Recently I was on the hunt for a bluetooth speaker that fulfills three basic requirements: one, that it is truly portable, meaning it has an internal battery and is not reliant on a power cord; two, that it has powerful and accurate sound without that cheap artificial speaker sound; and three, that it looks great and uses renewable materials like wood or bamboo. There are actually not many products on the market that meet these criteria; most are either too small and mono-sounding or too large and require a power supply. While the Reveal has the solar feature which makes it even more portable and usable on things like camping trips, the HoM speaker just looked higher quality and gave me the impression that it would have superior sound characteristics.
The bamboo is stained a rich, reddish color, which looks great set against the black speaker cones. The strip of fabric that sits in between the front and rear bamboo surfaces is a really nice contrasting material and makes the speaker easier to grip. The main reason most people buy speakers is because of sound quality, and the Get Together doesn’t disappoint here either.
Also, there is plenty of juice available – this thing can get incredibly loud through a combination of your bluetooth volume and its own internal amp, but it maintains its clarity throughout.
House of Marley Get Together Duo Bluetooth speakers review
House of Marley has managed an impressive feat with its Get Together Duo speakers, which deliver tight, punchy sound in an earthy, eye-catching package for a surprisingly affordable sticker price. Finally, while the battery-powered right speaker is portable, its exposed wood and drivers look like they could be easily damaged by moisture, drops, or (heaven forbid) pokes from stray items in a backpack.
With their boxy shape and lack of a handle, the speakers can be a bit awkward to carry around, and while you can pick each one up with a single hand, you probably wouldn’t want to hold them that way for long.
Ben Patterson/IDG I’d be fine with taking the portable right Get Together Duo speaker for a sunny backyard BBQ, but I’d be afraid for its exposed wood and drivers out in the rain.
Ben Patterson/IDG The right speaker of my Get Together Duo review unit arrived with a small nick in the top-front corner of the (otherwise handsome) bamboo cabinet. That means you’ll have to settle for the default Bluetooth SBC codec, which is a slight step down from AAC in terms of audio quality but requires far less computational power, making it a better fit for many Android phones with low-power energy profiles. Ben Patterson/IDG The portable right-hand Get Togerher Duo comes equipped with a USB-C charging port, a 3.5mm auxillary audio jack, and left and right RCA-style inputs. For Janelle Monáe’s “Make Me Feel,” the speakers precisely delivered the opening clicks and clucks before jumping into the track’s cool, pleasingly fizzy funk.
Switching over to The Boss, the Get Together Duos deftly handled Bruce Springsteen’s spare vocals and acoustic guitar strums on “The Ghost of Tom Joad” while warming up for the glowing notes from the synthesizers. I also liked the atmospherics and timbre of Larissa Devoda’s performance of Maurice Ravel’s solo piano words for the Centaur label, as well as the thrilling sweep of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony as conducted by Carlos Kleiber for Deutsche Grammophon.
The Get Together Duo retains its tight, punchy sound when listening to just the portable right speaker, with plenty of details and nuance while (of course) losing the wider soundstage. But while we’d balk at taking the portable right speaker out in the rain or mud, we’d certainly bring its crisp, clean sound along for a sunny backyard barbecue, and as a pair, the Get Together Duo makes for a perfect companion for a turntable.
The best Bluetooth speakers in 2021
The few noteworthy ones prove to be worth the investment and offer sound quality on par with the best headphones, long battery life, and a practical design that is either portable friendly or sits handsomely on your coffee table. With the holidays on the horizon, expect to see some great Black Friday deals announced over the coming weeks, and across every major audio category.
If the budget allows, then consider dropping $399 on the Sonos Move, the brand’s first portable speaker with both WiFi and Bluetooth, and lots of features to boot.
UE Megaboom 3 The best Bluetooth speaker overall Specifications Size and Weight: 8.9 x 3.4 x 3.4 inches, 2 pounds Battery Life (Rated): 20 hours Water Resistance: Yes Maximum Sound Level: 90db Voice Controls: No TODAY’S BEST DEALS Prime View at Amazon View at Dell View at Walmart 23 Amazon customer reviews ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Reasons to buy + Big bass and full vocals + Good battery life + Can pair with older Megaboom and Boom models for stereo sound Reasons to avoid – Big and heavy for a portable – No speakerphone
Thanks to its excellent sound quality, long battery life and travel-ready ruggedness, the UE Megaboom 3 is the best Bluetooth speaker you can buy right now. This big, bold portable speaker pumps out rich 360-degree sound complete with crisp highs and satisfying low-end, and maxes out at 100 decibels of noise.
The Megaboom 3 is on the bigger side compared to other portable speakers, and unlike many of its competitors, it doesn’t have Alexa or Google Assistant support, or any other smart features. For under $50, this tiny powerhouse delivers loud, well-balanced sound within an IPX7-rated design that can survive water, dust and snow.
The speaker lasts a whopping 24 hours, thanks to Anker’s best-in-class battery technology, and the Soundcore 2’s dual neodymium drivers ensure you’ll get powerful sound in any setting. The Soundcore’s compact, 6.5 x 2.1 x 1.77-inch design makes this speaker perfect for tossing into your bag for a quick road trip, and it comes in vibrant blue and red color schemes in addition to the standard slick black. Sonos Roam The best Bluetooth speaker with Wi-Fi smarts Specifications Size and Weight: 6.6 x 2.4 x 2.4 inches, 15 ounces Battery Life (Rated): 10 hours Water Resistance: Yes (IP67 rated) Voice Controls: Yes (Alexa and Google Assistant) TODAY’S BEST DEALS View at Crutchfield View at Walmart Prime View at Amazon Reasons to buy + Lightweight + Extensive connectivity + Auto TruePlay sound tuning Reasons to avoid – No Bluetooth multipoint – Middling battery life It’s much more portable and more affordable than the Move, though, and its Auto TruePlay feature automatically adjusts the sound to suit its surroundings, whether you’re listening in a noisy, urban park or a quaint, airy campground.
This tiny speaker delivers huge sound within a small 4-inch cylinder, complete with throbbing bass, balanced midtones and crisp vocals. It can survive being dunked in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes and is dust-resistant, making it perfect for your next trip to the pool, beach or park.
Other key features include an impressive 13-hour battery life and the ability to pair two Wonderbooms together for immersive stereo sound.
The UE Hyperboom is the best Bluetooth speaker for large gatherings, thanks to its massive size and big, booming audio output.
Pair that with seamless Bluetooth connectivity and plenty of volume, and you have the ultimate speaker for filling a big area with great sound. LG XBoom Go PL7 The best Bluetooth speaker for sheer style Specifications Size and Weight: 9.7 x 3.9 x 3.9 inches, 3.2 pounds Battery Life (Rated): 24 hours Water Resistance: IPX5 Voice Controls: No TODAY’S BEST DEALS Prime View at Amazon View at BHPhoto Prime View at Amazon Reasons to buy + Crisp treble and defined bass + Good battery life + LED lights add to the fun Reasons to avoid – No integrated voice assistant – Few sound adjustments available
Every Bluetooth speaker on this list delivers great sound and functionality, but only the LG XBoom Go PL7 does it while boasting awesome LED lights. The XBoom’s appropriately booming sound holds its own against the best Bluetooth speakers in this price range, delivering balanced bass and satisfying treble.
Sonos Move The best high-end Bluetooth speaker for outdoors Specifications Size and Weight: 9.4 x 6.3 x 5 inches, 6.6 pounds Battery Life (Rated): 10 hours Water Resistance: Yes (IP56 rated for splashes) Voice Controls: Yes (Alexa and Google Assistant) TODAY’S BEST DEALS View at Crutchfield Prime View at Amazon View at Walmart 689 Amazon customer reviews ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Reasons to buy + Superb audio quality + Built-in Automatic TruePlay technology + Easy Wi-Fi-to-Bluetooth connection conversion Reasons to avoid – Pricey – No smart features in Bluetooth mode Alexa and Google Assistant support allow you to do anything from check the weather to control your smart home, and the Move’s Auto TruePlay automatically tunes the speaker’s audio output for wherever you’re listening, whether you’re having a rooftop party or rocking out in your bedroom. V-Moda Remix The best Bluetooth speaker for bass heads Specifications Size and Weight: 8.1 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches, 1.9 pounds Battery Life (Rated): 10 hours Water Resistance: No Voice Controls: No TODAY’S BEST DEALS Prime View at Amazon View at Walmart View at Musician’s Friend 139 Amazon customer reviews ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Reasons to buy + Loud, balanced audio with booming bass + Stunning design + Lots of customization options + Daisy-chain multiple speakers Reasons to avoid – A bit expensive – No multi-room solution The base model looks slick in aluminum or vegan leather, while, people with bottomless budgets and a penchant for style can opt for steel or platinum finishes (the later of which will run you well over $300,000).
Most importantly, the Remix sounds great, offering plenty of bass as well as a built-in headphone amp for enhancing the audio of your favorite set of cans. The Remix’s 10-hour battery life certainly makes this speaker worthy of longer jam sessions, and its trusty microphone allows for crisp call quality whether you’re set up inside your house or out.
Marshall Stanmore II Voice A classy Alexa speaker with great sound Specifications Size and Weight: 7.7 by 13.8 by 7.3 inches, 10.7 pounds Battery Life (Rated): None Water Resistance: No Voice Controls: Yes TODAY’S BEST DEALS View at Amazon View at Best Buy View at Verishop 40 Amazon customer reviews ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Reasons to buy + Great looks + Brilliant big sound + Easy to set up Reasons to avoid – Chunky and heavy – No battery option The Marshall Stanmore II Voice packs some fun features in a nostalgic design that emulates the brand’s classic amp look.
Tribit StormBox Micro The best Bluetooth speaker that’s both cheap and waterproof Specifications Size and Weight: 3.9 x 3.9 x 1.4-inch, 8 ounces Battery Life (Rated): 8 hours Water Resistance: Yes (IP67) Voice Controls: No TODAY’S BEST DEALS View at Walmart Prime View at Amazon Prime View at Amazon Reasons to buy + Small and lightweight + Good bass for a small speaker + Water resistant Reasons to avoid – No app – Limited battery life The speaker has a plastic strap that makes it easy to attach to a backpack or bike, an IP67 water-resistant rating, so it’s fully protected against dust and dirt as well as submersion in water. While a number of wired speakers like the Amazon Echo provide excellent Bluetooth listening, you can’t bring them outside your kitchen or living room. These smart features will not work beyond your home’s Wi-Fi, so opt for a non-smart Bluetooth speaker for the beach or other outdoorsy locales.
House of Marley Get Together Duo Bluetooth speakers review
House of Marley has managed an impressive feat with its Get Together Duo speakers, which deliver tight, punchy sound in an earthy, eye-catching package for a surprisingly affordable sticker price. Finally, while the battery-powered right speaker is portable, its exposed wood and drivers look like they could be easily damaged by moisture, drops, or (heaven forbid) pokes from stray items in a backpack. With their boxy shape and lack of a handle, the speakers can be a bit awkward to carry around, and while you can pick each one up with a single hand, you probably wouldn’t want to hold them that way for long. Ben Patterson/IDG I’d be fine with taking the portable right Get Together Duo speaker for a sunny backyard BBQ, but I’d be afraid for its exposed wood and drivers out in the rain.
Ben Patterson/IDG The right speaker of my Get Together Duo review unit arrived with a small nick in the top-front corner of the (otherwise handsome) bamboo cabinet. That means you’ll have to settle for the default Bluetooth SBC codec, which is a slight step down from AAC in terms of audio quality but requires far less computational power, making it a better fit for many Android phones with low-power energy profiles. Ben Patterson/IDG The portable right-hand Get Togerher Duo comes equipped with a USB-C charging port, a 3.5mm auxillary audio jack, and left and right RCA-style inputs. For Janelle Monáe’s “Make Me Feel,” the speakers precisely delivered the opening clicks and clucks before jumping into the track’s cool, pleasingly fizzy funk.
Switching over to The Boss, the Get Together Duos deftly handled Bruce Springsteen’s spare vocals and acoustic guitar strums on “The Ghost of Tom Joad” while warming up for the glowing notes from the synthesizers. I also liked the atmospherics and timbre of Larissa Devoda’s performance of Maurice Ravel’s solo piano words for the Centaur label, as well as the thrilling sweep of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony as conducted by Carlos Kleiber for Deutsche Grammophon.
The Get Together Duo retains its tight, punchy sound when listening to just the portable right speaker, with plenty of details and nuance while (of course) losing the wider soundstage. But while we’d balk at taking the portable right speaker out in the rain or mud, we’d certainly bring its crisp, clean sound along for a sunny backyard barbecue, and as a pair, the Get Together Duo makes for a perfect companion for a turntable.
Customer Reviews: The House of Marley Get Together Mini Portable Bluetooth Speaker Signature Black EM-JA013-SB-BBY
The sound is great despite the lack of sub bass with its passive radiator at the back. Anyone within a 10 mile distance will hear this speak announce its every move and there’s nothing you can do about it. You CAN get around it announcing that it is turning off with a bit of a button cheat code so there’s that. If you look around the internet you’ll see a common theme in that it breaks pretty easily, leaving you to either tape a cable in just the right position or force you to open the speaker up entirely and solder a cable on yourself…just know that you’ll void any warranty.
If you have a 3.5mm cable to plug into the back, use that instead…avoid sending music to this via bluetooth.
3.5” Woofer & 1 Tweeters, 30m Wireless Range, 8 hour Playtime,Built In Battery, Sustainably Crafted, EM-JA006MI Midnight
Recently I was on the hunt for a bluetooth speaker that fulfills three basic requirements: one, that it is truly portable, meaning it has an internal battery and is not reliant on a power cord; two, that it has powerful and accurate sound without that cheap artificial speaker sound; and three, that it looks great and uses renewable materials like wood or bamboo. There are actually not many products on the market that meet these criteria; most are either too small and mono-sounding or too large and require a power supply.
While the Reveal has the solar feature which makes it even more portable and usable on things like camping trips, the HoM speaker just looked higher quality and gave me the impression that it would have superior sound characteristics. The bamboo is stained a rich, reddish color, which looks great set against the black speaker cones. The strip of fabric that sits in between the front and rear bamboo surfaces is a really nice contrasting material and makes the speaker easier to grip. The main reason most people buy speakers is because of sound quality, and the Get Together doesn’t disappoint here either.
Also, there is plenty of juice available – this thing can get incredibly loud through a combination of your bluetooth volume and its own internal amp, but it maintains its clarity throughout.
House of Marley Get Together Duo Review
House of Marley’s latest eco-friendly audio offering is a pair of computer speakers designed for bookshelves and living rooms—although one is battery powered so you can also pick it up and take it with you on the go. As we often see with the company’s gear, the Get Together Duo’s ($149.99 for the pair) design is handsome, with striking bamboo front panels housing the tweeters and woofers. In addition to Bluetooth, they can be connected to a turntable (House of Marley happens to make one that matches the design) or other stereo gear with RCA outputs, and there’s also an aux input for wired playback from any standard headphone jack. Across the top panels, each speaker has an identical set of controls, including individual buttons for power, Bluetooth pairing, plus, and minus.
House of Marley estimates its battery life to be roughly 20 hours on a full charge, but your results will vary with your volume levels. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the speakers deliver a solid sense of bass depth at low and moderate volumes.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives an ideal amount of high-mid presence, allowing its attack to retain its punchiness in the mix. The vinyl crackle and hiss that’s usually relegated to background status also takes a step forward here, and the vocals are delivered with solid clarity, but there’s some added sibilance in the mix.
The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are more implied than delivered, and the drum loop only gets a little bit of added heft from the woofers.
There are lots of things to like about House of Marley’s Get Together Duo, including a handsome design, true stereo separation, and the fact that one of the speakers can be picked up and taken with you on the go. If you want attractive office speakers or a nice pair for the living room, the Get Together Duo sounds great at moderate volumes on certain genres. The $200 Audioengine A1 speakers and the $40 Creative Pebble Plus represent very different prices and approaches to computer audio, but both offer a fuller sound signature than the Get Together Duo.
House of Marley Get Together Review – Not Your Usual Bluetooth Speaker
When House Of Marley designed Get Together, they followed the standard format of Bluetooth speakers but added a few twists of their own. The front baffle is made bamboo and features a stained finish that is only interrupted by exposed transducers.
Rest of the speaker body is also made of bamboo but is covered with REWIND cotton fabric. It is very clear that House Of Marley aimed to make this speaker as eco-friendly as possible by using only the easily renewable organic materials. Speaking of play time, Get Together comes with an auto power off feature that turns the speaker off after some 5 minutes of idling. The way highs meet the mid-range is fairly natural, giving you a great sound stage. The unit offers some 16 Watts in total, but cranking up the volume gives you an impression that it packs more juice than that. Even though its size is a limiting factor when it comes to portability, House Of Marley’s Get Together is a great outdoors speaker.
Unique design combined with impressive performance really give this House Of Marley speaker lots of potential.
House of Marley Get Together Speaker Review: Great Audio with a Pretty Face
Toughened glass and polished metal are the staples of modern design, but organic materials are starting to make a comeback. The company’s portable Get Together speaker is predominantly decked out with sustainably-sourced bamboo, giving it a slightly retro, weather-beaten look – but does it manage to avoid sounding rustic? The stained bamboo façade on the front and rear appeals to me as a lover of all things natural, and it is thick enough to avoid replicating the appearance of a tacky veneer. Everywhere that isn’t bamboo is covered with House of Marley’s REWIND grey fabric, which both adds to the retro feel and further enhances this speaker’s planet-friendliness, given that it is made from reclaimed hemp, organic cotton and recycled plastic bottles.
Just as unusually, House of Marley has chosen not to use the standard metal mesh over the speaker apertures, instead opting for a drum skin-like material for a handsome smooth look. Bluetooth pairing is a simple one-button process, and the USB port also doubles as a charging station for any devices attached. Judging by the sound of the Get Together, I would say that the reinvestment has gone in to good quality audio components, with House of Marley packing two 3.5″ woofers in with two 1″ tweeters. Meanwhile, the treble is loud but not overly harsh, and the mid-range holds its own somewhere in the middle, with clarity still being the most prominent attribute, even when potentially messy cymbals provide a tricky test.
It comes close to being a tad flashy, and not everyone will appreciate the slightly seventies sofa-style grey fabric; but in general, I’m siding with House of Marley’s eye for style.
House of Marley No Bounds review
The No Bounds is a great little Bluetooth speaker – sustainably designed, smart looking, tough and lightweight. Like all of House of Marley’s products, the No Bounds speaker is made from as many natural and sustainable materials as possible – but not at the expense of style.
The speaker comes supplied with an aluminum carabiner clip and charging cable wrapped in the same Rewind fabric. The No Bounds is available in black, white, red and blue – the latter two of which are tastefully muted shades rather than the somewhat gaudy hues of many Bluetooth speakers (we’re looking at you, Ultimate Ears).
The main drawback of the No Bounds is its lack of smarts – there’s no support for Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri here, and there’s no app for adjusting sound profiles as there is with the UE Boom 3. It lacks the smart features you’ll find in top-end Bluetooth speakers, but for simply enjoying music on the road, it’s seriously impressive.
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