[icon-discuss] Re: Repair
- From: "John Esak" <john@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <fb-oe@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 02:46:15 -0500
I have had mine for a year and a half with zero trouble. Works
perfectly. It is an Icon. I have dropped it and I mean seriously dropped
it on concrete sidewalk twice and dropped it off my desk twice as well. It
just keeps on ticking. Now, honestly, it is quite amazing that this little
hard drive in there didn't break and I heartily suggest NEVER dropping it to
test its durability.. not even from a few inches high onto a soft mattress.
This unit has a hard drive which spins at thousands of cycles per second
when it is doing things... and it should be treated gingerly. I have been
accidentally rough with mine on these various occasions and thought for sure
I would hear nothing when next I pressed a key... but there it was solid and
working.
So, since you asked about repair and durability issues... that's my
experience with the Icon. However, it is probably important to tell you
that I am normally very careful whenever I need to use the external
power/USB cable, since I know that putting any stress on electronic
connections is never a good idea. Happily I have a docking station now.
They are great. I bight a second (actually two more power cables) for it.
I tie wrapped one along with a network cable and a USB cable into a strong
little harness that sits on my desk. When I have to unplug the docking
station, i just unfasten these three cables, and unhook the audio cable
which I have going to a little JBL portable stereo speakers unit.... (which
by the way are now available for $29 at various places... I paid $129 for
mine originally! grrr) anyway, I bought another of these little JBL stereo
speakers units and along with the second power cable and a second network
and USB cables... I built a second harness which I keep plugged in at my
office. Now, I can snap the docking station out of its home at my home and
snap it into its home at my office in 5 seconds and none of the cables are
stressed and the thing sounds great through the beautiful speakers in either
location.
I could not be happier with this unit. yes, someday I would like the hard
drive changed out for a solid state (non-moving, no motor) flash memory...
but until that happens, this unit is the state of the art in every category
I need. Music, books, documents, mail, RSS and internet in that order....
<smile> Can't think of any other unit out there that even comes close.
By the way, every day virtually... I pop the Icon itself out of it's docking
station put it in my shirt pocket and walk to my bank, or the 7/11 or the
gym or wherever and listen to it on the way. Sometimes I use a little
wireless pair of Logitech headphones, sometimes I use a little plug in
amplifier speaker, sometimes I use an actual ear bud set, and sometimes I
just use the unit itself and its built in speakers. I just usually like
things a little louder than the built in speakers can do, and outside with
traffic and other noise they are not loud enough.
they are fine for most quiet situations. And I love the earpiece
switchover, this works great anywhere.
The only suggestion I would make to Levelstar is that the docking station
amplifier could be set to go a little louder if the speakers could sustain
it without distortion. I don't know that I would really use them anyway, as
I like to listen to music on a really good set of speakers like the JBL or
Boze units. Heck , the mp3 playback is essentially perfect, so adding great
speakers just makes things fantastic. But again, being able to make either
pair of built-in speakers a little louder would be very beneficial to me at
least. But then, I'm old and ears go early when you've been playing loud
rock and roll most of your life. :-)
Hope this little mini-revue helped you.
John Esak
Middletown PA
P.S. Incidentally, I mentioned buying two extra power chords. That is
becuase I leave the cable assemblies I made each at their own locations,
home and office. If ever I need to go on the road, I simply take the
docking station and this third power adaptor. Yes, need I say it... I am a
nerd. :-)
_____
From: icon-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:icon-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Beth Terranova
Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2008 6:49 PM
To: icon-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [icon-discuss] Repair
Hi, all. Linda Gehres
stated that her Braille Plus had to be repaired three times during her
first year of ownership. Do Icons and Braille Plus units generally need
repair that often, on average? Beth
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