Ion Street Rocker AM/FM Radio Cassette Recorder/Digital Converter Review – Cool As Fuck
Pros — Appealing looks and haptic; versatile functionality; beefy amp.
Cons — Sound from analog sources better (“rich”) than from digital sources (“tinny”).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Ion Street Rocker AM/FM Radio Cassette Recorder/Digital Converter is a well-executed 1980s retro boombox design that adds modern-day features to its meaty sound.
INTRODUCTION
I never had a ghetto blaster…pardon boombox. My brother did. Was I jealous. Yes, it was a bulky box and it already looked old-fashioned in its days, but it was cool. I had to listen to 14-year old Queen Latifah’s “Princess of the Posse” as played by John Peel on a small mono radio and wished I had a blaster. Well, this day came almost 40 years later, when I picked up the “Ion Street Rocker AM/FM Radio Cassette Recorder/Digital Converter” at $129 CAD at a local drugstore chain a year ago. They had a single one just in time for Christmas and rewarded me with lots of loyalty points for the purchase. And since I could not find much information on the Ion Street Rocker online, I created it myself in this review.
FUNCTIONALITY – WHAT THE ION STREET ROCKER CAN DO
The Ion Street Rocker AM/FM Radio Cassette Recorder/Digital Converter offers a number of playback functions from AM/FM radio, cassette tape, USB flash drive or micro SD card, or from phone/tablet via Bluetooth or 3.5 mm audio cable. It also sports a headphone jack.
External digital sources: Bluetooth and aux input (phone, tablet, computer)
Internal analog sources: Radio, tape
Digital recording: USB flash drive, micro SD card
Analog recording: cassette tape
And now “Tutti Frutti”: this yields the following recording options for the Ion Street Rocker:
- From the built-in microphone to tape, USB flash drive, or micro SD card.
- From aux input (via 3.5 mm audio cable) to tape, USB flash drive, or micro SD card.
- From tape to USB flash drive or micro SD card.
- From Bluetooth to tape, USB flash drive, or micro SD card.
- From radio to tape, USB flash drive, or micro SD card.
- Further information: https://www.ionaudio.com/street-rocker
In other words, and most importantly, you can digitize your old tapes to mp3 (128 kbps at a sample rate of 48,000 kHz as fixed default…this cannot be changed). And you can connect almost anything to the Ion Street Rocker AM/FM Radio Cassette Recorder/Digital Converter. And yes, you may actually listen to the analog radio, which I do during workout in my basement. How to do all this in detail, you find in the Quickstart Guide. There is not much the Ion Street Rocker cannot do. The question is how well it does its individual chores.
PHYSICAL THINGS AND USABILITY
In the box are the Ion Street Rocker, an ac-cable, and a quick start booklet/warranty certificate. What’s not included is the built-in battery with a 10 hr playtime…instead, there is a battery compartment for 6 D-cells. Just like in the 1980s. And yes, the bulky boom box looks like and is built one from the early 1980s, with two VU meters as level displays, power LED, stereo LED, and the cheesy silver fake-chrome plastic knobs and switches. Fabulous! I added 6 rechargeable D-cells with 10,000 mAh each for weeks of unplugged music enjoyment…but this set me back another $60 CAD.
SOUND
My first thought, after unpacking, was to play some CDs by LL Cool J and Young MC, or some French hip hoppers such as MC Solaar and Soon E MC, until I realized that the Ion Street Rocker AM/FM Radio Cassette Recorder/Digital Converter does not have a CD player. Well, I did this using the Bluetooth function instead – pairing with my iPhone was intuitive and easy, but the Bluetooth sound came across as a bit tinny. Connecting a 1990s discman and a (cassette) walkman via a 3.5 mm audio cable sounded also a bit underpowered. (Analog) FM radio sounded much better, really beefy. This quality was accurately reproduced by recording and playing back a radio program on a thumb drive. It shows that the dac is actually good however its harmony between external sources may require fine-tuning (input volume depends on the volume setting of the source). In summary, the Ion Street Rocker sounds best with the built-in analog functions, in fact it sounds like in the 1980s. In the end, I got my iPhone sounding good by connecting it through the Audioquest Dragonfly dac/amp to the 3.5 mm audio jack.
The Ion Street Rocker sports, hold yourself, real bass and treble knobs, just like in the good old days, and it also has a Bass Boost switch which adds some warmth to the slightly sharp image. The amp is beefy and can produce quite a punch, which is refreshing and in strong contrast to today’s lean sounding portable boxes. 14 Watts per channel ain’t bad at all. I was missing a wide-sound switch, but hey, what else do we want? Radio sounds analog and warm but is prone to sibilance as the receiver is not too sensitive (my favourite radio station is somewhat sibilant but other analog radios of mine don’t pick that much up on that). The tweeters may be in the way. Tape sounds the best: rich, punchy and with a good depth. Any digital source lacks behind in quality and sounds tinny and sterile…and does not have the same input strength as the tape. I wished the input sensitivity could be adjusted from the Ion’s end (it is adjusted through the volume of the sound source…such as the volume of the iPhone).
Words are just words, let’s check the In Street Rocker’s performance out in a video. And…action, please.
I am presently working on a spiffy YouTube video with sound samples/examples.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The Ion Street Rocker AM/FM Radio Cassette Recorder/Digital Converter is a bulky and powerful boombox that serves both the nostalgic and the the futuristic listener with its pocket-knife like functionalities. And if you ignore the digital add-ons (and related buttons), it looks, feels, and sounds like the 1980s original. It is not perfect but a lot of fun and it offers good value. And I could digitize some old tapes with it. Do I recommend it? I rarely recommend anything, but, fact is, I purchased it and still like it a year later. I’ll nurse mine for another 40 years to come.
Until next time…keep on listening!
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DISCLAIMER
None! I bought it myself.
Our generic standard disclaimer.
