Soundcast Outcast Junior

60W outdoor sound system – the ultimate in ASBO tech?

Mon 31 Aug 2009 // 12:02 UTC

We thought the down-firing sub-woofer might suffer a little on a stony beach, but the unit is solid enough in its own right to control its own sound rather than be too influenced by the environment it is in. Just to underline the robustness of the system, the inevitable shower that accompanied the Junior’s day out at the beach, mattered little, the unit played on with no problems. While sonically impressive – considering that the Outcast Junior has portability and the convenience of wireless connectivity as major selling points – it appears that Soundcast hasn’t really thought this concept through. Both the iCast and UAT docks require power so, regardless of the Junior’s go-anywhere battery, you’ll have to be close to home to use it wirelessly.

A proprietary wireless protocol delivers the system’s 350ft range

One way around this is to have a laptop power the UAT using USB. As the iCast – presumably the most popular option – doesn’t feature USB, iPods and the like would have to be attached to the UAT with 3.5mm jacks, so they might as well be plugged in to the Junior directly.

Still, if you were going to go to all this trouble, a laptop could stream to the Outcast from the UAT. But really, wouldn’t it just be a lot simpler if there was an SD card slot in the Junior? You’d not have to worry about valuable, tethered equipment getting wet or sandy either. And, if Soundcast can’t go that far, how about a covered compartment on the Outcast body to protect the tethered unit? Makes sense really.

Still, if money is no object, each Junior can be assigned as a left or right speaker in a stereo configuration and fed by a single transmitter. Admittedly, this arrangement is getting really rather expensive, but shows that the Junior can be quite versatile, so long as you don’t wander too far from home for wireless use.

Verdict

It was hard to fault the Outcast Junior’s robustness and its audio performance. It sounds much better than you’d expect from a single source and doesn’t mind getting wet either. Even so, there are shortcomings regarding its wireless portability and, more significantly for UK customers, it really is the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut. For our colonial cousins across the pond and down under, the Outcast Junior has obvious appeal. Yet, given the size of average British garden and our typically inglorious weather, the Outcast Junior seems destined to become the most expensive garage sound system you’ll ever buy. ®