Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First of all let me give you some impressions on sound. Later on some facts about battery life etc... I had tried or still own some of the most popular outdoor/rugged models like UE Megaboom, Braven HD, JBL Xtreme etc. And the Fugoo XL is definitely the most serious sounding unit out of this bunch. The Braven is just a toy, kitchenradio sound, totally overrated, the Megaboom is hardly better, with some clumsy tuning, no real bass, but just a honky and boxy upper bass boost and muffled treble if not aimed directly at the listener with one side, the whole 360° sound claim is only marketing, not sure what the hype is all about. So far I would have definitely picked the JBL Xtreme out of all these, until I have finally heard the Fugoo XL. Both are quite hard to compare, as I would regard the JBL Xtreme rather as a kind boombox, while the Fugoo XL is more a real speaker. It has clean bass response below 50Hz which is impressive, no other speaker in this class manages this, maybe the B&O Beoplay A2 being the only one with such deep response, but the A2 already starts to fall apart at medium levels and reduces bass a lot at high levels, also battery life is disappointing and nowhere close to the claimed 24 hours, you will rather get 2-3 hours at higher levels. The Fugoo XL sounds equally deep and profound as the A2, just more natural overall, both offer 360° sound and it works well on both, although you will indeed get some real stereo separation with the Fugoo XL, as the main drivers aim outwards, while with the A2 you will rather get some front/back separation, because one channel is played to the backside of the speaker. Comparing the Fugoo XL to the JBL Xtreme will make the Xtreme sound really boomy, but obviously this is what everyone is longing for instead of a more natural frequency response. The Xtreme has some pretty hefty bass boost at 75Hz, which is similar to many larger boomboxes like the Aiwa Exos-9 or the Klipsch KMC-3, at medium levels all these manage to sound quite comparable, it is just that the Xtreme has hardly any response below 70Hz anymore, the boost is there and it gives the impression of a really huge speaker, but it simply misses the lowest 2 octaves. The Fugoo XL on the other hand plays all the deep notes more than half an octave lower. It is by far not as boosted overall as the Xtreme, the Fugoo XL has some slight emphasis between 50-60Hz, but it is far not as strong as on the Xtreme, the bass will never give any boomy impression, and if it is too little, you can always push bass with careful positioning. What impressed me was how open and broad the Fugoo XL sounds. The stereo imaging you are getting is best in class for such a kind of speaker, the Fugoo XL really manages to fill a room with sound and it has lots of depth to the sound, while most other speakers sound as if the music was rather "trapped" inside. And the sound is not very directional, you can leave the speaker placed on the ground and it will sound finde with the side-effect that you will enhance its deep bass response even more. The only negative point from my personal opinion is some veiled treble. Don't understand me wrong, the Fugoo XL sounds balanced and the treble extends pretty nicely but it still sounds slightly covered, I am missing this sparkle or brillance many other high-end speakers manage to offer, the Xtreme sounds clearer as well, although it is not a nice smooth treble, but a rather harsh sounding one. If the Fugoo XL gained a little bit of additional sparkle, this would defintitely be the best sounding portable unit. It sounds quite comparable to the great HK Onyx Studio, just being much smaller with much better battery life. But... and here is the letdown, the Fugoo XL is definitely the softest of all these mentioned speakers yet. It is not soft per se, to give you an idea it reaches about the same maximum volume as the old TDK A33 (which is half as small) but the Fugoo XL manages much deeper and powerful bass at the same time, it does reduce bass at higher levels like most other speakers, but still manages to retain most of it and you will even get some of the deeper frequencies at maximum. The Fugoo XL has also an own "outdoor mode" which pushes mids and overall loudness some dB up, but this comes at the cost of lots of distortion. Unfortunately this is not just some slight distortion as usual for most speakers, but really serious crackling and scratching, some other reviewer thought it to be some blown tweeters, I don't think they are blown, just simply pushed too hard. I also think that the speaker is not bi-amped, so what you hear it amp-distortion that affects both the main drivers and the tweeters at the same time, otherwise there would be no reason for the tweeters to distort. For me it sounds like digital clipping, or if the input-gain was too high, probably the amp is pushed too much at high levels and cannot handle the output. The funny thing is that despite the strong bass response, the bass remains pretty solid and rather clean up to maximum volume, it is more the mid-frequencies that is affected, sharp vocals, trumpets, fender rhodes etc, imagine a jazz-track and you hear some upright acoustic bass, it is clean and pounding nicely, then the piano player comes in, any with every note you hear the notes scratch. This occours above 75% with many tracks with both indoor and outdoor mode. The problem is that the Fugoo XL is not the loudest speaker to begin with, now if you have to turn it down several notches to really get clean undistorted sound, you will be at a comparable loudness level of a Bose Soundlink Mini, of course with the Fugoo XL sounding much more punchy and still cleaner, but overall loudness between both will not be that much different, if you start increasing volume, the Fugoo XL will simply distort and start crackling. For home use, the maximum distortionfree loudness should be still OK and satisfying, but outdoors it won't be enough for most who already complain the JBL Xtreme to be not loud enough. Imagine the Fugoo XL being about 30% lower. While I can still hear the bass drum pump from some 10-20 meters away with the Xtreme thanks to the obvious bass-boost, the Fugoo XL starts sounding a bit lost from some distance, you can try turning on "outdoor mode", but this will result in a harsh distorted sound which pushes bass more to the background at the same time. I think this 75Hz bass hump of the JBL Xtreme was chosen on purpose, this is simply a frequency which really manages to come through outdoors well and can be still heard from some distance, while lower frequencies rather tend to get lost outdoors. Hearing 50Hz outdoors with all the ambient noise around would need a very strong boost and loudness. To cut the long story short, if you want some party kind of speaker to be taken outdoors etc, even the JBL Xtreme might probably be disappointing for some, then the Fugoo XL is definitely not for you. But if you can keep volume down to reasonable levels, the Fugoo XL is a pretty decent sounding speaker and especially indoors I would choose it over the JBL Xtreme anytime. The Xtreme starts to sound quite boomy in small rooms, especially when placed closer to walls or corners, while thanks to the much lower response of the Fugoo XL, you will rather get this extra oomph with placing it in a corner etc, it also sounds great in small rooms and great in larger rooms as well. Overall handling of the Fugoo XL is perfect. I already liked the small Fugoo a lot and the big one feels exaclty the same just being bigger. A pity the carrying straps are not included, as I really like them, but attaching the hand strap is not accomplished as quickly as attaching the strap of the JBL Xtreme. Once mounted, you will probably leave the strap on whole the time as mounting is a bit of a hassle. So far Fugoo does not support stereo pairing with another unit yet (although rumors say that it will come with an update) nor multipairing with several devices at once, but switching between different devices works pretty well by simply pressing the Bluetooth button twice, the first buttom press will interrupt the first connection and with the second button press the speaker will try connecting to the next device already paired. Connection is also very stable and has a nice range. In reality the Fugoo XL is the better outdoor speaker which sounds better indoor, while the JBL Xtreme thanks to its exposed passive radiators is defintitely less rugged but in my opinion the more convincing speaker outdoors especially when high loudness is really desired, it will give you that extra punch that the Fugoo XL is simply missing at high levels, but indoors on the other hand this punch will be too much most of the time. I couldn't test battery life fully yet, but I tested it at maximum volume. Many companies claim 24 hours for their speakers, but with the speakers playing close to maximum they won't even reach 1-2 hours (B&O is famous for their wacky claims). At maximum and indoor mode I got 6:20 out of the Fugoo XL. To bring this into some relation: The UE Megaboom will play for 3:20 at maximum, the JBL Xtreme 5:15, the RIVA Turbo X 6:00. So it is not classleading performance, but even 6:20 at maximum volume is more than enough and better than most competition. I think both Fugoo XL and JBL Xtreme are really great units and both are not perfect, but both complement each other pretty well and with these wonderful choices I wouldn't even consider any of the other UE or Braven junk at all.