Best portable Bluetooth speakers (Oluv's personal favorites 2014)

With this list I want to show you my personal favorite portable speakers that I use on a regular basis including some explanation why I have chosen them over some others and when I use this instead of that. It's been quite a long time I wanted to prepare a kind of best-of list of all portable speakers I know or that I have heard. But after having heard so many, I thought that a real best-of is simply not doable as each speaker has its own strengths or weaknesses. After all those years it seemed I would still not be able to find a single speaker which would satisfy all my needs not until I have heard the new Denon Envaya Mini, which mixed up my whole perspective and made my whole list until now pretty useless. The Denon Envaya Mini finally persuaded me to sell all other speakers I currently own, including JBL Charge 2, Fugoo, Sony SRS-X3 etc. Therefore I would like to present *drum roll* the Denon Envaya Mini as my current favorite portable speaker.

Review: Beats Pill XL - the ultimate portable speaker?

When people were asking me for the overall best portable speaker I was already raving about the Beats Pill XL without even having heard it in detail. The only chance I had for a short listen was outdoors together with a friend when we compared his new Pill XL to his iLoud and my Bose Soundlink Wireless Music System. Of course I was pretty impressed by the Pill XL, as it was the sheer power easily blowing the iLoud out of the water, nearly matching the Soundlink Wirless Music System in overall loudness. But it is a completely different experience you get when you listen to a speaker indoors in a more controlled enviroment, where you don't feel the need to crank it to the maximum. Meanwhile I own the Beats Pill XL, and while it is indeed an impressively powerful speaker, it definitely has some quirks regarding sound.

First impressions: Beats Pill XL

Today during lunch I met my friend, who just received a Beats Pill XL as probable substitute for his IK Multimedia iLoud, after the iLoud started getting battery-problems with self discharge after one day without usage etc.