![]() Player Type: The most premium type is a component player that fits into a larger system and won’t come with built-in speakers. So, before you buy, here are a couple of things to keep in mind: You don’t want to pick up a new player only to realise you can’t connect it to your speakers or that it needs batteries. Wave goodbye to shuffle and listen to your favourite songs the way the musicians intended. They’re affordable, support artists more than mere pennies-per-play on streaming, sound even better than records (and won’t skip) and come in collectable cases with stunning artwork and lyric booklets. The smaller JBL PartyBox Encore Essential costs less, sounds similar (although with about 4 dB less maximum volume), and weighs only 16.1 pounds, so it’s easier to carry around, but it has only a microphone input and no guitar input (although plugging a guitar into that input does work).There are a whole host of arguments for why you should get back into CDs instead of record players or MP3 players. The PartyBox 110 is splash resistant (with an IPX4 rating), and JBL’s app allows adjustment of the LED lighting and access to a karaoke function and DJ sound effects, such as an air horn and applause. (We cleared more than $100 busking with it on a downtown street!) It is less costly than the Hyperboom, but it doesn’t sound quite as smooth through the whole audio range. Input jacks and level controls for a guitar and microphone make this speaker suitable for casual DJing and musical performances, too. Although it maxed out at 1.1 decibels less volume than the Hyperboom, it sounded fuller and a little clearer when cranked. If you want yard-filling volume with plenty of bass: The JBL PartyBox 110 plays loud and sounds as smooth and refined as many of the best wireless speakers-but at 23.8 pounds and 22.75 inches high, it’s a lot to lug. (You can read more about our testing procedures in this article.) At the end of each speaker’s test run, I crank it full blast and play DJ Snake and Audrey Nuna’s “Damn Right” (video) to see how well the speaker tolerates high volume and strong, deep bass. Because of the widely varying performance of the speakers, their coarse volume-control steps, and the unpredictable actions of the volume limiters in some speakers, it’s impossible for me to match the levels accurately, but in most cases I’m able to get them within ☐.3 dB. For the ultra-compact and small speakers, that level is 74 dB at 1 meter it’s 78 dB and 85 dB for the medium and large speakers, respectively. I try to set the volume within a particular group to the same level, using a shaped-noise channel-balancing test tone recorded from a Dolby Digital receiver. To prepare for our brand-concealed panel testing, I conceal the speakers behind black fabric and divide them into four groups: ultra-compact, small, medium, and large. Using the results of these tests, I then narrow the group of contestants to the models that have a real chance to impress our listening panel, in addition to all of our past picks. We don’t consider any of these features essential, but they can be convenient add-ons. These extras include speakerphone capability, multi-speaker pairing (the ability to play the same material through two Bluetooth speakers at once), built-in lighting, and even integrated bottle openers. Special features: Bluetooth speakers offer all sorts of features beyond the ability to play audio from Bluetooth-sourced devices.Playback controls: Because you can control the playback from your Bluetooth source device (usually a phone or tablet), we don’t require the speaker itself to have playback controls, but it’s a convenient perk.Bluetooth speakers are often available for as little as $5, but we’ve never found such an inexpensive model to sound good enough to bother using-especially when the speakers built into today’s better phones can play loud enough for light listening. Price: Even though we would like to test every type of portable Bluetooth speaker, we set a bottom price of $15.Although we don’t limit our testing to waterproof speakers, we do give preference in our judging to speakers with an Ingress Protection (IP) rating, which tells you exactly how waterproof and dustproof a speaker is. Ruggedness and waterproof design: We give priority to speakers that are built to survive the knocks and bumps of travel.For our top pick, we prioritize speakers that are compact and easy to toss into a backpack, beach bag, or suitcase-yet still produce great sound. Portability and battery life: Although any Bluetooth speaker can be lugged around, we focus on models that have rechargeable batteries and are designed to take a trip to the beach or the park with no hassle.
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