Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Portable Speakers

I picked up a few portable speakers. Both can be powered by batteries or the included AC Adapter. They are quite handy to use around the house or when you go camping.

left to right: Logitech mm28, Sansa e280, JBL On Tour


Logitech mm28 Portable Speaker




- Picked this up for a great price of $14 shipped from buy.com a while back when they were clearing them out.
- A little bit larger than the JBL but still very portable and light.
- I really like the design: the cover flips over to become the stand, the 1/8" mini audio jack stores nicely on the back. The cord is a tad short though.
- Powered by 4XAA batteries or the included AC adapter.
- Licensed flat panel speaker technology from NXT.
- Sounds great for the size. I thought mid and highs were nice and clear. There was a surprising amount of base considering the size. It does tend to distort at higher volume levels but still manages to produce a good amount of sound below that threshold.
- Just a single power switch. You control volume on the audio source device.
- Auto powers off if it doesn't detect any sound for a few minutes.

Overall it's an incredible value especially if you can find it at around this price.
Highly recommended!!!!

JBL On Tour Portable Speaker System








- Picked it up for $40 from amazon when it was on sale.
- Very stylish. I like the way it looks.
- Very small.
- It comes with a travel bag. The audio cord is separate. There's no nice place to store it. You just sort of wind it up and cram it into the bag.
- Slidding the cover up converts it into a stand. It's a bit odd how the speaker points more up than toward you. There are nice rubber grip feet on the back.
- Runs on 4XAAA batteries or the included AC adapter.
- Sound isn't too bad for the extremely small size. The highs are very clear. The mids aren't bad but there is hardly any bass. I thought the logitech sounded quite a bit better.
- Gets plenty loud before distorting for its size.
- Has power and volume buttons.
- Auto power off when you close the lid or when it doesn't sense any sound for a while.
- Resumes with your previous audio level.
- Power and audio inputs are a bit awkwardly located.

Overall it's not bad but I like the Logitech one better. If you really need ultra portable I guess this isn't bad but the Logitech is hands down the better value.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

holy crap! those logitech ones are $85 right now at Amazon, you got a hell of deal!