Most gadget reviews online regarding Music Angel friends products are often tested using the very latest technology, but I wanted to test this popular portable speaker called friends from Music Angel. This gadget will also work on any other Amiga or Atari machine also, but our Amiga 1200 test machine was available so Read On…!
Music Angel friends Connected to Amiga 1200 Experience
Hooking up this portable speaker to any Amiga computer is easy. To do that, you just need a cable that can send minijack tones to phone connectors. They are usually very cheap at any bigger electronic store. Once this is done, there is nothing more to do. No need to install anything on your Amiga 1200 at all (except if you haven’t installed a music player app).
But! Before you actually try to listen to something. The Music Angel friends don’t have a physical volume button and this is a huge step back for any Amiga user that would like to buy this product. This failure of this product is actually a huge issue on the Amiga, because Paula (the sound chip inside every Amiga from Commodore) sound is set at the highest.
This means that every game or any program without a volume control that is released for the Classic Amiga will have too loud a sound as it is played at maximum level. There is simply no physical way of turning the volume down on the Music Angel friends speaker. On other devices like iOS, Android, or even Mac or PC this is not an issue, but on the Amiga this is. A huge minus that I didn’t thought of when getting it for review.
Very Limited volume adjustment on Amiga!
If you don’t want to damage speakers of your Music Angel and your ears, then you can actually listen to MODs, MP3s, or anything else that is using apps with volume control. AmigaOS 3.x never had this built in, so programs need to have it, and luckily they all implemented volume handling.
The physical volume buttons on this portable device is its worst enemy. Because the speakers are really good. Also even if you can adjust the sound on other devices, it would be very nice if the portable speakers had it anyway. Sometimes it’s just easier to change the volume by adjusting using physical buttons in case you do something else and wants to do just that.
MODs with Hippo Player works on Classic Amiga
Despite that the speakers don’t have volume buttons, doesn’t mean that the speakers themselves are bad. In fact, they are very good for the size it is. This is not in the Sony-SRS X33 category of sound, but you get what you pay for.
If you are like me which listens a lot to MP3s, YouTube music and WAVs etc. When returning back to Amiga and its 8bit Paula sound might be hard. But the Music Angel friends speakers prove to me again as with any other speakers connected to Amiga. That either 8bit or 14bit sound from the Amiga sounds better. It is the most amazing quality you can get. The amazing sound that the Paula chip produces is top-notch. You cant get any better sound quality out there if you have great speakers connected to Amiga. You can really tell if the speakers that you use are bad or good by listening to the demands that your Amiga gives.
Amiga delivers great sound quality with the Music Angel friends speakers connected. It is just shame that the volume buttons are missing.
More info
Music Angel Website
