Musical Advice for Camping

[dancing2some]

Hello fellow campers! As we're getting ready for the coming camping season, we've made a short list of needed gear to improve our outings. While most of the gear we can handle on our own, one area where we could use a bit of advice, is musical. Specifically, we plan to include music into our outings this year by way of an ipod. Since we're both somewhat ipod ignorant, aside from plugging in earbuds, we think we're looking for some kind of docking/speaker station. It would need to be self-contained as far as power source, either rechargable or battery powered. The edge would go to a rechargable setup, as we do carry a small portable generator with us for recharging (actually for our blender,but could be used for recharging in a pinch). We're looking for decent quality sound, rugged build, and enough volume to drown out the rap music coming from the otherside of the campground. Size is not an issue. Quality and power life is a bigger issue than price, we don't mind spending more to get more. Does what we're looking for even exist? Or are dock stations more of an ac appliance? Thanks for any suggestions!

[renodesertfox]

Re: Musical Advice for Camping

Most of the time we prefer the sounds of nature or better yet the sound of silence....but awhile ago......

We purchased an Apple iPod Classic with 160GB. Wow, all of my country, all of it! All my blues too, and I got some blues! All our classic rock, all of my brides show-tunes, all of our easy listening Barry Manilowe songs, all my old 45s that I had originally transferred to reel to reel then to cd and every bluegrass and country singer that we own fits on about one third of 160GB!! We don't play the games, never did never will!! We purchased it through Amazon from this site to help JohnJohn out(camping forums gets a small return every time someone purchases something through the advertized links on this site) for $228.99. Then we added a Sony Speaker Dock Clock Radio for $89.88 and we took it camping. No messing with cds, no worrying about what music to take, we took it all. Camping in the winter means sitting around a campfire a long time. Heck, for us we spent the late afternoons around the campfire cooking trout and potatoes, but when night came we were in our tent warm as toast beside our Mr. Heater. I'd plug the speaker dock into our Xantrex battery power pack supply and we sat back and enjoyed whatever music we wanted and played Scrabble!

Now I'm not the scientist and there are great campateers here that are and use deep cycle batteries etc for charging and that's there choice, which is fine(wish I understood it better) but we use a Xantrex Power Supply for our needs and has proven fine for us. Here's their site:

http://www.xantrex.com/

The ipod and docking station are great inventions, but for us it is always nice to never play it louder than our campsite is wide. Just my $0.02!

[rxcamping]

Re: Musical Advice for Camping

I use a simple battery operated speaker system. It is about 6 inches long and uses two AA batteries for power. Plugs directly into the headphone jack. I have never timed it and I dont leave it on overnight but for me the batteries generally last for 3-4 trips. If I had to guess and average I probably run it between 9-12 hours/trip.

[GlitterHiker]

Re: Musical Advice for Camping

RDF - were you camping at Little Bennett a few weekends ago ?? Oh my gosh, the site next to me was BLASTING classic rock, blues, and country. Ok, I may like all that at some time or another, but not at a campground at 10:30 at night.

[huricanelane]

Re: Musical Advice for Camping

I usually bring my mp3 player for my personal use, using headphones. I also have a solar & wind powered flashlight & Weather/AM/FM radio. It even has a hookup so i can charge a cell-phone if I want. I'll listen to the radio, not too load while preparing supper, setting up the tent, etc. I have to wind it more often than I'd like, but it is handy and convenient, i just leave it with my camping supplies.

I'm not sure how much it cost, it was a gift several x-mas's ago, but I would buy one once this one stops working.

[nearlywild]

Re: Musical Advice for Camping

Just do a search for Ipod Docking Station. You'll find tons of them. I did a search on Amazon and the very first one is battery operated and only $32.

[dancing2some]

Re: Musical Advice for Camping

Thanks for the replies! We had actually been doing some online searching, but not being sure what it was we were looking at, or for, makes things appear even more confusing. We were hoping for recomendations on what may have worked well for others, afterall, it's not like it's a purchase of a new tent or sleeping gear, which is much more personal and subjective in nature, just a piece of electronics. Though it looks as though Bose may offer one of the best in terms of sound quality, the $400 price tag for a short 4 hr. run time doesn't seem worth it. Think we've decided on this one.

http://www.target.com/dp/B003BIFJOA/...mmunityReviews

No worries about disturbing other campers here. We've been camping many, many years, longer than many here have been around.....we're no strangers to the outdoors and mother nature, only to ipods, lol

[nearlywild]

Re: Musical Advice for Camping

That one looks nice. I think I might start looking into getting a docking station that takes batteries too. I have one but you have to plug it in. I did find that exact docking station on Amazon for $55 with free shipping.

[renodesertfox]

Re: Musical Advice for Camping

RDF - were you camping at Little Bennett a few weekends ago ?? Oh my gosh, the site next to me was BLASTING classic rock, blues, and country. Ok, I may like all that at some time or another, but not at a campground at 10:30 at night.

Wasn't us! We never play our music very loud! There has been tons of snow this year in the Sierra and in winter/spring we are desert campers!