Belkin RockStar review

Want to mix and share your music?

15 May 2008 16:30 GMT / By Chris Hall

Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar.

You want to share your music, right? Right. Now normally that would involve turning on the speaker of your phone or hooking up some portable speakers. Well Belkin are suggesting a different approach with the RockStar.

As the name suggests, the star-shaped object is a simple device that offers five headphone ports and a hard-wired connection for your iPod or any other device that has a 3.5mm jack – phone, CD player, etc. You can plug in extra headphones and let people listen. Simple.

But wait, there’s more. You also get the option of hooking up another audio device, and Belkin supply you with a cable for this purpose, so you can then play through two devices at the same time, or swap between the two.

You might wonder why you'd want to do this. We certainly did for a while, but it means you can mix tracks, trying to keep it tight while your mates judge your performance. There are no controls on the RockStar, but by employing the volume control on your iPod you can perform a simple fade in and out.

Making anything other than frightful din takes some skill and a wide catalogue of music, but a live session with your mates as the audience is pretty simple: it just takes timing and a good choice in matching tracks together. From a sound point of view, this is for the most part just a headphone extender, so there is no perceivable loss – volume can be adjusted on the connected units to keep things balanced.

We only had the one unit to test, but presumably you could daisy chain your RockStars, the consequence of which could be interesting, if not musically gratifying.

A serious application, of course, could be for sharing an audiobook among the three kids in the back of the car, so you don’t have to listen to Harry Potter (read by Steven Fry) for the umpteenth time. Perhaps then your unruly teenager can add a drum and bass backing track…

So all you need is friends with headphones and you can all sit in a circle and have a jolly time, which is certainly more edifying than spraying your name on the wall round the back of KFC.

Verdict

A simple device that does exactly what it says on the tin. That said, we don’t really think there will be much longevity to the mixing music elements and this is just a step beyond a dual headphone adaptor that you can buy anywhere for £2.50.

A bit of fun.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Belkin
Price as reviewed: £9.99
The good: It works, allows multiple players
The bad: You need friends
Quick verdict: Fun and pointless, but better than sharing your music out loud
Score