MegaVoice Solar Powered Speakers - First Look

Over the past few years we have distributed thousands of MegaVoice Envoy audio Bibles.  While these are fantastic personal listening devices, their small speaker and weak amplifier have rendered them quite useless for any sort of large group Scripture listening programs, unless you have some powered speakers.  For the past few years MegaVoice have offered powered speakers that ran off of AA batteries, but left no way of recharging the batteries.  These work fine in areas where batteries are available, or where you can use some rechargeable AA batteries, but in rural areas in developing countries they just weren't practical.  There are a number of small rechargeable speaker systems available, but I had yet to see a quality solar recharged speaker system.  MegaVoice has seen the need and have recently released their solar recharged speaker "bag".  I haven't had much of a chance to field test the new offering yet, but wanted to give some first impressions.

Appearance - At first look it's quite a handsome little package.  The "bag", which is really more of a semi rigid design, is covered in a high quality woven fabric.  It looks well made and the fabric looks like it will wear quite well.  It looks to me like it is made in the fashion of a high quality soft sided piece of luggage.  The front houses the solar cell as well as two speakers.  One nifty little bonus on the front panel is a blue LED on the solar cell.  When this LED is lit it means that the solar cell is charging the battery.  The bag zips closed and has a little shiny carabiner to hang it from whatever you want.  There is also a big shiny grommet on the side that facilitates the connecting of devices while keeping the zipper closed.  When you open up the bag you can see that the top half is full with the speakers and control panel.  There is a little sewed in pouch that holds the speaker and charger leads.  The bottom half is empty and has plenty of space to hold the accessories as well as an audio Bible.

Features - I was quite surprised when I first zipped this little guy open.  I knew it was a solar recharged speaker, but was surprised to see that it also had a charging system that allows you to charge small electronic devices such as cell phones, or even your audio Bible.  The inside panel has 2 small on/off switches, 1 for the charging system and one for the build in speakers.  There is also a small round button that allows you to check the internal batteries charge status.  There are instructions right on the panel explaining how to use each feature(in English).  I don't know what the capacity of the internal battery is, but from the bit of testing I have done, it will play the speakers for a number of hours.  I'm sure the charging ability depends greatly on what is being charged.  The unit has two cables, a 1/8th inch stereo plug and a 6V jack.  The 6V jack in itself is femal, so cannot be directly plugged into anything, but the bag comes with a nice set of accessories to that plug into the jack to connect most small electronic devices.  It comes with a mini-USB, micro-USB, small pin(nokia style), plus a large odd shaped connector that I'm sure fits something.  There is also a cable that will connect to the 6V jack and allow it to be connected into a standard USB port to charge the unit if you don't have sun.  It is really quite an impressive batch of accessories.  You will also find a very informational and understandable instruction sheet hiding along with the accessories.

Performance - I have just recently received this device and have yet had the chance to do much performance testing.  I am hoping to be putting this through its paces over the next few weeks.  I have used it as a speaker a few times and it is LOUD!  It was not terribly impressive connected to my cellphone, but when connected to a MegaVoice Envoy it comes to life.  I would dare say that this would facilitate Scripture listening groups of up to 100, maybe more in ideal conditions.  Just from some initial use, it seems that the solar cell is well matched with the battery and charges the battery quite quickly.  I will be bringing you much more specific info on charging and battery life after I have a chance to give it a thorough test.

Price - The price of this system was also a pleasant surprise.  The retail prices from MegaVoice go as follows:

$29.95 USD for 1-4 units
$25.95 USD for 5-19 units
$23.95 USD for 20-99

There may be further price breaks on larger orders, that you can take up with MegaVoice.

Final Thoughts - This seems to be a quality device that does what it is supposed to...be a loud solar recharged speaker.  The charging option is a bonus that could be quite useful, especially if the panel is strong enough to charge the audio Bible while playing.  I think that if these units are as durable as they appear on the outside, they also have great value for the cost.  Over all , it is an impressive piece of equipment with potential to fill a much needed role.