OT: Blue Tooth Portable Speakers

[parco]

My wife wants some blue tooth portable speakers to use with her phone. Anybody got any suggestions for good ones?

[makoti]

My wife wants some blue tooth portable speakers to use with her phone. Anybody got any suggestions for good ones?

Just got a Sony speaker, SRS-xb3 https://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRSXB3-BLK-Portable-Bluetooth/dp/B019Q895XE
I have to say, I'm impressed with it so far. Nice sound & not a ton of money. It was on sale this week for $119 (too lazy to add it to my cart to see what it is at amazon)

[thirdgenbird]

I don't have a lot of experaince in the segment but, I was gifted a Altec Lansing Life Jacket 2. So far, I really like it. It sounds ok given the size, the volume is decent, it's waterproof/resistant, and battery life seems good so far.

[sand fungus]

I have a Bose Sound Link Mini II that I got for a work gift. I really like the sound and the base is really nice. People will often come into my office and notice it playing in the background and say wow that sounds pretty good.

I have had it for about 2 years and I am on my third one. So not sure I would recommend it from a reliability perspective, but Bose really stands behind the product! They repaired it the first time it stopped working and when it failed again they sent me a new one (refurbished). I listen to it every day pretty much all day in my office so it gets a lot of usage.

I think the primary issue (on the first two failures) was with the firmware and it is my understanding the new units have a firmware that solves the issues of low battery hang up.

Like I said the sound is really good and the size is not too big.

[parris]

I think it depends what she's looking for. We have a little speaker that I think is called the JamBox that my wife likes. My son has one of the UE Boom cylinder shaped speakers, and I have a medium size boombox type setup built by Monster that I scored for a very good price.

The UE Boom and the boombox put out a surprising amount of sound.

If you belong to something like Costco, or Sams Club they often have some very good prices on this type of thing. Good luck.

[54ny77]

How much sound and what kind of space most often used? The UE Megaboom is awesome. And it's waterproof, so you can take it to pool, beach, etc. If you get two, they can be synch'd to play in stereo. But, one sounds perfectly fine. Really is an impressive little speaker.

[kppolich]

One recommendation for this. Plus that it fits in a water bottle cage so maybe you can use it too. Awesome battery life, moderately loud, and has a headphone jack so it doesn't have to be Bluetooth

http://www.scosche.com/mobile-speaker-1

[jruhlen1980]

Got my wife a UE Roll, they can be found for about $50 refurbished on the bay sometimes. She likes to listen to music in the shower. It's pretty good for that. In fact she got me one for my birthday later. I wasn't offended.

[wallymann]

i was gifted this, a premium-priced model, this is the smaller unit in jawbone's range.

produces very-very good sound, great bass for the diminutive size, feels incredibly well made -- macbook equivalent construction. also works as a high quality speakerfone, too.

i'd say it's overpriced if you're purely after good sound...lots of units out there that will make similar sound at lower cost.

https://www.amazon.com/JAMBOX-Jawbone-Wireless-Bluetooth-Speaker/dp/B00DVKORX2

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91EY6RwgmHL._SL1500_.jpg

[gomango]

Just got a Sony speaker, SRS-xb3 https://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRSXB3-BLK-Portable-Bluetooth/dp/B019Q895XE
I have to say, I'm impressed with it so far. Nice sound & not a ton of money. It was on sale this week for $119 (too lazy to add it to my cart to see what it is at amazon)

Yes, can't miss on this one.

We have one on the mantel at our cabin.

Easy to set up, sounds better than good.

Surprisingly fills our great room with sound, especially since we have a 22 foot peak at the ceiling.

[kgreene10]

Another vote for the Bose Soundlink Mini.

[11.4]

The Jambox's are pretty dated these days in terms of what you can get for your money. The UE products somewhat likewise.

Bose offer a sound that many people find palatable but isn't all that great. Bose has a valuable brand name and you're paying a lot for the brand.

Most of these units have little or no bass and not a lot of dynamic and frequency range. Before you buy, just to get a sense of what this equipment can do these days, check out Mass Fidelity:

https://www.amazon.com/Mass-Fidelity-Core-Holographic-Compatibility/dp/B00Y01HTAE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493489801&sr=8-1&keywords=mass+fidelity

This is pretty freakin' amazing. Bluetooth speakers are always limited by the bandwidth at which you transmit to them, but a number of companies have units that are entirely next generation. Mass Fidelity is one of the people leading the pack -- it actually measures responses from the room it's in and adjusts sound to suit. If you put an obstruction in front of it, it will adjust for the obstruction. It's both battery and AC powered and threw in a near-field charging platform on top of the speaker. Amazing bass and you can custom tune the device as well. It's all software driven.

Does she really want a speaker? There are some amazing earbuds that may give her better sound unless she's not interested in that kind of product at all. Jaybird has some of the best rated units and they are incredibly user friendly and comfortable. If you want to tune them, you can do it with an app right on your phone. Long battery life and exquisite sound.

[jghall]

Not sure what the wife calls portable, but I've been impressed with my brother in laws Harman Kardon Onyx(believe that's what it's called). Much better than the little "pill" size stuff. Granted it's bigger.

[Mr. Pink]

JBL Flip 3. Awesome.

[TunaAndBikes]

Another vote from me; love mine

[pjmsj21]

I looked and listened to many of them and then a musician friend suggested the Bose. After living with it for five months, I love it....very small but great sound .

[Davist]

another vote for JBL, have a charge.. very good