With Earth Day still fresh on our minds, we’ve been looking for simple ways to reduce our carbon footprint. For over 40 years, Earth Day has been devoted to raising awareness about our environment and finding ways to do our part to preserve our resources for generations to come.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate our amazing planet than siting on the beach in San Diego listening to the Beach Boys playing on Eton’s Soulra solar-powered iPhone/iPod speaker dock. Solar power is often widely regarded as one of the cleanest, renewable resources. It is also very convenient when you don’t have a plug to charge the rechargeable batteries on the unit or your iPhone/iPod.
The Soulra takes about 10 hours to fully charge the unit using the solar panels. It does give you the option of charging it in about 4 hours using standard AC wall power. This means that most people will likely use the solar panels to trickle charge the unit while using it in the sun rather than charge it from empty but it does allow it to run for a long time (around 8 hours) at full volume while giving you a “greener option”.
Now before you question my sanity taking an iPhone/iPod dock to the beach, this dock is not only made to have earth-friendly power but it is also extremely durable. It has an aluminum body that is covered by a nice rubberized coating that not only protects the speakers but also has a cover that can enclose your iPod and making it splash-proof. Even the remote control is rubberized and durable. It certainly feels like this dock could survive every thing from the beach to my children.
Another area where this speaker dock really excels is that it has plenty of volume to make sure you can hear anything even above your kids. My wife had to tell me to turn it down when Pandora randomly selected an Elvis song and she told me I was embarrassing her.
While I would not label myself as a great judge of sound quality; the 11 watt, full-range speaker sounded good to me. It was only when tested at high volumes that I could notice the sound getting a bit distorted and muddy.
The Soulra is priced at nearly $200 and in that range you are competing with units that have some really exceptional sound quality. You are trading a bit of a decrease in sound quality compared to other speaker docks in that price range (although only a true audiophile is likely to notice the difference) for the amazing durability and the solar power option.
I also appreciated the fact that Eton included an auxiliary input so I could plug in my iPad or any other device. The downside to using this approach is that the unit does not offer a USB port to charge your external device, like other Eton products do, and that you lose the capability to control things like track up/track down.
This unit is currently one of the only solar powered iPhone/iPod docks on the market. It also provides amazing durability and feels right at home on the beach or anywhere outdoors. Its sound quality is good and provides great volume. If those features matter to you, this is the speaker dock for you.
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