Trolley speakers are suddenly everywhere — with basic ampli-speakers to feature-rich ones, trolley speakers seem to be holding a stronger place in the personal-outdoor audio entertainment system market off recently. In this midst, we happened to try out a similar product from a brand which is known to cater to this segment. We got our hands dirty on the Aisen Trolley DJ Tower Speaker which claims to pump out 20,000 watts of peak audio power along with features such a mini DJ console and light effects.
The Aisen Trolley DJ Tower Speaker A20UKB830 is a single large speaker unit that stands tall as a tower. It has a front-facing speaker, a DJ console and control panel on the top and equipped with handles for carting it around easily. However, the speaker is pretty bulky and is not meant for high portability. It is larger than a suit-case, and stands around 3.5-ft tall and 1.2-ft wide and deep. Built entirely with engineered wood and sporting a plastic grille upfront, the speakers are pretty heavy. Though it can be handled by a single person, the bulky body can get tough moving it around easily.
The speaker system is a simple one-piece unit. It sports a 3-way driver with two front-facing large 12-inch bass drivers and two 3-inch tweeters. While the woofers are placed behind a plastic wide-open grille, the tweeters are protected by a metal grille on the top extreme ends. Between the tweeters and on top of the woofer grille are a few multi-colour LEDs that can be turned on or off and they change colours to produce a good light show to match the party mood. Sadly, the LED lights are not synchronized with the music and are pretty static.
Additionally, the woofers lack proper protection citing damage to the cones if any large object accidently hits it from front. Nevertheless, the cones seem strong enough to ensure that it can take a few hits. The cones are painted in silver to look classy and gel with the party mood too. Lastly, there are four forward-facing bass reflex ports present around the woofers to allow the speakers to breath at high power outputs.
Moving on, the wooden chassis is strong and heavy, adding sufficient weight to hold on to the high wattage power output. The sides and rear are covered with a matte-finished vinyl skin, while the front panel is all plastic. The entire speaker sports in a dark shade of grey dual-tone surface that adds to a decent somber look. The sides and the top sport handles for easy transportation and lifting. The rear sports a detachable power jack (220V) and an Aux in and out port. The Aux out port can be used for recording your audio on an external media source or can also be used for pairing the speaker with a second speaker system, and so on, for added power output or a multiple speaker system setup.
The speakers are driven by a 20,000 watt PMPO or 180 Watts RMS amplifier that sports multiple inputs. The inputs are FM radio, Bluetooth for tablets, laptops and smartphones, Line in and Aux in for external audio players, a Guitar input for musical instruments, SD card and USB slot for MP3 music playback and a microphone input.
The speaker also has a wireless microphone that comes bundled along with it and is paired with the amplifier by default. This is a great add on and you won’t have to purchase an additional mic for your kit. An additional wired microphone or FM mic can be added if required. The wireless microphone is basic and runs off two AA batteries. The speaker system can also be controlled by a basic IR remote control that is bundled with the product. The remote is very basic and has basic controls for operating the MP3 playback or FM playback only.
Moving on, the main USP of this trolly speaker is the top control panel which doubles up as a DJ console for adding the oomph factor to all your parties. It sports an electronic drum pad, along with a few sound effects and a 5-channel graphic equalizer. There are six drum pads that are built on the top and can be worked with fingers or palms. The pads sport large palm-sized soft rubber buttons that seem durable and comfortable. However, the tactility is a little less than average and getting used to the pads will take a while for you to get used to.
The pads are responsive and you can also change the beat or drum types. The electronic drum can be mixed with the existing music being played back to add beats and effects to your DJ side. The drum also has its own volume control so that you can decide how much of audio from the drums should mix with the background music.
The console also has additional pre-installed music or tunes add-ons for your excitement. A large and soft volume control button or dial is present right up front that makes controlling the music very easy and quickly. To the left are the five graphic equalizer buttons and to the right are some other audio effect knobs such as volume and echo for the mic. Next to these to knobs are control buttons to operate the music (play/pause/etc) when playing from an SD card, USB, or FM.
All the knobs and controls are pretty responsive and work flawlessly. Lastly, straight up ahead is a miniature LED display that shows you the status of the input such as AUX, Bluetooth, FM and alike. The display is basic and does not help with the track information and other information that could have been helpful especially when playing music from an SD card or USB storage.
Lastly, since the speaker system has its own DJ mixing and electronic drums options, you can also record your own songs on the SD card. The console sports a small microphone above the volume control dial that allows you to sing along and record your own tracks.
As for the performance, you will not be disappointed. The audio is pretty loud and punchy. The trebles are well spaced out from the mids and lows, and the speakers can get pretty loud if you are using them in an enclosed space. The audio is rich and clear, but the bass is not as boomy as expected. While using it in an outdoor space, the bass is just sufficient to start up a grind, but when compared to other speaker systems we have used and heard, we find that the bass could have been better. The bass drivers used here are meant for pure power and not pleasure performance. These speakers are meant for creating loud volumes and they do the job well. At low volumes, when planning to use indoors, the speakers turn on a good ambience too.
The onboard graphic equalizers do a good job, but are not as pronounced and efficient as they ought to be. We noticed that the lower frequency controls are a bit too harsh and don’t have adequate control over minute changes. However, they are just good enough and can be considered as average. The speakers are mainly aimed at those who host outdoor parties, or indoor community meetings and get-togethers. As a single PA audio system that can also deliver good audio/music performance, the Aisen Trolley DJ Tower Speaker A20UKB830 gets a huge thumbs up from our end. However, what failed to impress us is the steep price, the non-synced LED light show and the average equalizers.
The Aisen Trolley DJ Tower Speaker A20UKB830 is priced at Rs 24,990, which is pretty high as there are a few alternatives that are known to sell for cheaper. However, the decent audio quality, bundled wireless mic, the high power output and the rugged chassis does manage to justify the price to an extent. If you are looking for an outdoor PA system that can also double up as a good party entertainment system, then Aisen has something covered for you.
