Griffin Aircurve 6261-AIRCRVC Accoustic Amplifier for iPhone
Posted by Notcot on Mar 27, 2010 in Handhelds & PDAs |
- Acoustically amplifies your iPhone
- Custom-engineered waveguide requires no power
- Allows syncing/charging using Griffin Dock Cable
- Great for nightstand or tabletop
- Amplifies by about 10 decibels
Griffin Aircurve 6261-AIRCRVC Accoustic Amplifier for iPhone
this is a pretty good little bit of plastic, i dont use mine to listen to music i use it to charge my phone over night and to wake me in the morning and its great, it makes the alarm actually loud enough to wake me up
Rating: 4 / 5
Having had pretty low expectations of this I can confirm that my expectations have been met – which is not a bad thing. In terms of what you are expecting from a glorified ear trumpet this probably fulfills all the requirements. Like all these things you need to have a pretty clear idea what you want this for – my objective was to have a smart stand on my desk that would allow me to play music quietly when bored – did not want the aggro of batteries or wires and did not want to hold a dance party in my office with a thumping bass line. The sound therefore is just supposed to be slightly better than the internal speakers. Apart from the slightly rubbish way that the power cord feed through the Aircurve succeeds and produces a tinny but acceptable noise at a slightly increased volume that does not stress the internal speakers – it also looks quite cool on my desk
Rating: 3 / 5
So pleased with this product. All I wanted was something that I could set up in my kitchen to play my itunes/podcasts while cooking/washing up and for the price, this is absolutely perfect. Don’t buy this expecting it to turn your iphone into a high quality stereo system, but to give a bit of extra oomph and clarity to the existing speakers it is spot-on.
Rating: 5 / 5
The Griffin Aircurve packs a bigger punch in the visual and usability stakes than it does in the sound department.
It’s a good looking dock, with it sitting on my work desk I am constantly questioned by inquisitive minds – “what is it?”, “where did you get that!?”, “It looks expensive, how much was it?”, “Wow, that looks fantastic amazing!” and “how good is the sound?”.
On the last question, it has failed to blow any one of my curious colleagues away. It does amplify the iphone’s speaker, probably by 30-40% but the source sound is too washed out to begin with, ultimately you really need more bass.
As a dock, it’s extremely easy to use, connecting and disconnecting freely. You need to thread your iphone usb connector through the centre of the unit although you can sit the phone on the dock without it, it is less stable.
Looks 9/10
Usability 10/10
Sound 6/10
Rating: 4 / 5
Since I didn’t expect miracles from this device, I was quite happy with it. It comes with a couple of rubber inserts to hold your iPhone/iPod in place and a guide for the USB cable if you want to use that.
The rubber inserts don’t hold the iPhone in place very firmly or positively. They should have designed this part better. You get the feeling that your iPhone will fall out if you touch it.
The sound is definitely louder than just playing through the speaker, especially if your ears are level with where the sound comes out. It doesn’t make an incredible difference, but the difference is clear enough that given the choice, you’ll always use the Griffin I reckon rather than just the iPhone’s speaker.
It looks quite interesting I suppose. Decorative, almost.
I have tried putting my iPhone in a variety of objects to improve the sound, and the plastic tub a spindle of CDs comes in works just as well as this Griffin (place your iPhone speaker down and you’ll be surprised). The tub Marks and Spencer nut clusters come in works even better and is perhaps twice as effective as this Griffin. But they’re ugly and big, if cheap. So the Griffin may be the best power-free solution for now! Only just.
Don’t expect miracles. At least it’s cheap.
Rating: 4 / 5