Ion Audio iPA03 Portable PA System with iPod Docking Adapter This instant

My (horse) riding-instructor wife purchased this Ion portable PA system about two months ago to use while teaching clinics. We have used it in several large venues - indoor horse arenas measuring over 100 x 200 feet with 50 foot ceilings. It has worked extremely well. We tested it in an outdoor arena, running off the internal battery, and the sound was clear and projected well there, too.

I was astonished that something with only 22 W of power to an 8 inch speaker could do so well. I did a bit of searching, primarily here at Amazon, and half expected that we would try it and return it for a refund since I'd never seen a usable PA system with this small size before. But, this is a keeper.

The unit comes with a handheld microphone on a fairly long cord. Perfect for announcements, or karaoke. The iPod dock works with any iPod, as it has a sliding backrest to adjust for the type of iPod being used. Worked fine with my Nano. There is a switch that optionally powers the dock for both playing and recharging the iPod.

For the riding clinics, my wife needs to be inside the arena away from the PA system, so we also purchased Audio Technica PRO-88W Wireless Microphone System (171.045 and 171.845 MHz) from Amazon as well. The Audio Technica receiver comes with a cord that plugs into one of the microphone inputs in the Ion Audio unit. The transmitter sits in my wife's pocket and is connected to any standard computer-type microphone headset such as Logitech ClearChat Style Headset.

The Ion Audio unit has a built-in mixer, so that you can independently adjust the volume of two microphones and the iPod relative to each other, and control the overall volume with the master volume control.

For our use, the internal battery is a great feature now that summer is arriving and Karen will be giving clinics and lessons outdoors away from an electrical outlet. We have not run it for very long on the battery, so cannot comment yet on the runtime per charge. But, there are are three very visible green LEDs that display the battery charge level.

For iPod use, even though the sound is not stereo with just the one speaker, the quality is quite good with very good bass response.

The case is surprisingly durable, with metal reinforced corners. The wheels and pop-up handle work well for rolling and the side handles work well for carrying. (The side handles are spring-loaded, so you don't have to listen to them flapping in your car.)

Just a really well thought-out unit.

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Technical note for anyone planning on wireless microphone use like we do: you can purchase additional Ion Audio units with additional wireless receivers to provide wider sound coverage in very large or noisy settings. As long as the receivers are all on the same frequency as the microphone transmitter, there is no limit to the expansion.Get more detail about Ion Audio iPA03 Portable PA System with iPod Docking Adapter.