My unit arrived and I will post a review when I can test the system in live settings. But in short, I would not recommend this unit.

I want to give it a trial run this weekend. I might upgrade the rating then but overall it does not live up to its hype. The mics are OK at best and volume specs are nowhere near 75 Watts as most people understand them.

I am confused at how they can add in so many features that one would not expect in a low cost unit but then really not put in any quality. Best to leave out some features and focus on a core with higher quality.

But since Brian had the issue with the IC chip I will report what some experiments yielded.
1. I did not have any pre recorded drum roll on the chip.
2. Tape plays fine.
3. IC chip only records what is playing on the tape and as soon as the tape is stopped it seems to erase the IC chip. I was disappointed I could not store an announcement and would have to have the "play" button pressed to have the IC record.
4. Unless I am not following the poorly translated instructions, recording to IC from the mic has the same issue. You do not need a tape but still have to have the "play" button pressed and I cannot see a way of storing the recording.

My findings are that my unit does not STORE info on the chip so my guess is that your unit is defective and a return since it had info on the chip and is not allowing the tape to play.

Note that when I refer to the "PLAY" button for the IC it is on the left and is a puffy pad-style button. On that four button console is also a PLAYBACK button.

The PLAY button on the the tape is as you would assume.

You must have the "play" button ON THE TAPE pressed down to record to the chip. If the tape is playing and you press "REPEAT", the tape stops and plays back in a loop for the amount of time the tape was running. (up to 200 seconds)
If the puffy "PLAY" button is pressed the tape resumes. If "Repea"t is hit again it will only play back what it recorded from the time you pressed "play" again.

I am still trying to figure out what the "record" and "playback" puffy button is for.
In one quick test I had a playback of serveral spots in a tape but was not able to duplicate it.

In any situation the TAPE player button must be pressed or this feature does not work.
As soon as I press the stop button on the tape player the IC does not seem to retain any info.

Well that is what I have found so far with that useless feature. (unless mine is defective as well. )

My inital feeling is thst I will strongly consider spending money to return this unit. If I could have heard it in a store, I would have but you can only find these through mail order and this is the risk one takes. My first thought is NOT to recommend the Pyle 120 unless you are a hobbyist or just starting out. Otherwise you might not get the quality you need. More in a little while when I have more time to experiment.

I would say if Brian's is defective, to get them to pay for return shipping. If not, think of how far you are ahead rather than having a PA you will never even be able to use. Which is worse, losing $50 on return shipping or spending $140 for something that is broken or not enjoyable to use? Cut your losses, as they say.

Thanks for the initial review, Mhgia. I'm looking forward to your review after you've tested it in the real world. Thanks also for clarifying which "play" button you were referring to, the "tape play" or the "puffy play".

I received a response back from Pyle, who told me that I would have to ship it to them at my expense, and they would replace it.

Rather than going through that whole process, and be without a sound system for awhile, I decided to just go out and buy a new PA system at The Source (formerly Radio Shack). They had a system called GemSound that was on sale for $149. It's a little heavier (35 lbs), but it has a pull-out handle, and is on wheels. The wattage is 100.

So now I have a system that should work in all the bigger shows that I do, and I'll use the Pyle (minus tape player) at any smaller events such as birthdays, picnics in the park, etc., where I can use the battery feature of the Pyle.

Brian

Brain,

The unit is under warranty. I know you do not WANT to pay the return shipping and it sounds like you are too nice to make the company or the retailer live up to their duty, but you really should not let them get away with selling you a bad unit.

I would get a phone number and speak to Pyle if email does not give results.
There is NO REASON for you to settle.

As I said, you must DEMAND that they send a pick up for the unit. If not Pyle then the retailer. You paid extra for the unit, it needs to get it back to them to get a replacement to you.

Did you contact the retailer who sold it to you and what did they say? If they said you have to ship it back at your cost, you need to ask them WHY, since the unit was bad out of the box. Unless it is a shady outfit, they will need a little coaxing, but know that they need to take it back at their cost. AND it is the one opportunity you have to get your money back in full. Since you do not want to risk another bad unit, see if they will take it back and just refund since it was defective.


If you really just want to keep the broken unit, there may be a way to disable the sound chip recording head. I am not an expert nor know what I am talking about but there seems to be a blue head that might be the IC recorder. I think if the part that records to the IC and suspends the play on the tape. When the IC is playing, the tape stops so if that bridge can be broken, then maybe the link can be broken so you can use the tape player. So if keeping it and not planning to use the tape player anyway, you might as well poke around and see if you can either unstick what is stuck or get the player to play.

(Still it bugs me to no end you are just willing to let them sell you a bad unit.)
I have three shows this weekend that I will be trying it out at. I will then let all know what I think. Still it is too bad I do not have the other mentioned units to compare this one to. It still could be the best of the low-cost units, average or worse. Not having the others, I will just be giving my feedback on the one I have compared to what I had used before.

Review posted as promised http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......11&0

Pyle Pro PWMA 120 sounds good to me. wish I could buy in in the UK.

Hi all,
After having a disappointing result with the Pyle Pro unit and after reading Todd75 comments about the Portable buddy by Amplivox I went on a search for a used one on EBay.
While I did not find one I bid on two of the stand-a-lone Amplivox Multimedia Stereo Amps. The S805 and the S805A currently sells for something like $300 w/o the wireless unit. I did not think I would win both but I did for less than $79 for THE PAIR! I did not need two but now have two.

If you are curious about the amp quality and what the PB really is doing, read on.

The S805A is the same amp in the Portable Buddy.
Amplivox is a smaller USA company. So small that when I called them with questions I had, they said "You really need to talk the guy that built that one." WOW!

They also stand behind their products. The S805 is a little older in design and two of the jacks were a little worn. These are out of warranty and at first they were going to charge a reasonable $30 to put it through a battery of tests and then charge for parts. Later they said just send it and they would replace the jacks at no charge!
They would rather see there products being used than not.

The actual amp is very thin. MOST of the stand alone amp size is the batteries.
I had plans to build my OWN portable buddy. Most of those 10 pounds is the battery weight!

I have many facts about the efficiency of the amp. It is same amp, I remind you, that they use in the PB. IT IS a true stereo amp with 25 watts per channel with a 4 ohm load. The tech told me you get about 20 watts RMS and 100-200 HOURS on one set of batteries. I have yet to test the validity of this. The $120 NiCad pack requires the $117 A/C to DC charger. That pack is rated for 20 hours of use.

One of the units I won had the NiCad pack but I have yet to find a less expensive charger to test them out. If you find one, let me know.

You can purchase any A/C to DC charger for a laptop y, as long as it can put out 15V with 2 amps. But Amplivox warns that it you try to charge with a third party charger you can cook the batteries since the laptop chargers are designed to regulate the lithium ion batteries in most notebooks.

They suggest if you do not want to buy their stuff. You can use any NiCad’s you want but do not try to charge them in the battery holder. Take them out to charge them in a standard charger. This will be a pain with 10 D batteries since most do not charge more then 4-8 at a time.

So the plan was to make my own PB using the same amp. Just find a plastic case and a 6x9 car speaker and I would be good to go. The case would hold a wireless mic (can be run off of the Aux power out on the S805A) and the amp.
I could add a jack on the side for a matching companion. All of this could easily be done, due to the low price I bought the amps for, for under $150.

At first the problem was finding a case a similar size. The problem was that most were too big or too small or did not have a flat face or were too heavy.

You can easily find some pro cases that would hold up to the weight of the person if you wanted to pay $100 or more just for the case.
I found some paint ball cases would work for $20-40 depending but shipping kills the deal.

Car speakers could be found but a good 2 or 3 way I thought might be better. You can get a PAIR of Sony’s for under $60 or just go cheap.

I NEVER BUILT IT!
WHY?
I took a crash course in speaker design and there is just no way it would be a high quality sound!

EVEN TODD75 has told me that for music, do not expect much.

The PB is probably great for VOICE! If they use a high efficiency speaker it will send out enough db. Note that the S805A, which is in the PB, is NOT bridgeable. This means you should never try to run both channels into the one speaker. It will hurt the amp. You are only running 20 watts RMS at most from the PB. This is why it sounds louder than the 35 Watt Hisonic. The Hisonic is really only 15 Watts RMS. To get the 50 watts from the PB you need to hook up the companion speaker.


Amplivox specializes in VOICE amplification. Much of their product line caters to the presentation market. The S805 is used in the PB, table units, and their lecterns

They are not concerned with smooth tones and bass response of music as much as they are in clear voice. Jensen makes their speakers but how loud it is I do not know. I assume, based on the price, they put in a high efficiency speaker that has a smooth response in the voice range. And this, I am guessing is not in the SINGING or MUSIC range.


So this is why Todd75 can reach the amount of people he does but his music would sound SO-SO at best and if he pushes it, it will distort.
I have been researching speakers for over a month and most car speakers will not even list their db or SPL levels since they just are not tested.
The PB just can not reproduce the range if playing music.

But for voice you will find it will be hard to beat its size.
Please note that I have not heard the PB. I am going on basic enclosure and speaker efficiency principles as well as some feedback from Todd75.

Most car speakers require an air volume to drive them. Even though the door of a car is thin, it has more air space than a plastic brief case. Most of your lower tones need the air to move the voice cone to make the bass tones. If only focusing on the higher end, you need less air thus why the case works.

Amplivox has had this speaker designed for them. It is probably more efficient than what you can buy easily in 4 ohm. If it does have a high SPL of say 93-95 db, it can be very LOUD. That is, the voice will just jump out at you. If they designed the speaker with a NARROW pattern it will project further but not as wide and you risk an off axis drop off.
You will not see any other PA on the market using a car style speaker.

I found Amplivox's prices for the extra to be very high. I found it odd that if you buy the version of the amp with a mic receiver it is reasonable but they get you on the price of the matching mic pack.

The trade off may be the wonderful CS I have experienced and they should stand behind their products.

I for one will not be using their wireless system. There are plenty of lower cost units.

Again, do not buy this if you think might want rich sounding music 24 feet away.
It might sound ok at 3-6 feet but stand back and it just might not cut it if you are picky.

Yes if you add in the second speaker, it should be OK if they are up on a stand. It will probably sound hollow or tinny for music by the time you hit the back of the room. Even large PA speakers loose bass response if not using a sub woofer. Most PA speakers are also designed for voice throw but go to the larger drivers to produce a rich sound for music reinforcement. If the top speakers in the world have to be 8” or more to get respectable lows, there is no way this little unit could.


False claim?: Amplivox makes a claim that with the PB you can reach 1,000 people in up to a 10,000 square foot room! HA! My uncle is a sound engineer for ABC AND does audio recordings for choir groups. He said that is impossible. He said maybe if you have an 8 foot ceiling, and walls to bounce the sound AND MAYBE if everyone was QUIET.
The claim is possibly a little more believable using the full 50 watts but still the only way the claim could be true if the room s good acoustics.

SO NOW WHAT?

Ignorance is Bliss they say. The more I learned the more I knew I would not be happy with the PB.
For me, I still wanted PORTABLE, but I also need good music reinforcement.
I know I do not need the traditional 12" PA weighing 36-56 lbs. I have one of those and a stand. I just do not want to lug that around.

I am near ending my quest. For a while I was going to use 6.5” high SPL drivers.
But now I am up to 8” woofer and 1” tweeter in a 15 L enclosure (about a 1 cu foot box) and will build a case to hold the amp and wireless mic which latches to the top of the speaker. This will keep things modular. I might build the matching speaker but I feel with 8” this will be plenty loud and rich sound.
So far I think the weight will be about 15 lbs.

While not as small as the PB nor as light, it is a good compromise for higher quality music reinforcement and voice.

In conclusion, I think you have an advantage with Amplivox. It is rare to find a company in the USA. Pyle, Hisonic and many others are made overseas and this can be an issue when you need repairs or help. Those low cost units might do the job the quality in frequency response and parts quality just do not compare.
If you can find a used S805A and you like the PB size, you could build one for 1/3- 1/2 the price.
I will keep you posted with my final design.

PS
I will be making up two of these. If the first one sounds good I will sell the other one to one lucky magician.
I have been searching and have yet to find an 8” with the same specs small size and quality as what I am planning. I will probably sell it at cost since I doubt I can find any of these amps at the price I paid for the ones I have.

Feel free to PM me with other questions. I am sure I left out other details.