Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wanted to like this speaker. I really, really wanted to. I was very excited for it when I saw it at CES, and I preordered on Amazon as soon as it was available. Got it on the very first day (March 21). I was drawn in by the clever design, the rugged case, the great battery, waterproofness, but most of all, for the promised 95 dB 360-deg sound. It is an amazingly designed, beautifully built, righteously rugged speaker with unparalleled battery life. And when you're listening to something on your own, it does sound very good. However, the thing that I was most excited for, the promised 95 dB volume, failed to deliver *big time*. This speaker is, simply put, far too quiet. It would never pump out enough music for even a small room full of a dozen people. I don't want a rugged bluetooth speaker just for empty hotel rooms; I want it for parks, beaches, poolsides, and tailgates. And the Fugoo just does not have the oomph for these activities. And at $230, I really did expect more for my money. I ended up purchasing the Logitech UE Boom instead, for ~$170, and am much happier. While the battery life is not rated as high, it is more than enough for a full day's listening; just as rugged; sounds just as good; is just as portable; but gets far, far louder, and also has a cool feature where you can connect two phones simultaneously, or pair two if you want to really rock the party. Don't get me wrong, the Fugoo is a nice speaker. But at the end of the day, it's the volume of the single unit that was the deal-breaker for me. At this price point, and given what they promised specs-wise, I needed just more. Update 6/9/14: I should add that I've tested a number of different rugged speakers (including offerings from Bose and Jambox), and own 7: the Fugoo Tough, the Logitech UE Boom, the Philips Shoqbox, a Braven model (Jambox size), a no-brand shower speaker, and two different Ryobi jobsite radios (with bluetooth added via 3rd party dongle). At a distance of several feet, the Fugoo is quieter than all the other speakers I own except the no-brand shower speaker. (However, one caveat is that of those, only the UE Boom and the Fugoo have 360-degree sound, which is a feature that I value but which decreases volume at a distance.) Update 5/24/2016: For whatever reason, this review is still getting a lot of traction. I no longer own this speaker, but I have read a few things about it in recent times. Many articles mention how much the latest firmware update helps with the volume (at the expense of battery life, of course). So if you are interested in the speaker but are worried about volume, I would encourage you to find someone who has the latest firmware update and see if it works for you. Personally, for the last year or so, I have been turning to the UE MEGABOOM Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, Charcoal Black (984-000436) for my Bay to Breakers / beach party / river float tunes. Very durable, long lasting, and LOUD, right out of the box.