Review: Jawbone Mini Jambox - the better Jambox?

 
We all know that the Jambox is just a piece of overpriced garbage... well the truth is, the original Jambox was nevertheless something like a game-changer for the whole portable speaker market.
Up to then all portable speakers were either small and sounded tinny, or they were too large to really be called "portable".

Review: AudioActiv Vault LS waterproof case for Soundlink Mini

AudioActiv asked me if I was interested in testing their Vault series waterproof speaker case and sent me one for the Soundlink Mini.
I was looking forward to trying it out, because I use the Soundlink Mini quite regularly also near the pool when swimming, so it could be nice to either have the speaker finally protected somehow against splashes, or even take it directly into the water for an even better and more immersive sound experience.

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:

Review: Sony SRS-X3 - The Bose Soundlink Mini killer?

Happy Birthday to my Soundlink Mini, as it will be exactly one year ago to the day that it made me 200 bucks poorer, when I carried it out from the Bose store. As much as I had used it over the time and thought it would be my last portable speaker bringing my search for the perfect portable speaker finally to an end, instead everything seems to have started again from the beginning.

Review: Sony SRS-X5 vs. Denon Envaya - priced small like a Soundlink Mini, sound big like a Soundlink III?

Lately I concentrated rather on more portable speakers, with the hope of maybe finding some better alternative to the Soundlink Mini. Apart from the Pill XL that I have already reviewed here, I haven't tried any larger speakers, because for my own personal purposes they would be just too large to be carried around all the time. The Soundlink Mini is able to produce enough loudness for my needs, and the sound from the Soundlink Mini is full and bassheavy enough to make listening to music really enjoying, thus I didn't feel the need to try out something larger and heavier.

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.

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.