equipment and comparing to headphones or top end home audio equipment is a little unfair. In their own right they are acceptable and they are portable so the sound quality will always be compromised.

When plugging the speakers in I immedaitely noticed the slightly tinny sound and with a pricetag of around £6 I wasn't at all surprised. This is ultimately where the bad points stop. You may thing that sound quality is the be all and end all, but you have to be realistic sometimes. This is one of those occassions, as I said we have a very compact and affordable set of speakers on our hands here. They come with a useful carry strap and the speakers fit neatly into the palm of your hand they are that small!

Overall the speakers weigh around 200grams and with dimensions of approximately 29cm x 19cm x17cm they are easy to transport. Ultimately if you have other equipment at your disposal then I would prefer to use that, but if these are convenient for my purposes then I am comfortable with using them to replace the laptop speakers.