First Boom thoughts

[damager]

I'm no audiophile, but have been playing with SlimDevices products for several years, and currently own a SB3 and 2 Duets.

I received my Boom yesterday afternoon, and thought I'd share some first thoughts.

1. Small! The unit is much smaller than I expected.
2. Heavy! Seems very heavy for the size of the unit.
3. Setup was extremely easy - plugged it in, set up the wireless networking, 2 quick firmware updates, and I was up and running. Great experience.
4. Great sound. This unit is NOT going to knock your socks off with heavy bass or incredibly loud volume, but the sound if very clear, and "spacious".
5. Liked the cloth bag (like others here), but not sure how or when I'll use it after pulling the Boom out of it.
6. Presets have been a little tricky for me - I'll need to play with them some more tonight.

Overall, great unit! Nice work, Slim....

[Howard Passman]

I'm no audiophile, but have been playing with SlimDevices products for several years, and currently own a SB3 and 2 Duets.

I received my Boom yesterday afternoon, and thought I'd share some first thoughts.

1. Small! The unit is much smaller than I expected.
2. Heavy! Seems very heavy for the size of the unit.
3. Setup was extremely easy - plugged it in, set up the wireless networking, 2 quick firmware updates, and I was up and running. Great experience.
4. Great sound. This unit is NOT going to knock your socks off with heavy bass or incredibly loud volume, but the sound if very clear, and "spacious".
5. Liked the cloth bag (like others here), but not sure how or when I'll use it after pulling the Boom out of it.
6. Presets have been a little tricky for me - I'll need to play with them some more tonight.

Overall, great unit! Nice work, Slim....

....except the cloth bag thing. It would still be very easy to damage if you were to transport it in the bag and I can't imagine why you would cover it otherwise. If you do like the bag, I think a small pocket for the remote is in order.

Howard

[ccrome2]

On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 7:52 AM, Howard Passman <
Howard.Passman.3fh6hn1220972103 (AT)...limdevices.com> wrote:

>
> damager;338464 Wrote:
> > I'm no audiophile, but have been playing with SlimDevices products for
> > several years, and currently own a SB3 and 2 Duets.
> >
> > I received my Boom yesterday afternoon, and thought I'd share some
> > first thoughts.
> >
> > 1. Small! The unit is much smaller than I expected.
> > 4. Great sound. This unit is NOT going to knock your socks off with
> > heavy bass or incredibly loud volume, but the sound if very clear, and
> > "spacious".
>

'Small' and 'Knock your socks off bass' are mutually exclusive. There's no
replacement for displacement :-)

That said, I don't think there's anything else in the class that has bass
performance that even comes close.

> Overall, great unit! Nice work, Slim....
>

Thanks, the team worked really hard to get this product out. :-)

[soxfan]

As I also received my Boom just yesterday I thought I would add my own first thoughts, using the OP as kind of a template. I've owned a SB2 for a couple of years now. My primary use for the Boom will be as a bed-side alarm clock/"radio".

I agree that I was very happy with how small the unit is; fits perfectly on my bedside table. I'm not sure I would call the unit heavy, but I guess it is a little heavier than it appears. I would also agree that set-up was easy. Although I think some of this had to do with my familiarity from the SB2, I think the set-up was pretty intuitive and straightforward. Kind of a pain to enter in my WEP key, but even with that I was probably up and running in about 5 minutes or so.

As far as sound, I guess this will be a matter of preference, and how the Boom will be used. For me, and my use as a bedside player, I found the sound to be excellent and plenty "heavy" enough. For night listening I only had the volume around 40 and that was enough to fill the room. For late night listening I had the volume down to around 15 or so and it still sounded good. Haven't had the chance to "crank it up" yet.

The are only two things that I really didn't like. First, I know from following the Slim forums for a while that power supplies are discussed in great detail, so maybe there is an engineering reason for this, but I really would have preferred a "brick-in-the-middle" power supply over the rather large "wall wart". Makes plugging into a power-strip/surge protector a bit difficult. Second, and again there may be an engineering reason for this, but I'm not sure I'm a big fan of the way the front angles in from bottom to top, and then the top angles down from front to back. I may be in the minority here, but I think I would have preferred more of a "boxy" unit.

Overall though I'm very impressed. Great job!

[ccrome2]

On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 9:42 AM, soxfan <
soxfan.3fhbkz1220978703 (AT) no-mx (...limdevices.com> wrote:

> I really would have preferred a "brick-in-the-middle" power supply over
> the rather large "wall wart".


This seems to fall about 50/50. It's a tough one. Bedroom users generally
prefer the 'fat-snake', kitchen users tend to prefer the wart. Though I
think everybody would prefer and internal PSU all else being equal. Of
course, all things aren't equal -- the unit would be bigger with an internal
PSU.

[soxfan]

This seems to fall about 50/50. It's a tough one. Bedroom users generally
prefer the 'fat-snake', kitchen users tend to prefer the wart. Though I
think everybody would prefer and internal PSU all else being equal. Of
course, all things aren't equal -- the unit would be bigger with an internal
PSU.

Good point. Thanks for the feedback.

Oh, forgot to mention in my original post, I really like the way the snooze button works. Took a few presses to get used to; I kept expecting the typical "click".

[androidtopp]

In response to the bag - I just put it under the boom to protect my nightstand, for lack of anything better to do with it. It doesn't really need to be there, but whatever. Including the bag period is a nice touch.

[MeSue]

This seems to fall about 50/50. It's a tough one. Bedroom users generally
prefer the 'fat-snake', kitchen users tend to prefer the wart. Though I
think everybody would prefer and internal PSU all else being equal. Of
course, all things aren't equal -- the unit would be bigger with an internal
PSU.

Well, the good thing is that people who prefer the brick-in-the-middle can add a short extension cord. But as you say, wall wart is better for kitchen. I've tried velcro-ing power bricks in various places to hide them, and it just never works.

[kdf]

I wonder if the clip on adaptors are strong enough to support a 1m cable with plug.
-kdf

[iPhone]

The are only two things that I really didn't like. First, I know from following the Slim forums for a while that power supplies are discussed in great detail, so maybe there is an engineering reason for this, but I really would have preferred a "brick-in-the-middle" power supply over the rather large "wall wart". Makes plugging into a power-strip/surge protector a bit difficult.

Go to Home Depot or Lowe's and buy a 3 way wall plug for $2. Plug it into your power strip and the wall wart now only takes up one space and you have two additional outlets. Of course this is for power strips that have the inlets running up the strip not across. For across the strip, go to Ikea and buy their cheap 3 outlet power strip with cord for $5 and you now have a Brick-in-the-middle" power supply.

Kitchen, under cabinet, and on wall mounting just really require that the Boom come with a wall wart Power Supply.