Customer Reviews

Memorex MiniMove Boombox for iPod

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Highs:
Has good sound quality for the size, lightweight, sleek design with integrated carrying handle, charges 2G iPod Touch, FM radio is a nice bonus, includes small wireless remote with belt clip, runs on AC power or 4 AA batteries for portable enjoyment

Lows:
Hollow plastic enclosure feels a bit cheap for $50. iPod dock adapters are out of date (no adapter for 5G+ iPod Classic or any generation of iPod Nano or Touch). Pressing the buttons on the front of the unit require just a bit too much force, causing the whole unit to move before the button has been pressed.

Summary:
The Memorex MiniMove is a cool and highly portable iPod docking station that plays and charges all dockable iPod models. Overall, the highs outweigh the lows, making a great portable dock for enjoying your music at home and on the go.

After a couple of months of light use, it stopped working. I had to start wiggling the power cord, it was like a short or something, at last it stopped altogther. I really liked it while it worked. It charged the Ipod, had a little remote and the sound was good. The battery life stunk but mine was pretty much stationary so leaving it plugged in was not a problem. I have bought another brand for a replacement and I don't like it at all....I am trying to decide if I should give this one another shot.

Highs
Compact, portable size. FM digital tuner with 10 presets. Works fine with my iPod Touch.

Lows
The FM tuner is somewhat weak. The LCD display disappears when viewed at angles.

Summary
I bought this after returning a defective iLive iPod boom box (IBCD2817) and glad that I did. Sound quality is what I expected from a device this size and in this price range. It is put together well and works as advertised without costing $150.

I bought one of these used for about $25, site unseen. I was fearful that the FM radio wouldn't be good enough to get my local public radio station, and I'd be frustrated. The only boombox I could try locally (an iCraig) had a terrible FM tuner and wouldn't function with the newer iPods.

The MiniMove was a very pleasant surprise. The digital FM tuner picks up my station without even pulling out the antenna! As the others have posted, it works fine with my iTouch (2nd generation). The box states explicitly that it will work with Touch(1/2), Nano(1/2/3/4), Classic, Video(5), iPod(4) and Mini.

It runs on 4 AA batteries or the included AC adapter. You need the remote if you want hands off operation of the iPod, since it has buttons that don't appear on the main unit (like 'play').

The volume level and sound quality are much better than the previous portable speakers I was using.

This is a nice unit and does exactly what I needed, and in a very conveniently small form factor.

First let me get two things straight:

A) The current price is practically giving this thing away. The miniMove is an absolute steal for <fiddy clams. But if you're expecting sound quality, design and construction equivalent to something costing a couple of Franklins, then forget about this lightweight boom box and buy something huge, heavy and expensive.

B) The miniMove is sized and shaped _exactly_ like a purse. So if you're a guy and you're carrying this thing around, you'll want to set it down somewhere ASAP. I'm just sayin' ...

OK, now that we've got those things out of the way, the Memorex miniMove is unquestionably the best value on the market today for a portable AC/DC stereo FM iPod dock. It has four features that set it apart from other <hundy iPod-docking boom boxes. First, it has a line input, so you can plug in a non-compatible iPod or mp3 player. Second, it has a headphone jack, which might come in handy someday. Third it has an FM tuner (which is the only reason the headphone jack makes any sense). Fourth it has a remote control, which allows a measure of freedom for things like raising or lowering the volume on your purse ... er, boom box.

On top of all that, the miniMove is truly small and lightweight, which makes it extremely convenient to use. You can put it next to your coffee maker on the countertop, and it won't get in the way of the toaster. You can slip it into the fishing-rod compartment in the side of your boat, and still get fishing rods in there. You can zip-tie it to an eye-hook and hang it on the wall, no problem. It'll fit in your back pack, your briefcase ... maybe even your PURSE!

Naturally, however, the small size of the miniMove results in one fundamental problem: no bass.

Actually it does emit _some_ bass but it's pretty flaccid. There's absolutely no boom in this box. HOWEVER, I discovered quite by accident that placing the miniMove in the aforementioned fishing-rod compartment actually enhances the bass quite dramatically. This little purse sounds pretty decent when it's placed in the right kind of resonance chamber.

Now for a few complaints (other than the distinctly purse-shaped design and the limp bass response):

1) The iPod dock is pointed straight upward with nothing to protect or physically support the iPod/iPhone while it's docked. It's a very insecure dock for what's supposed to be a portable device. A small bump will un-dock the iPhone or iPod Touch in the middle of a song. And if you pick up the miniMove while the iPhone is docked, you must be very careful to avoid having the phone fall off. This is the biggest weakness with the design IMHO.

2) The miniMove is made for the iPod, and isn't optimized to work with the iPhone. With the iPhone (pre-3G) you must manually put the phone in airplane mode before docking it to avoid a lot of horribly noisy interference. When docking the iPhone 3G, the iPhone offers you the option to go directly into airplane mode simply by touching "yes" on the prompt. Of course once you're in airplane mode, you can't receive calls or use the Internet to stream music to the miniMove, from Sirius for example. If you try you'll get that miserable interference. But once the iPhone is placed in airplane mode, the iPod app works perfectly to play music on the miniMove. (I suppose you could stream music to the miniMove using the line-in mini-plug. I haven't tried it.)

3) The remote has a very short range. It works pretty well within a couple of feet of the miniMove, but across the room? ... forget it.

4) I haven't had occasion yet to use the FM radio, but as other reviewers have pointed out, the antenna is weirdly located on the side of the miniMove near the bottom. It sticks straight out to the side. This is kind of awkward and seems unlikely to yield good reception. YMMV.

5) No tone controls. It has four EQ settings, which in theory should be helpful, but honestly I don't see much point. The EQ3 setting sounds the best by a long margin, so I never use the others. Of course you can adjust the tone to some degree using the iPod itself. Just don't expect it to make decent bass unless you strategically place the miniMove in a 16-foot fiberglass tri-hull resonance chamber.

In sum ... The miniMove is an oustanding value for the current price (on Aug. 2, 2010). Yes it's girly looking and somewhat limited, but it's way better than nothing. Buy it before Memorex raises the price.

I was looking for a reasonably priced ipod boombox and I came upon this one. I shopped around and saw different types that were more expensive. I came back to this one and eventually chose it because as far as price, features, size and portability, this one fit the bill. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sound quality was very good. The different eq settings is a bonus. The remote control is very handy and the volume is pretty loud too. The sound doesn't distort when cranked up all the way.It's light, it's slim and it recharges your ipod when it's plugged in.
If you want a good player for an inexpensive price you won't find anything better.

Very nice unit for the price. Not going to give the sound range of headphones, but a very nice unit. Traveled all the way to Key West and back to Ft. Lauderdale with the unit and 4G Ipod. Everyone singing their favorite songs. Much better than trying to hassle with a cd player that skips even with buffering.

And for the price it's hard to beat. Not for audiophiles, but if you want good, inexpensive and fun way to carry your music, this fits the bill. Three weeks later with intermittent use, it's still running off the same batteries.

I did a lot of research prior to purchasing this music player, but I still wasn't confident with my decision after placing my order since all of the product descriptions looked the same. When it arrived, however, I was very pleased with how easy it is to use, how convenient it is to carry around, and - in my opinion, most importantly - how loud the speakers actually are! I am a baton twirler in my college marching band, so I use this music player to practice when the band is in a separate music rehearsal. It is plenty loud enough for me to plug it in at the closest outlet and move far enough away to have space and avoid hitting it. I normally practice outside, and I still have no issues with extra noises overpowering my music. I would imagine this would be a good player for dancers, cheerleaders, gymnastic teams, and other groups that might depend heavily on music. I hope everyone has the same positive experience that I did!

This is an awesome little iPod player. It has a radio, but I primarily use mine to play music from my iPhone/iPod. The thing I love the best about it is that it charges your iPod/iPhone while its playing. Anyone with an iPhone knows that playing the iPod on it drains the battery pretty fast. I like being able to plug mine in, hear great music and not having to worry about the battery dying. Also, its lightweight so its very easy to move around if you want to take it to another room or outside. I am very pleased with this purchase - I'm thinking of buying a 2nd one for my office.

I purchased this and like the light weight for ease of taking to/from places.
The down side is that we cannot use our iphone or ipod touch devices, or so it seems.
The iphone sounds distorted. When the ipod touch was used, the device stopped working for ipod nano and the unit had to be sent back. What happened was when I put in the smaller ipod, it would not play unless i jiggled it forward and would then only play if i held it there with my hand. I had to wrap a cord around it to make it work and was disappointed to have to send it back. Maybe the replacement will work better. I have yet to receive it or hear from the Amazon. Unit was dropped off at UPS on Monday 5/10/2010, 3 days ago.

Memorex MiniMove¿ Boombox for iPod