Speakers


The Braven Ready Elite Can Easily Handle the Great Outdoors

It’s hard to talk about pool parties and camping trips when many of us are still waiting on at least one more winter storm, but spring is coming — and gone are your excuses to stay inside. The Braven Ready Elite is ready for all of your upcoming outdoor adventures; it’s waterproof, shockproof, and it gives 12-hour battery life.




HomePod Is Doomed Because Siri Is Dumb

Apple’s absence from the smart speaker market is being corrected in early February with the release of the HomePod, but it won’t improve their fortunes in that market. It isn’t because HomePod is too expensive, or too late to the market, it’s because HomePod is handicapped by Siri. Sweet, but painfully useless Siri.





JBL Clip 3: Updated and Ready to Play

We are fans of the JBL Clip 2, and when we saw that the company had announced the 3rd edition of their Bluetooth speaker at CES in Vegas, we had to check it out. So what’s changed? And the answer is a whole lot. Taking evolution to a whole new level is the JBL Clip 3, a portable waterproof Bluetooth speaker that doesn’t slack on the features. With ten hours of battery life, an even better audio performance due to JBL tweaking the internals, the Clip 3 also adds a bit of flair with some new colors which will match…


At CES 2018, the Secret Word Is “Digital Assistant”

For those of you who don’t remember “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse”, one of the running gags involved a “secret word”. Basically, if anyone said the “secret word” everyone was supposed to scream. I would suggest playing that with CES 2018 and “digital assistant“, but we’d all lose our voices and our hearing within an hour.



Lenovo’s Smart Display Is What the Echo Show Should Have Been!

Voice assistants on our phones, from Google to Alexa to Siri, have gone from novelties to key parts of our daily workflow. Up until now, with the exception of the Amazon Echo Show, they’ve been stuck solely on phones, tablets, and speakers. Lenovo is smashing everyone’s perception of a digital assistant with the Smart Display, which will quickly become the main hub of your home. The Smart display one-ups the Amazon Echo Show by offering larger screen options, and instead of Alexa, it’s focused on Google Assistant integration.


Como Audio Combines Classic Style with Cutting Edge Features

Como Audio is one of those brands where as soon as you hear the name, you know what’s to follow is some good news. Back at CES 2017, they stunned everyone with their Wi-FI Streaming and Internet device, and a year later the company has more to show us. The first of the two announcements by Como Audio is the Amico, which is a lighter speaker by the brand, that also allows users to listen from room to room anything they want, from podcasts, internet radio, media streams and even FM radio. See that’s what makes Como Audio special because…


SOLIS Debuts Impressive, Gorgeous Speakers

2017 was a big year for SOLIS, who debuted a number of attractive, connected, and stellar-sounding speakers.   From portable, smart Bluetooth speakers to gorgeous vacuum tube amplifiers, SOLIS has every audiophile covered. I had the pleasure of testing two of their offerings in my home and came away impressed. Read on to hear about the SO-3000 and the SO-8000.


JBL Boombox: Say Hello to the Star of Your Next Backyard Party

While at IFA, I had a chance to check out the JBL Boombox, their largest and most powerful portable speaker to date. Available in forest green or black, the Boombox offers a 20,000mAh battery, best in class sound, and up to 24 hours of battery life. Most importantly, it probably sounds better than most home stereo speakers. No, really.



Alexa Is Coming to the Office

Have you been thinking about hiring an office assistant? Amazon has someone they think would be perfect for the job — their virtual voice assistant, Alexa.


KitSound Voice One Smart Speaker: Better Than Any Echo

I purchased the first generation Amazon Echo thinking it was the best Alexa-enabled speaker available — at the time, anyway. While the Echo does all right in a smaller room, the speaker is anemic at best. But I’ve had the opportunity to check out the KitSound Voice One Smart Speaker recently, and I’ve found it to be much better.


JBL Link 20 Review: The Power of Google Meets Portability

For all my grumbling about switching from Android to iOS, it’s really not so bad. The one thing I really missed was Google Assistant, but the JBL Link 20 is doing an excellent job of filling that gap. It’s a portable Bluetooth and WiFi speaker with Google Assistant built-in, so I can take my “Hey, Google” obsession all over the house!


Ultimate Ears MEGABLAST Is a Smartspeaker with Amazing Sound

I’m a huge fan of Ultimate Ears speakers. The UE MEGABOOM was close to perfection. It delivers huge, amazing sound, has great battery life and is waterproof. It is an amazing Bluetooth speaker and one I highly recommend. Now, however, the UE MEGABLAST is here. It improves on the MEGABOOM, which is still a great speaker, in almost every way.