We posted about the new Dewalt ToughSystem Music 2.0 cordless Bluetooth jobsite music player back in June when Home Depot first put up a product page.
We’ve asked Dewalt for updates since then, most recently in mid-September, and were told that no information was available yet. Our belief has been that Dewalt was looking to launch the new ToughSystem Music 2.0 entertainment system for the holiday shopping season, similar to what they did with the original.
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Chris wrote in today with a tip and question:
Have you heard any news on this new radio?
DeWalt’s site has reviews as well as user review pics. But I can’t find it for sale anywhere.
Fake reviews?
Looking at Dewalt’s product page, the reviews are all marked “incentivized,” but there’s no explanation as to what this means. Were the reviewers given free products to review, similar to what Craftsman has been doing with their new tool launches? Are they being paid? It’s unclear.
The reviewers all have between 1 and 3 reviews under their belt, including the Music 2.0, and many of the ones with 3 reviewers have also reviewed a Dewalt hammer. The reviewers don’t seem to be active Dewalt.com community members or reviewers.
Sometimes very active customer reviewers are selected to receive free products to test and review. But that doesn’t seem to be what’s going on here. So who are these reviewers and how are they being selected?
In other words, I don’t think they’re fake, but they’re not “I went to the store and bought this product” types of reviewers. This has been the norm for Amazon and some consumer brands to do, but I haven’t seen Dewalt do it before.
It seems strange, for a brand like Dewalt to send free products to consumers, especially of a tool Dewalt hasn’t officially launched. No press release, no official announcement, just some early incentivized consumer reviewers.
Yep, this is definitely bound to be a holiday season launch. Strange things tend to happen with holiday promos and such.
Why do brands do this? I wish I could tell you. We have been receiving a lot of “are these fake reviews?” inquiries recently, and while I don’t think they’re fake, I don’t know how to describe them. Are you more likely to buy a product if you Google it and see there are 8, 10, 20 “user” reviews on retailer or brand websites, or zero?
Retailers such as Home Depot also aggregate reviews, and so you’ll likely see these same reviewers on Home Depot’s product page when their selling page pops back up.
Anyway, here are some official features and specs:
- Bluetooth connectivity
- Works with Dewalt 20V Max, 12V Max, FlexVolt batteries
- 55W RMS amp
- 4 full range speakers
- 1 active and 1 assisted bass resonator
- USB charger w/ 2.1A output
- Aux input port
- Color LCD display
- Touch screen capability (one reviewer contradicts this, says it’s not a touch screen)
- IP54 rating
- Mobile device compartment
- ToughSystem tool box compatible
- App-based remote control
- Weighs 15.2 lbs
Price: $229 (according to Home Depot’s initial offering)
Buy Now (via Home Depot)
Compare(Original via Amazon)
Compare(Original via Acme Tools)
Compare(Tstak Radio via Acme Tools)
Discussion
If I had to guess, it would be that each Home Depot store will get a couple of units, similar to when the first Dewalt ToughSystem Music player launched there a few years ago.
Price-wise, $229 will probably be the list price, and the “sale” price will likely be $199.
I could pretend to understand why Dewalt has been sending out free or otherwise “incentivized” review samples to users with 0 to 2 reviews under their belt.
I could almost understand why they wouldn’t issue a press release for a highly anticipated product. Maybe they will, but as soon as that happens, scores of reviewers, magazines, influencers, YouTubers, social media personalities, self-proclaimed professional tool reviewers, self-proclaimed influencers, and others will all bombard Dewalt with requests for review samples.
If Dewalt and Home Depot are partnering on a holiday season launch, the priority will be to stock all those in-store quarter-pallet displays. After that, warehouses and other online stores will want a healthy inventory.
Maybe Dewalt doesn’t want the new ToughSystem Music 2.0 to cannibalize sales of the original model, Tstak model, or Craftsman Tstak music player until it launches?
I’m trying to explain why we don’t have any more information than what is now up on Dewalt’s website.
Tim
They’re trying to sort out the tarriff aspect of this.
The price of this specific item will likely have to increase dramatically if the December edition of the tariffs go through completely which noone knows for sure.
Regardless of whatever else you might here that’s the hold up.
Kirk
Looks like dewalt decided to cut their losses and just straight up discontinue the 2.0 all together, too many people lems with the speakers burning up https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-ToughSystem-2-0-Bluetooth-Radio-Charger-DWST08820/310114470
Jason
If they would do away with the Wall wart for power and include a couple of outlets I would by it in a heartbeat
Chris
Wall wart?
Jared
I assume he means it has an AC adapter on the end of the cord you plug into the wall.
Chris
Oh. I could have sworn that I read this ran on a 20v/FlexVolt battery.
Hoser
It does run on batteries, but it’s also a charger, and can be run without a battery, in which case you need a cord. Often times if I’m set up in one area for a few days I’ll plug my radio in and use it as a charger. I’m less likely to do that with this radio because of the frustrating cord.
Hoser
This radio uses a converter style plug that is quite large, irritating to use, takes up space on your multi-tap strip on the job and is just all around the worst cord for a job-site tool.
ToolGuyDan
So grab a new one. High-quality enclosed DC power supplies are less than $25. Just get one rated for at least double the amperage as this unit draws, make sure it has the right tip size and polarity, and you’re golden.
Frank
I think maybe people will be hesitant to write a review if they go to the site and nothing has any reviews at all, so they seed them with some fake reviews. I also think its very inexpensive to get fake reviews written in low labor cost countries (india, china, etc). On amazon at least I will take reviews heavily into consideration when comparing products.
Chris
I’m not gonna lie. Anyone who is given free sh*t by a manufacturer in exchange for a product review, is a fake review AFAIC. I was moreso surprised to see that one reviewer even posted a picture of the radio on his tool cart system.
And now when I go back to the DeWalt page for that product, it’s a 404 page error.
Corporate shenanigans.
Gordon
Seasoned reviewers are more likely to uphold a personal set of standards that might be higher than what DeWalt wants people to see. People with no, or limited reviews, are going to be so smitten with a free $200 radio that they will happily overlook flaws, while also overstating the importance of things that DeWalt might advertise.
Check out car reviews of a new release like the 2020 Subaru Outback. The smaller channels are repeating everything from the marketing, almost word for word. Anyone known to be more critical was left out of the hands on demo event.
Hard to say though. The product page is now gone, and reviews aren’t loading on the cached version.
Flotsam
I see this and wonder who exactly is this for? It has to be contractors/crews who have a stack of toolboxes brought in to a job site.
As a homeowner/DIYer I could care less
Jared
Could be nice for camping/tailgaiting too – load up gear in a toughsystem cart and add this to supply some tunes. A little pricey for that purpose perhaps, but if you’ve got money to burn…
Hoser
Ummm, yes, that’s why it’s called a jobsite radio. Your comment is the equivalent of me looking at fine crystal wine glasses and asking, “Who is this for, classy people that enjoy fine glasses? As a contractor I could care less about crystal glasses on the jobsite.”
Big Adam
I think the phrase you are looking for is “…..couldn’t care less.”
I had the original toughsystem unit. Sure it was loud and I’m pretty certain it was tough but the DAB (European digital standard) tuner was weak and the thing was freaking heavy.
I’ve now switched to the new TSTAK unit and couldn’t be happier.
Joatman
Don’t you mean “could be happier?”
Saw an open door…….
Floor Guy
I’ve had the original ToughSystem radio for years and put it through a serious amount of abuse. From the van, to job sites, trips to and on the beach, 3 day canoe trip camp outs on a river island in the pouring rain…. The ToughSystem radio is an absolute beast. I even prefer to use it in place of my van audio system.
Like some one previously mentioned, the only let down with it is the cord. It should have a heavy duty cord with a cord wrap. And or a male receptacle so you can use an extension cord.
Floor Guy
Very disappointed. I ordered this Dewalt ToughSystem 2.0 radio online from Home Depot and after multiple delivery delays from UPS it came broken/defective. Only 2 of the 4 speakers worked. I already own 2 of the 1.0 models and I’m very satified with them so I thought this new model would have the same toughness and quality. Guess I was wrong. What a let down. I dont feel like going through this process again so i returned the defective product for a refund. Good luck to anyone else that purchases this product.
Craig
I currently have the 1st tough system and ive enjoyed it! The only beef I had with it was the subwoofer took a crap on me and i went through Dewalt to see if it could be fixed. I would’ve had to send it to a dealer to get fixed, but the catch is it would cost 100$ plus to get fixed if it wasn’t under warranty. Long story short I decided to buy a new one on sale for 149$. I did try the Tstak and it was not loud enough and didn’t care for the app….cool feature though.
Dave
I’m just wondering why it doesn’t have a fast charger on it, that would make a difference to me!
Johnny4
Foolish not to equipe it with a fast charger. The charger radio combo is what locked me into the Bosch system initially. Milwaukee is launching their new Packout. Looks to be just as good radia with an excellent charger as well.
Travis
The reason why is because this particular unit is focused more on sound quality so. It takes more power to run it. If you want a faster charger get the flexvolt radio that looks more traditional. No sub, less sound quality, quicker charging. You can’t have it all
Frank D
I hate the current status of web search results giving top marks for doorway page results loaded with “ reviews” while they never actually touched those “ top ten “ “ best 2019 “ …. products nor did any testing. Absolutely terrible as they’re merely referral link pages that maxxed out their seo for what google wants. Anyhow.
Reviews, way too many brand new products have five star excellent reviews, on many a site, because they sent out a dozen free samples to a select few people who are habitual reviewers or they’re down right fake, the paid for minimal substance “reviews” and/or more critical actual reviews actually get deleted. I know AMZ deleted one of my two star reviews, probably triggered by the product owner, after they did not provide customer service / stand behind their product and warranty, and I mentioned cost, dollars, competing products, yada yada in my review.
Worst may be some of the “ vine “ / “ top nnn “ reviews on amazon of people who never owned a competing product and lack insight to truly judge the product and consequently fail to identify the pain points / shortcomings a true user would identify, but there they are, raving about a product in the first week of ownership. I have seen this a number of times with products I have owned for anywhere from years to just purchased, that had some issues that should be brought up, objectively, but were not.
The opposite exists too though, this am, a DIY installed wall storage product I am researching … its most critical reviewer simply failed to properly install it, because there is no way if you properly anchor the product 16 on center, row per row … that a storage slat wall system gets pulled off the wall … but countless upvotes, that the product would be a bad system.
Stuart
Google used to penalize the no-value Amazon affiliate pages, but not anymore. It’s so bad, that’s all I see these days on a lot of mobile Google searches.
Josh
Hopefully this new radio has a clock, a battery charger that works in a timely manner, fits flex volt batteries and phone storage for the largest of phones. There radios all fall short of the basics.
Wagner’s Wood Work’s
I’ll go with the flex batteries Josh lol!!…that’s all we will see. The rest would be awesome tho!!!
Boggsy
Yeah, haha… The tstak one is a great Bluetooth radio. When I realized my knockoff 6ah batteries last all day bumping it hard… I just chucked the dumb dc adapter into no-man’s land (its “storage” spot is directly in the way of easily swapping batteries). I also get that the battery area is “protected” the way they built it, but tstak… I presume means you’re supposed to stack it. Put anything on top of it, and you can’t access the battery. The battery/port door hinges out 3 inches beyond the back of the unit, which is assanine when you have it backed against anything. I’d sacrifice protection for a setup more like the flexvolt dust extractor, plus a phone mount and exterior ports. But if I was working on an oil rig, or in a volcano…I probably wouldn’t change a thing.
Travis
If dewalt put everything everyone of you whiners wanted in everything they would have been tits up years ago
Boggsy
If Dewalt was more aggressive and ambitious, you wouldn’t see Milwaukee everywhere.
Jeff
I ordered one yesterday from Home Depot.
Monte
I picked up the new 2.0 version at my local Home Depot last week ($199, but the manager had to adjust the price) and can offer the following updates (not a review):
It connects with the old-style (1.0) tool boxes just fine. Latches are not spring-loaded.
Charger is normal speed (1.5A according to the manual) and NOT high speed.
USB port does charge your cell phone (5V 2.1A) but only when the radio is on (not just plugged in).
Battery port holds both my 20V 8AH and my FlexVolt 8AH (the largest batteries I have). Battery latches in place and stays put.
Still has the standard wall plug and 3.5mm Aux. Input jack.
Sound quality is what you would expect from 55W and 100 db’s and has both indoor and outdoor modes.
Bluetooth is easy to connect and seems to have acceptable range. It will store several different devices and automatically connect later.
Hope this answers some of your questions.