Which best bluetooth speaker

L to R: UE Mini ( review ), Roll ( review ), Boom ( review ) and Megaboom ( review ), JBL Charge 2+ ( review ) and Charge 2 ( review ), Bose Soundlink III ( review ) and Soundlink Mini 2 ( prev review ) There’s nothing like having a summer moment free to listen to your favorite music with your friends. The combination of portable Bluetooth speakers and great music apps like Apple Music with Beats 1 radio can make this an instant spontaneous event as long as you’ve got the right gear. There are tons of Bluetooth speakers around but we’re cutting through the noise and signaling the best from three top brands today: Bose, UE and JBL. In last year’s exhaustive holiday season Best Bluetooth Speaker Review , I gave the title of best speaker to the JBL Charge 2 for having nearly the best sound, cylindrical portability, great looks, long battery life and the ability to charge your phone for around $120 . JBL has updated their game with the Charge … [Read more...] about The Best Bluetooth Speakers 2015: JBL Charge 2+, Bose Soundlink Mini II and UE Roll/Megaboom

We’ve reviewed a great many Bluetooth speakers over the years – I half-suspect Seth has built an extension to his home out of them. I’ve generally not been tempted myself. If I’m at home, I’m either streaming to the hifi in the living-room, or playing through the (wired) B&W MM-1s in my office. If I’m out & about, I’m listening through my B&W P5 headphones. But there are times when you get chatting with friends about music and you all try to listen to an example on the iPhone speaker, and that doesn’t really cut it. A very portable speaker with a decent enough volume level for a few people to hear would be handy. While I’m generally pretty fussy about sound quality, this scenario isn’t enough to justify investing in anything expensive, but this one looked the part and for $55 (down from $99) it seemed worth a listen … Ok, I’ll admit it: it was the anodised aluminum that got my attention. It definitely looks a lot more expensive than it is. The speaker … [Read more...] about Review: Inateck MercuryBox, a $55 portable Bluetooth speaker that hits the right notes

I’m a strong advocate of the philosophy of buying the right thing once. My view is for any activity you care about a lot, it’s cheaper in the long run to buy an expensive product that will keep you happy for a great many years – maybe even for a lifetime – than a cheap product you’ll end up wanting to replace a few years down the line. Buy cheap, buy twice, as they say. My hi-fi system is a great example. When I was a lot younger, I splashed out on a Bang & Olufsen hi-fi system that was more than twice the price of everything else I tested. Twenty years on, it now looks like an extraordinarily good value. It’s so old it has a cassette deck (yes, really!), but all it took to bring it back up to date was the addition of a simple Wi-Fi audio receiver to add AirPlay support. Standalone Bluetooth speakers have therefore been of very limited interest to me – and I’d never have dreamed that one could ever replace a proper hi-fi system. So I was intrigued by one that claimed it … [Read more...] about Review: Devialet Phantom, the $2000 single-unit Bluetooth speaker that aims to replace your hi-fi system

Review The new AirPods Max are turning heads with a high price tag and excellent audio quality. But is what you get worth the $549? AirPods Max design AirPods Max come in five different colors, sky blue, green, pink, silver, and space gray. Each color is two-toned, featuring a lighter color on the anodized earcups and a darker one for the headband. AirPods Max have one of the most bespoke designs ever created for a set of headphones. The top portion of the headphones is made of stainless steel before being coated with a premium soft-touch material akin to silicone. The canopy is made from a proprietary mesh that is designed to wrest just atop your head. AirPods Max Each arm of the AirPods Max extend to accommodate user's heads of different sizes. Anodized aluminum makes up the cups themselves, which is lighter than the steel and allows for the svelte anodization Apple is known for. Each of the cushions on the earcups are a similar mesh … [Read more...] about Review: AirPods Max don’t make it easy to justify the price