LOUDSPEAKERS: Does the Totem Mani-2 still rate as one of the ...
LOUDSPEAKERS: Does the Totem Mani-2 still rate as one of the ...
LOUDSPEAKERS: Does the Totem Mani-2 still rate as one of the ...
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Power On <strong>the</strong> Go<br />
It struck us when we were packing<br />
up to go to Veg<strong>as</strong> for CES and<br />
T.H.E.Show: each year we need<br />
more and more chargers to go<br />
anywhere.<br />
Not all <strong>of</strong> our chargers are related<br />
to audio, to be sure, though some <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong>m are. Two <strong>of</strong> us went along to<br />
cover <strong>the</strong> shows (see Veg<strong>as</strong> 2006 in UHF<br />
No. 75), and we actually brought along<br />
no fewer than seven chargers! Count<br />
’em: an iPod, a Palm Life Drive (which<br />
is a video players among o<strong>the</strong>r things),<br />
a Palm Tungsten T, an Apple iBook, a<br />
Pentax Optio digital camera, and two<br />
teleph<strong>one</strong>s (Siemens and Motorola).<br />
We wondered what all those boxes and<br />
wires would look like on an airport X-ray<br />
screen!<br />
Which is why <strong>the</strong> iGo Everywhere<br />
Dual Power 130, shown above, grabbed<br />
our attention. It promised to replace all<br />
<strong>of</strong> our chargers except <strong>the</strong> <strong>one</strong> for <strong>the</strong><br />
camera (<strong>the</strong> Optio battery unfortunately,<br />
can’t be recharged in <strong>the</strong> camera). It<br />
comes in two parts. The larger box can<br />
charge laptop computers. The smaller<br />
add-on box, which is an option but is<br />
included in <strong>the</strong> package we got, can<br />
charge <strong>the</strong> iPod, ph<strong>one</strong>s and o<strong>the</strong>r small<br />
products. Your main problem will be<br />
rounding up <strong>the</strong> adapters for everything<br />
you own, but with <strong>the</strong> company’s help we<br />
got ’em all, even <strong>the</strong> <strong>one</strong> for a Motorola<br />
P280 ph<strong>one</strong>, which took a little longer.<br />
There’s <strong>one</strong> down side: <strong>the</strong> iGo can<br />
recharge all six devices, but not all at<br />
once. On <strong>the</strong> plus side, you can travel<br />
worldwide with it, because it adjusts itself<br />
to whatever voltage is in <strong>the</strong> wall.<br />
Each device <strong>of</strong> course requires its own<br />
adapter tips, and in our c<strong>as</strong>e that meant<br />
six adapters. The vinyl iGo carrying<br />
pouch h<strong>as</strong> a pocket for adapters, but good<br />
luck figuring out that “A20” is what you<br />
need for a Motorola ph<strong>one</strong>. We picked<br />
up <strong>one</strong> <strong>of</strong> those dollar store giant pill<br />
boxes, with seven compartments for <strong>the</strong><br />
days <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> week, and relabelled <strong>the</strong>m.<br />
Do you need <strong>one</strong>?<br />
Not every<strong>one</strong> travels with <strong>as</strong> many<br />
devices <strong>as</strong> we do. Six chargers is a lot,<br />
where<strong>as</strong> three or four may be a bearable<br />
number.<br />
And how many power<br />
chargers do you<br />
travel with?<br />
And six devices may not mean six<br />
chargers. If <strong>one</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> devices you carry<br />
is a laptop computer (you’re unlikely<br />
to buy <strong>the</strong> iGo o<strong>the</strong>rwise), it’s possible<br />
that o<strong>the</strong>r devices can be recharged by<br />
simply plugging <strong>the</strong>m into <strong>the</strong> laptop’s<br />
USB connector. That’s true <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> iPod,<br />
and it’s also true <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Palm Tungsten<br />
handheld (though not <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Life Drive).<br />
Indeed, <strong>the</strong> Palm and iPod travel chargers<br />
are substantially identical: plug-in<br />
cubes with USB jacks.<br />
And <strong>the</strong> iGo Everywhere may not<br />
make your luggage lighter. We weighed<br />
all six chargers we wanted to replace and<br />
came up with a total <strong>of</strong> 762 grams. The<br />
weight <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> iGo with its cords, except<br />
<strong>the</strong> optional car cord? It w<strong>as</strong> 738 g, and<br />
that didn’t include <strong>the</strong> six adapter tips.<br />
But weight isn’t everything. If we had<br />
me<strong>as</strong>ured <strong>the</strong> kilometers <strong>of</strong> tangled cord<br />
on each <strong>of</strong> our adapters, it would have<br />
put <strong>the</strong> iGo way ahead. What’s more,<br />
rounding up our six chargers means getting<br />
down on hands and knees to unplug<br />
<strong>the</strong>m, and <strong>the</strong> danger <strong>of</strong> forgetting a<br />
charger for a critical device is very real.<br />
What it costs<br />
As we went to press we didn’t have<br />
<strong>of</strong>ficial list prices, so we relied on iGo’s<br />
on-line store (www.igo.com), and in<br />
Canada, <strong>the</strong> catalog for The Source.<br />
The unit we have seems to sell for<br />
US$150/C$190, with adapter tips going<br />
for US$10/C$12. Considering <strong>the</strong> going<br />
price for just a charger for a modern<br />
laptop, that’s not bad. And street prices<br />
may be well below that.<br />
An alternative?<br />
At <strong>the</strong> same time we saw <strong>the</strong> iGo, we<br />
also looked at an interesting universal<br />
charger from a company called MFuel.<br />
It’s called <strong>the</strong> Universal Power Bank,<br />
and <strong>the</strong>re w<strong>as</strong> a picture <strong>of</strong> it in our Veg<strong>as</strong><br />
report in UHF No. 75.<br />
The MFuel device can also charge<br />
everything you’ve got, but it can do<br />
more. It h<strong>as</strong> its own rechargeable battery,<br />
and it can power those devices, to give<br />
you extra usage far from a power source.<br />
We <strong>as</strong>ked for a review sample and got no<br />
reply. Since Veg<strong>as</strong>, its price rose from<br />
US$300 to $400.<br />
Our guess, however, is that it weighs<br />
a lot more than 738 grams!<br />
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 4<br />
Listening Feedback Room