ION Block Rocker review

Jonathan Bray December 7, 2009

£179

Price when reviewed

There are hundreds of portable speakers available for iPhones and iPods, ranging from the cheap and nasty to valve-based boutique audio products. We’ve never seen anything quite like this, though.

It’s a portable party speaker, and it supports any iPod or iPhone with the standard Apple interface. But a number of features set it apart from the crowd.

For starters, the build is amazing. It feels like a guitar amplifier or PA speaker cabinet, with metal strips and corner pieces protecting it from knocks, solid sprung handles on either side, and a thick metal grille protecting the 8in woofer and 1in silk dome tweeter.

It weighs a lot too, so it’s good to see a telescopic handle at the rear and a pair of wheels set into the base for dragging it around.

It comes with a microphone, which attaches via a bundled XLR cable, stereo RCA inputs for other MP3 players, and an 1/8in instrument input with gain control.

The killer feature, though, is the integrated rechargeable battery, which gives up to six hours playback at maximum volume.

Combined with good sound quality and enough volume from the 22W amp to fill even large rooms, this makes the Block Rocker the perfect party companion.