Fugoo XL - donation campaign and giveaway raffle

With every new video that I post I am asked why I don't review the Fugoo XL and compare it to the JBL Xtreme. The answer is simple: because I couldn't get a unit yet.
I have been in contact with Fugoo for some time now back when the small Fugoo was released in Europe last year. I also asked about the Fugoo XL immediately when it was announced the first time and was originally promised to receive a unit as soon as they became available. Unfortunately now when they have been finally out in the U.S. for nearly one month, I didn't get any answer about a possible unit anymore. I might have the chance to grab one when it becomes available in Europe which is supposed to be at the end of November, but this may be a bit late for many who are interested and still not sure which speaker will suite them more: Fugoo XL or JBL Xtreme!

As I want to stay as unbiased as possible for my reviews and not count on charities from companies who in return expect positive reviews for their free review samples, I would prefer to buy the speaker on my own. Unfortunately currently I cannot afford buying the Fugoo XL as it is available only in the U.S so far. It would cost me around 480€ including shipping costs, taxes and customs fees to get it to Europe. I already ordered the new and just announced Libratone Zipp Mini some days ago, which seems pretty interesting as well, therefore I cannot buy another speaker right now.
That's why I decided to start a kind of donation campaign for a review unit of the new Fugoo XL speaker.

My idea would be to ask for donations to cover the ordering costs of the Fugoo XL in order to be able to prepare an extensive review, make some comparison videos and add it to the audio-database. When everything is done at the end of my review I would of course give the speaker away and raffle it among all those who donated for it. My goal would be to achieve 500$ which would hopefully cover the shipping to Europe with some rest amount so that I can hopefully ship the speaker worldwide to the "winner" who will be chosen at random with some kind of lottery.

Why 500$?

some rough calculation:
300$ - Fugoo XL
~30$ - express shipping to an U.S. address of a friend or myus.com service
~80$ - shipping to Europe
+ 22% taxes and customs fees
_____________________
~500$

I would like to collect 500$ until the end of October 2015. As soon as 500$ are reached, I will order the Fugoo XL "Style" immediately from Bestbuy or Amazon depending on availability, also because it is the cheapest model while "Sport" doesn't seem to be in stock yet. Then I will hopefully still have enough time for shipping it to Europe and doing my videos including a review etc. If everything works out, my plan would be to have the first videos up in mid November.
If 500 people donate 1$ each, the goal would be achieved quickly. I will stop the donation if the amount exceeds 550$, but I need some safety buffer depending on where I will have to ship the speaker afterwards. I have no idea how much shipping might cost to Australia for example!

If I don't manage to achieve 500$ until 1st November I will of course return all payments to the original donators, so there would be no risk for you that I keep the money unjustifiably. If you like the idea and would like to contribute but also to get the chance of winning the Fugoo XL afterwards, please donate through the button below.

(Update: I changed the payment method to paypal.me now, as the with the usual donation procedure paypal charged around 14% fees from the donated amount. This way I will have quite a loss in case I have to refund all donations if the final goal isn't reached. On paypal.me just leave the box at the bottom unchecked, as you don't pay for any goods).

Update 2: donations are closed now, the donation goal was reached, more updates coming soon!

Of course I will prepare Vlogs of any step and goal achieved and post them on Youtube, so that you stay up to date. And at the end there will also be a video of the final tombola, where the official winner of the Fugoo XL will be drawn. Maybe I can even broadcast it "live" through Youtube.

I hope it's obvious that I have no financial interest or profit from this campaign and simply want to contribute my part for anyone interested in the Fugoo XL.

I hope you like this idea and beg for some support.

Thanks a lot, your O!

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.

Test: Fugoo Bluetooth speaker - der aktive Lautsprecher für Aktive!

Ich habe nach einigem "Betteln" nun endlich direkt von Fugoo ein Testgerät zur Verfügung gestellt bekommen. Dass ich das Gerät nicht selbst gekauft habe, soll meine objektive Meinung dennoch nicht beeinflussen. Ich fand den Fugoo seit seiner Vorstellung bereits extrem interessant, bloß war er bisher auf dem europäischen Markt noch nicht erhältlich. Aber die Kombination aus Design, Features, extremer Robustheit und einem vermeintlich guten Klang, ließ den Lautsprecher beinahe perfekt für Outdooraktivitäten erscheinen. In der Zwischenzeit konnte man sich den Fugoo sogar direkt über amazon.com nach Deutschland oder Österreich liefern lassen, aber die Gefahr war mir dann doch zu gross, ob ich damit überhaupt zufrieden sein würde, ob mir der Klang gefallen würde, ob er laut genug sein würde etc. Eine Rücksendung wäre wohl dementsprechend teuer geworden. Mittlerweile ist er aber sogar schon auf Amazon.de zur Vorbestellung gelistet, wobei nur noch die eigentliche Verfügbarkeit offen ist.
Die meisten Testberichte zum Fugoo sind zwar positiv, aber es gibt immer wieder extrem negative Bewertungen, die dem Lautsprecher zu wenig Lautstärke nachsagen. Andererseits gibt es auch genügend Testberichte zu Geräten, die im Grunde für die Tonne sind, und trotzdem sich die Leute begeistert darüber auslassen, wie phänomenal dieser Lautsprecher um 20 Euro doch sei, und was für ein "Klangwunder". Somit blieb mir nichts anderes übrig, als den Fugoo selbst auszuprobieren, um mich von seinen Qualitäten zu überzeugen.

First impressions - Fugoo Bluetooth speaker!

I just received the Fugoo speaker yesterday so my own review will be coming up soon. Unfortunately it is going to be in German this time, sorry folks, but there are already some great and detailed reviews of the Fugoo in English, like that from Gadgetmac, Mashable by Brent Butterworth, Tom's Guide etc. but Fugoo is currently starting to offer their speaker in Germany for the first time, though any German review is still missing, so I will hopefully be the first one to close this gap!

As you can see my son is already pretty excited about this new toy. He even managed to drop it once, but  there is no need to become worried, as the speaker is extremly rugged and well protected inside the "Sport"-jacket. I also received a "Tough"-jacket which looks like a tank. Of course I will test this too, although I am a bit afraid of my floor getting damaged if my son manages to drop it again inside this one.

My first impressions are very positive indeed. Although I immediately became annoyed by the much too loud voice-prompts, you can deactivate them completely with some button presses. There are lots of different combinations to enable different modes, you probably have to learn them by heart, but the Fugoo can do lots of things, the limiting fact is that it has only 3 main buttons and the power-button, so look forward to some finger-acrobatics.

The sound is pretty smooth. It is by far not as heavy as on the Bose Soundlink Mini, but the Fugoo sounds more natural with very clear mids and perfectly tuned treble. There is plenty of bass, reaching quite deep, it is not as boosted as on the Bose, but the Fugoo nevertheless never sounds anemic. You really get a sense of punch and there is "real" bass, unlike most other portable speakers I have tried, including the JBL Charge, UE Boom etc. I think the Fugoo can compete pretty well with bigger speakers as well, becaues when I directly switched between the Fugoo and the Soundblaster Roar, I preferred the much more open and less boomy sound of the Fugoo, without that much upper bass, but with more low bass instead compared to the Roar.
As the Fugoo is nearly omnidirectional you don't need to care about placing or aiming it at you. It sounds just good, wherever you put it, even on the floor from above it sounds gerat, regardless if you are listening from behind or from the front, as it has all drivers spread to all sides.
Volume control is synced with the player, which is great because you can also control start/stop and track skipping directly from the speaker, if you intend to use it mounted on your bike with your phone hidden somewhere in your pocket for example.
The only thing I noticed is that maximum volume might be a bit low for some. Currently it is by far not as loud as the Bose Soundlink Mini for example, but I still have an older Firmware (01.00.14) installed, so I will hopefully be able to compare it with the latest 01.00.46 firmware which is claimed to improve sound quality and overall loudness! I will try to prepare some comparison videos as well as detailed frequency response measurements. Of course there will be also a comparison to the Soundlink Mini, and maybe the UE Boom, but after having listened to to the Fugoo for some minutes only, I can already claim by now that the Fugoo is just a class above the UE Boom with a much more mature sound, while the UE Boom can play considerably louder, but just sounds like a tin-can speaker, not a grown up system!

Please be patient and give me some time to prepare everything!

Speaker news and rumors: BoLse, Audio Dynamix and Fugoo

"BOLSE", yeah right, Bose but with an "L" contacted me recently, if I would like to test their newest speaker: