#yes that’s a 30 pin iPod dock

[olekscrane]

I thought I’d actually draw something on here. It’s not the best, but I do take pride in my music engraving. I don’t have any drawing software, unfortunately, but it turned out!

We love a good Scarecrow/Music Meister interaction. I feel like Music Meister has Riddler energy, but with specialty in music and theatre.

[ftheweb-blog]

Spalding iHoop Portable BasketBall System

What is the Spalding iHoop?

One best-buy Amazon basketball hoop is the iHoop Portable Basketball System, so called because it sports an MP3 player docking station, and weather-resistant speakers to boot. It is the first of its kind, most likely to be emulated in the months and years to come, but what would you expect?

Spalding is, after all, the official manufacturer of the NBAs basketballs, as well as their basketball hoops. The iHoop really caught my eye because I have a passion for music and it's hard to play a good game of hoops without sweating out my earbuds, or even wearing my iPhone.

The boys get a bit rough too much ghetto ball in these parts (or just too much March Madness but it's all in good fun). The point is you can't have your cake and eat it, too, at least I can't. So for a long time what I've been doing is simply pulling my speaker of my stereo outside, which is tacky and a chore.

We did have a boom box for a while (do they still go by that name, by the way?), and then we got it wet one time with a cannonball dive off the diving board (neighbors kid well, that's what my kids told me!). Scratch that. I didn't want to get another boom box, especially since the iPhone made the cumbersome stereo systems outdated.

Unless you have an outdoor stereo system or still happen to own a boom box, for a proper game of hoops, you really should try the iHoop basketball system. It allows you to play for hours with your favorite tunes, or set your iPod to your favorite radio station we set ours to shuffle and random, so there's no fighting over the tunes.

But do be advised this is a basketball hoop first and a stereo only secondarily. I do enjoy the speakers, but lets face it: it's not going to replace your docking station indoors with your surround sound system it's a Spalding hoop! Having said that, though, the speakers work great.

And yes: they are weather resistant, though I don't know why they don't call it weather proof anymore we've had no trouble at all. One feature that I didn't like at first was how you need to plug it in.

It's not an issue for me, I just installed an outdoor GFI-protected outlet, but even if you don't have those skills (electricians don't charge too much for that sort of thing, by the way, and it's really easy to do on your own, too) -

It's worth the extension cord! There's something to be said about playing some AC/DC or the boys like their hip-hopor whatever you like (its your iPod) it just gets your blood pumping, like being in an arena or working out at the gym. It's a different experience for some reason.

Enough about me, though let me tell you a few of the nice features of the iHoop:

Rectangular Backboard Looks Really Professional

Tempered Glass Backboard Provides Excellent Rebounds (Unlike Acrylic or PolyCarbonate)

Square Pole For Added Strength (And Looks Much Better IMHO)

Adjustable Basketball Goal Screw Jack Variety For Incremental Changes from 7 1/2 10 FT

Arena Slam Rim (See Below)

MP3 Player (30-pin Variety With Shock Absorbing Net To Protect iPod/MP3 Accepts Nearly All MP3s, Will Protect Your Player During Rough Games)

A note on that Arena Slam deal the rim is really hefty steel, it's very solid. But it also has a very nice spring action, so that it will bend just enough to absorb any pressure and not put too much pressure on the tempered glass backboard.

Spalding claims this is institutional-grade steel, I have no idea, I just know this hoop is flammable, if that's a word. The spring mechanism is hidden with a nice-looking box cover, too so it looks really sharp and won't catch your fingers in a painful pinch.

And that is another point I want to make: like most Spalding systems, they look really good in your yard. We set ours up in the back yard, but a jealous neighbor (the one with the kid that soaked my radio supposedly and I know this guys jealous) bought the Spalding Beast basketball system, and that one's great, too.

In any case, he set up the Beast in his front yard, and for some reason or other keeps managing to come over to our place with his iPod in tow funny, that so we play on my iHoop with his music. I'll have to remind him he just bought the Beast, but I think he wanted to save some money and now regrets it he loves music, too.

The overall size of the backboard is 54 inches, not quite a full NBA board, but big for a portable system, definitely big enough for our needs. The tempered glass is about 1/4 inch thick, and you'd think it would be a bear to move, but it's not. There's a nice handle and the wheels are smooth.

The pole is only four inches across, its square so 4 x 4, and that's plenty big enough, though when you compare it to some of the in ground models it may look small. Honestly, its perfectly sized for our needs, and I have (2) 6-foot-3 boys going into college (the twins).

The speakers are great they are marine grade so they are designed for the outdoors, and can withstand getting wet just fine. The speakers are 30-watts, with what is called a 2.1 sound system, and I don't know what that means, it's just the spec.

All I know is that I can blast my music, and control the iPod with the buttons on the outside of the unit (the iPod jacks into a control cable, and sits cradled in a net inside the base of the hoop).

The power is 120v to run the speakers, and yes: it's GFI protected (of course). The speakers include a 5-inch subwoofer, with (2) 3-inch speakers that operate as mids and tweets, as we'd call them. The cradle and base are ABS, the same plastic that makes up drain pipes durable and can withstand abuse.

This isn't hard to do then again, I did have my sons helping. It took two of us, and the hardest part was understanding the screw jack assembly. By hardest part I only mean that the instructions weren't as clear as they could be, but we figured it out without needing to call Spalding (we read the reviews where people couldn't seem to do this part without calling, but it's not that hard IMHO).

Total time to assemble was only 2 hours, but I do have twin boys, keep that in mind. You can expect to need a guy or two on this one, fitting the two pole halves together can be a bear otherwise. And you'll need a wide open space, we just used our driveway, with a step ladder.

Once you do assemble it, make sure you weigh it properly to use it. Its funny to me how many will forget that part, but it won't take long to figure that out (remember this is a glass backboard tempered glass, yes, but still glass you don't want to drop it).

This is one of the best purchases we've made in a long time, to be honest. The iHoop system gets two thumbs way up, and five stars from us even though the instructions weren't perfect, they were easy enough. This is a great Amazon basketball hoop meaning we would recommend you shop on Amazon for this one.