The H2O Audio Reviewed
Photos courtesy of H2O Audio
by Steve Ackerman
posted 2006-11-01
iPods have become the market leader in portable media players, and for good reason. No other company has been able to reproduce the same level of innovation, stylish design and high-quality that comes out of the Apple machine in Cupertino. Music, photos and now video... What will be next? And now that you have your iPod... Of course you want to take it everywhere with you. Right? So how do you take a media player to the beach without the elements destroying it. The damage that sand and water can have on electronics is extreme. It always finds a way into the tiniest of openings, only to wreak havoc deep inside.
In fact, just a couple of months ago I was listening to my Nano during the tail-end of a long day at the beach. I walked down to the water to rinse off my board. Carefully, I waded into the water just deep enough to roll my board over. As I bent down to roll up my leash... wham! I forgot to pay attention to the swell, and I was soaked... my iPod and all. It played for a few minutes as I fumbled with the silicon skin, quickly trying rip it off so I could dry it off before it died. But all of my efforts were in vain. Moments later, the click-wheel completely stopped responding and then the entire unit just shut itself off... never to come back to life.
Really, you only have three options at this point... 1) Forget having tunes near the water. Really, this is not an option. 2) Find a waterproof portable media player. This can be expensive option, especially if you already have one that you're happy with. 3) Protect the media player you already own with a waterproof housing. Certainly the best approach of the bunch.
But, as you search for protection, quality has to be the top consideration. After all, it must protect your electronic investment no matter what. Surprisingly, there are only a few media player housings available for waveriders, snowboarders, swimmers and anyone else that spends time in and around the water. H2O Audio has developed many rugged, waterproof housings for the newer iPod and iRiver media players. They didn't want to design their own cheap, featureless player so they opted to support many of the most popular media players in the industry.
Most of their housings are rated up to 10 feet, but H2O Audio has one housing available for the iRiver iFP-300 series mp3 player that is rated to 200 feet. Now that is some extreme engineering... In fact, I saw one of their housings designed for the iPod Nano in action at the September 2006 ASR show that I had to try it out for myself. I loved the idea of being able to take my iPod into the water. I would never have to lock my iPod in the car, or worry about it getting snagged out of my bag when I hit the water again. And best of all, I could rock wherever I'm at... surf, sand or snow. As H2O Audio's marketing states, "Wherever your soundtrack is. Bring it!"
- The H2O Audio Series housings retail at $39.95 for the iPod Shuffle housing, $79.95 for the nano housing, $89.95 for the 5G iPod housing and don't forget you will need the H2O Audio waterproof headphones for $39.95. Headphones are not included with the H2O Audio Series housings.
- The SV Series housings retail at $119.95 for the iPod mini housing, $119.95 for the 4G iPod housing and $29.95 for the iRiver iFP-700 housing. Headphones are included with the SV Series housings.
- The DV Series housings retail at $159.95, which also includes the iRiver iFP-300 player and $99.95 for the housing without the player. This housing is specially designed for SCUBA Diving so you can easily take your music into the depths without worry.
Once H2O Audio's iPod Nano housing and waterproof headphones showed up at my door, I could hardly wait to go and try them out. I carefully opened the boxes and took a look at the directions, just to make sure I didn't overlook something important. I had already lost one iPod to a few drops of water as I had mentioned earlier, so I didn't want to take any chances.
The first thing that I noticed about H2O Audio's housing was the tough, clear molded shell and the sleek, scroll wheel control system. As I looked the housing over, I noticed the locking mechanism that keeps the housing sealed securely while you're out there playing hard. To open the housing, you simply hold the sliding lock to the side as you flip the clasp open, then lift the clasp over the housing end. And before you know it, the housing is opened into the two hinged halves.
