Portable Bluetooth players

[Werd]

Finding myself drawn into bluetooth streaming. Went on a fishing trip awhile back and they were using these little Bluetooth players. They were pretty good..

I have to hand it to Bose on their SoundLink111 and mini soundlink. I had the mini for a week and went tried the Soundlink 111.  I kept the soundlink 111 but not because the Mini wasn't good. The Mini makes it more portable and it kind of wins over the Soundlink111 for that. But the Soundlink111 is better sonically. Better than all of them that I've heard. They all do one thing really good and that's keep the beats. They got a away of keeping you listening.

[Bob in St. Louis]

I was on "boys weekend out" last weekend, and several of the guys had them. Was kind of neat having a little "shoot-out" among the different brands.

Funny thing, when I got home my wife told me her Bluetooth device died and wanted me to pick her out a new one. Was an easy choice for me as I had just been blown away by one in particular.
It's even equipped with passive radiators!
Also has a port to charge your cel phone.

On case anybody is interested, it's a > JBL "Charge 2" <.
Bought it last week for $114, but is now listed at $149. 

[Werd]

The JBL is nice.  They got it at Costco for $99 bucks and that's Canadian. They also have an Altec for $49 that looks not bad at all. Sounded ok but you have to get it home to hear it.

Stay away from Bluetooth players that have voice dialing. You want one that does music only, They get buggy with phone options. I got a Jambox for work that sounds good but it gets in a loop with the voice dialing. Requires pairing and kind of an inconvenience.

[richidoo]

Reviews say there is audible distortion at low volume settings (amazon cust. reviews) and on tracks with loud bass content (PC Mag)

So if I wanted to play something like, err, I don't know, maybe something like, uhhhh, like, Lady Gaga, "Born This Way" (in honor of you, Bob) then it would distort from the bass clipping the amplifiers and when I turn it down it will distortion from the low bit DSP throwing away significant bits for volume attenuation. But one Amazon reviewer said that it sounds noticably better than the BOSE SoundLink3.

The cool thing here is that this is a consumer product, meant to enable people to listen to their "phone music" without headphones, and it is a growing, popular product category as evidenced by the wide variety of sizes and brands, and the custom NFL logos available on the BOSE models. That the people and the reviews are commenting primarily on the sound quality of these things, and willing to pay $300 for music speakers is a good sign for our hobby. Maybe we have crossed the disposable music nadir?  People actually want to hear music and willing to pay to make the experience better?

[Bob in St. Louis]

That is a good thing, I've been thinking the same thing in fact.
I have noticed more folks in my waiting room with headphones instead of earbuds. Another sign that quality is beginning to matter more.

As far as the "Gaga distortion", I think there was a Star Trek episode about that. 

[Werd]

Using Tidal Via my IPad to the Bluetooth.  I use it in my Backyard

[Werd]

Reviews say there is audible distortion at low volume settings (amazon cust. reviews) and on tracks with loud bass content (PC Mag)

So if I wanted to play something like, err, I don't know, maybe something like, uhhhh, like, Lady Gaga, "Born This Way" (in honor of you, Bob) then it would distort from the bass clipping the amplifiers and when I turn it down it will distortion from the low bit DSP throwing away significant bits for volume attenuation. But one Amazon reviewer said that it sounds noticably better than the BOSE SoundLink3.

The cool thing here is that this is a consumer product, meant to enable people to listen to their "phone music" without headphones, and it is a growing, popular product category as evidenced by the wide variety of sizes and brands, and the custom NFL logos available on the BOSE models. That the people and the reviews are commenting primarily on the sound quality of these things, and willing to pay $300 for music speakers is a good sign for our hobby. Maybe we have crossed the disposable music nadir?  People actually want to hear music and willing to pay to make the experience better?

SoundLink 3 is better by a long shot.  The sleeve you can buy for it makes it sound better.