Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you're like me, you've noticed a deluge of bluetooth speakers hitting the stores. I've tried to listen to almost everyone of them, and I noticed a weird phenomenon. The best speakers I've tested aren't from the big companies like Beats, Jawbone, or Bose. The best bluetooth speakers are from relatively little-known companies with diminutive marketing budgets. The best bluetooth speakers I've tested are from companies like UE(Ultimate Ears), House of Marley, and Sony--Sony being the only large company. I've owned thousands of TDK products in my life--all of them being storage media (eg. Cr02 blank cassettes, CD-R and DVD-R). I've never owned or thought to own an electronics product created by TDK. Considering the trend, then this should be the best bluetooth speaker I've ever tested. Let's find out. The first thing I noticed was just how small this speaker is. It's a tad smaller than the Bose Soundlink III. The second thing I noticed was how heavy this speaker is. A lot of industrial engineering has been put to good use here. The weight is very evenly distributed side-to-side and top-to-bottom. This speaker feels like a high quality product the second you hold it. Majority of the surface of the speaker is a thick metal grill that wraps around the front and back of the speakers. The remainder of the speaker is a combination of piano-black edging and firm silicon. The silicon is important for sealing the speaker from water. This is a weather resistant speaker. It's not rated for submersion, but it can handle the incidental raindrops and poolside splash. On the top, there is a very efficient button-array. There are the requisite bluetooth, power, and volume buttons. Additionally, there is a phone button which makes answering calls very convenient. The speaker performs very well as a speakerphone. There are next and previous track buttons, as well as a pause/play button. Pretty much every button you will need and nothing else. This speaker additionally support NFC for easy syncing. Just tap the back of your phone on the NFC label, and your phone or portable music player will link up with the speaker. On the side, there is a usb (power only) port for charging devices. It's not the 2.0 amps that I'd prefer, but it provides a serviceable 1.0 amps of current. This isn't a gig though because 1 amp is plenty enough to maintain your phone's charge while streaming media. There is also a 3.5mm jack for those who want to use a cable for connecting to this speaker. Before I go into the sound quality, I wanted to cover a couple of other quick specifications. The first is that this speaker only supports bluetooth 2.1. I'd prefer bluetooth 4.0 for the energy efficiency or bluetooth 3.0 for the larger bandwidth, but the implementation of bluetooth 2.1 does not adversely effect the performance of this speaker--in terms of both sound and battery life. This speaker lasts about 8 hours on battery, and the volume is not throttled down when running on battery like many other devices I've tested. To sum up the looks and specs, this speaker has pretty much everything you need and nothing you don't in a very small and high-quality package. The sound is where this speaker just floored me. First off, this speaker is LOUD, and as I mentioned during my rundown of the specs, the volume does not throttle on battery. The speaker is ridiculously loud whether on battery or plugged into an outlet. Not only is this speaker ridiculously loud, but the sound also travels. Not just the highs or just the lows, but the entire sound spectrum travels, so if you are in a large open area, this speaker will fill the space with ease. Although not truly omni-directional, this speaker does provide good sound all around the speaker. This speaker uses three separate drivers. Two subwoofers for the lows, and one multi-gradient driver for the mids and highs. The two bass exhausts are located on the back-side of the speaker. So now that I've covered the quantity of sound, let's examine the quality of sound. Prior to getting my hands on the TDK TREK, my three favorite bluetooth speakers were the UE Boom, House of Marley Get Together, and the Sony SRSX7. I am not a huge fan of Bose, Jawbone or Beats speakers. Bose is the best of these overpriced marketing baubles, and the Soundlink III is a vast improvement over the Soundlink II, but I find my three favorites to far exceed the Bose speakers in value and in performance. I won't even go into what I think of Jawbone and Beats. So where does this TDK fit in? Well, I'm happy to report that this is, in my opinion, the new king of sound in the bluetooth speaker market. Everything is there: the highs are crystal, the mids are rich, and the bass is thumping. This speaker is beautifully tuned, and the sound integrity is maintained at all volumes. No distortion was audible even at maximum volume. Every song I throw at it sounds good--classic rock, classical, modern rock, pop, hip-hop. It really is remarkable how such a rich and powerful sound emanates from such a small device. Simply sublime. So let's wrap this up. We have here a speaker that lasts 8 hours on battery, is weatherproof, has all the necessary features, sounds better than any bluetooth speaker out there, and comes in a slick ultra-portable form factor. What am I forgetting? Oh yeah, and it's currently selling for half the price of its more expensive rivals. If you are even thinking about buying a bluetooth speaker, give this a go. With this speaker, you can have your cake and eat it too.