Review: Klipsch GiG - the first real Bose Soundlink Mini contender?

There are hundrets of similar sized or even larger portable speakers than the Soundlink Mini, but so far none of them really managed to reach the level of Bose. Although many claim the UE Boom to sound much better, or even the JBL Charge, in reality they are both just better kitchen-radios.

Apart from JBL not many real speaker companies (I won't call Logitech a speaker company, they usually make mice and keyboards, and UE was making in-ear monitors before) have tried to bring out something really comparable or even better. The bigger part of the Bluetooth speaker market is produced by some no-name companies from Asia without any real audio-background.
But Klipsch is a well known brand with a long history in audio with their professional speakers. Their portable KMC-3 boombox is one of the best I have heard, the smaller KMC-1 was pretty average but I was curious to hear their smallest speaker "GiG", which indeed seems like a direct competitor of the Bose Soundlink Mini.

Recently I finally managed to get my hands on a Klipsch GiG and wanted to do a short review. I'll try to concentrate on the facts and avoid any long and unneccessary explanations.

Saturn Österreich: Beats Pill XL um 229,- Soundlink III um 249,-

Für unsere österreichischen Leser diesmal, falls es überhaupt solche geben sollte (bitte aufzeigen, wenn jemand aus Österreich mitliest ;-)

Ich verfolge selten diverse Flyer, die einem ins Haus schneien, wir haben das ganze Werbematerial sogar abbestellt, da es unseren Briefkasten immer überfüllt hat. Diesmal hätte ich einen wirklich interessanten Flyer sogar fast übersehen, und mir wohl in den A... gebissen!

Der Saturn in Österreich bietet jetzt nämlich ein "zweites Urlaubsgeld" (nur noch bis 28.06) und im Zuge dieser Aktion gibt es einige interessante Angebote. Die bieten tatsächlich die Beats Pill XL um 229,- an, statt den regulären 299,-. Auch den Soundlink III kann man dort derzeit um 249,- kaufen. Kein schlechter Preis wie ich finde.
Ebenso der Sony SRS-X5, zu dem ich demnächst noch einen kleinen Review verfassen werde, ist dort günstiger zu haben, Amazon bietet ihn gerade aber auch nur unwesentlich teurer um 179,- an.

Ich habe beide Beats und Bose im Laden mal nebeneinander etwas spielen lassen, und der Soundlink III hatte nicht die geringste Chance gegen den Pill XL. Je lauter es wurde, desto besser und kraftvoller wurde der Pill XL, desto schlechter und hohler der Klang von Bose. Die 20 Euro Aufpreis für den Bose kann man sich schenken, wenn man eine echte portable Boombox mit langer Akkulaufzeit (etwa 8 Stunden unter Volllast!), einem fetten Klang und hohe Lautstärken benötigt

PS. ich habe mir sogar noch etwas günstiger den letzten Austeller ergattert und werde euch demnächst hoffentlich ein paar Vergleiche von Pill XL mit einigen anderen Spielsachen bieten können...

Wavemaster MOBI and MOBI-2, the most popular ultraportable speakers

Meanwhile there are tons of pocket-sized portable speakers around. I haven't heard all of them, but the Wavemaster MOBI was one of the most popular ultraportable speakers and top-seller in Germany for a long time. You could also find it under different brands like "Cabstone Sounddisc", or "Divoom Pop" and many others.
Fact was that compared to many similar speakers like X-Mini, Raikko Nano etc, the MOBI managed the best balanced sound somehow. The sound was still far away from anything really serious, but it was better than all the rest. I still own my old MOBI, which was one of my very first really portable speakers that small.

There has been a revised Bluetooth version out for some time now called MOBI-2, which took the crown and is now best selling speaker system according to Amazon.de. I wanted to check how much different both sounded and if the new version was any better costing 1/3 more. I prepared a video which hopefully can show you some differences in sound as well as which one will play louder etc.
Although the new version has Bluetooth I recorded both with a wired connection to get exactly the same conditions and not to disadvantage one of them.


I am also expecting a sample of the Teufel BT Bamster to arrive soon and will try comparing it to my Soundlink Mini using the same track as above, so you will hear the difference in sound ;-)

Update: Have a look here, how this sounds on the BT Bamster and Soundlink Mini.

Bose Soundlink Mini um €139!

Für all unsere deutschen Leser: Morgen 12.06.2014 wird in Köln der Saturn Hennef neueröffnet, da gibt es dann neben einigen anderen Schnäppchen auch den Bose Soundlink Mini um 139,- zu ergattern.
Die Eröffnung startet um 6:00 Uhr früh, also schnell hin, wenn man sich einen sichern will, als Geschenk für die Mama, oder als Zweitgerät für seinen eigenen, oder wenn man noch keinen hat.

Review: Anker MP141 Bluetooth Speaker

Anker sent me a sample of their new Bluetooth speaker, the so called MP141. Until now I only knew Anker from their Powerpacks, I also own one, but it seems they started to get into audio as well.
So far I have not heard much about this speaker. I started reading some reviews which were all positive, and found the design to be really appealing, so I decided to try out the speaker on my own as well.

TDK TREK Max A34 - the better A33?

TDK just announced the TDK TREK Max or simply A34, which seems to be a successor of the very popular A33.
The A33 is not a bad speaker, but I was not impressed with it due to some bad experiences I had made.
The A33 had a pretty weak and unreliable battery built in. I got a brand new device and it could only play for several minutes on top volume before shutting down on its own.
Also sound was not the best you could get in its class, but still better than most of its competition. I didn't like the rather tinny sound at lower volumes, apart from that it sounded really powerful and nicely balanced from medium volume upwards.

The new A34 seems to have gained NFC-connectivity and track-skipping buttons. Also design is a bit different now, still not sure if I liked the old one more. But it is still splash resistant, so if you are going to use it near a pool or at the beach, the A34 should safely do the job.

If other than that much changed especially regarding the battery and sound, has to be tested. The A34 seems to be available soon through Amazon.com, but there is no availabilty for Europe yet.

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.

Review: Creative Sound Blaster Roar SR20 - the Swiss knife speaker

I got contacted by Creative lately if I would like to review a new speaker from them, the "Sound Blaster Roar SR20". I started reading a little bit about it and as some first reviews were already online I got pretty excited, as it seemed to be an interesting portable speaker with infinite and even some funny features.

Some videos...

I didn't have lots of time lately doing reviews etc.
Originally I planned to do a review of the Loewe Speaker 2go, the UE Boom etc... but it is really time consuming to prepare the stuff, write about it, and then still make it appear understandable to others, especially in English.

But I was not completely inactive during this time, as I have prepared lots of different comparison videos. If you haven't subscribed to my Youtube channel, here are some recent videos for you:

Bose Soundlink Mini vs. UE Boom:


Bose Soundlink III vs. Loewe Speaker 2go: 


An updated comparison of the Soundmatters FoxL vs Bose Soundlink Mini:

TDK A33 vs Bose Soundlink Mini:

TDK A33 vs Bose Soundlink Mini outdoors:

Bose Soundlink Mini vs. Harman Kardon Esquire:

Music - some tips

What value does the best speaker have without the right music to be played through it?

I am no music expert by any means, but I listen to a lot of different music and I sometimes find interesting artists that are not known that much, but might be interesting for others too.
It is a sad fact that the best artists are rather kept secretly in the background while shit-music is commercially promoted and pushed through media and radio stations...

Here I would like to present some recent albums from this and last year that I think are really worth to be listened to. The style is my own preferred music style, which lies somewhere between Jazz/Funk/Electronica/Groove whatever.

First comes a very fresh release, just released this week: "Resolution 88"!
Tom O'Grady's jazz funk band sounds as if the original Herbie Hancock Headhunters band had rejoined together to record another album. The sound is very retro 70s sounding, but with modern mastering and a very thick bass heavy mix done by another Rhodes-wiz Dan Goldman aka "JD73", who will hopefully also be releasing his new album soon (if you don't know him yet, you have to check out his previous 2 albums).
If you like the old 70s Herbie Hancock fusion sound, you will definitely love Resolution 88.

Another pretty inspiring artist (and British as well) is Carl Hudson with his album "Zoology for Martians". The album is very Fusion-Jazz/Funk oriented too, but with more of a spacy atmospheric sound. Carl Hudson uses vintage keyboard sounds as well as some vocoder effects which makes it also quite reminiscent of Herbie Hancock's own experiments from the late 70s. The drums on this album are played by ex-Jamiroquai member Nick Van Gelder. If you liked the spacy sound of Lonnie Liston Smith or Christian Bruhn's soundtrack for the 80s TV-Cartoon "Captain Future" you will love Carl Hudson, but with a more groovy and more sophisticated sound.

If you are into Brazilian jazz and funk with acts like Azymuth or Marcos Valle, you should have a listen to Lucas Arruda's masterpiece "Sambadi", which is a mix of modern Brazil-grooves, with electronic acid jazz elements. Lucas Arruda played all the instruments by himself which proves him to be one exceptional artist!

This is the first real solo album of Jean Paul Maunick aka "Bluey", the mastermind behind the legendary Acid Jazz/Nu Soul band "Incognito". Leap of Faith is a pretty straight forward Nu Soul, R'n'B album where you can still hear some Incognito elements, but with all vocals parts sung exclusively by Bluey. Some tracks have an 80s vibe to them, while others remind me a bit of 90s Massive Attack. My favorite is "Why did I let you go", a kind of house-track bearing Simon Grey's signature.
Overall a bit short for a full-length album, but definitely worth listening to!

Jeff Lorber started to add "Fusion" to his band name recently like he originally did in the 70s. Jeff Lorber Fusion sound is indeed more groovy and jazzy than some of his previous smoothjazz albums, nevertheless there is still some easy smoothjazz-vibe floating around here and there.
The highlight is definitely the cover version of Frank Zappa's original "King Kong" that was originally played by Jean Luc Ponty who also plays the lead violin part here.

After all those hot and groovy albums, now something to float and chill. Aandra aka Alexandra Hampton shows how sophisticated chill-out and lounge music should sound like. The vibe is soft and a bit jazzy with nice laid back grooves sounding a bit like Naoki Kenji. I am already looking forward to her upcoming release that should be out any minute according to her website.