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I just received the Fugoo speaker yesterday so my own review will be coming up soon. Unfortunately it is going to be in German this time, sorry folks, but there are already some great and detailed reviews of the Fugoo in English, like that from Gadgetmac, Mashable by Brent Butterworth, Tom's Guide etc. but Fugoo is currently starting to offer their speaker in Germany for the first time, though any German review is still missing, so I will hopefully be the first one to close this gap!


As you can see my son is already pretty excited about this new toy. He even managed to drop it once, but  there is no need to become worried, as the speaker is extremly rugged and well protected inside the "Sport"-jacket. I also received a "Tough"-jacket which looks like a tank. Of course I will test this too, although I am a bit afraid of my floor getting damaged if my son manages to drop it again inside this one.

My first impressions are very positive indeed. Although I immediately became annoyed by the much too loud voice-prompts, you can deactivate them completely with some button presses. There are lots of different combinations to enable different modes, you probably have to learn them by heart, but the Fugoo can do lots of things, the limiting fact is that it has only 3 main buttons and the power-button, so look forward to some finger-acrobatics.

The sound is pretty smooth. It is by far not as heavy as on the Bose Soundlink Mini, but the Fugoo sounds more natural with very clear mids and perfectly tuned treble. There is plenty of bass, reaching quite deep, it is not as boosted as on the Bose, but the Fugoo nevertheless never sounds anemic. You really get a sense of punch and there is "real" bass, unlike most other portable speakers I have tried, including the JBL Charge, UE Boom etc. I think the Fugoo can compete pretty well with bigger speakers as well, becaues when I directly switched between the Fugoo and the Soundblaster Roar, I preferred the much more open and less boomy sound of the Fugoo, without that much upper bass, but with more low bass instead compared to the Roar.
As the Fugoo is nearly omnidirectional you don't need to care about placing or aiming it at you. It sounds just good, wherever you put it, even on the floor from above it sounds gerat, regardless if you are listening from behind or from the front, as it has all drivers spread to all sides.
Volume control is synced with the player, which is great because you can also control start/stop and track skipping directly from the speaker, if you intend to use it mounted on your bike with your phone hidden somewhere in your pocket for example.
The only thing I noticed is that maximum volume might be a bit low for some. Currently it is by far not as loud as the Bose Soundlink Mini for example, but I still have an older Firmware (01.00.14) installed, so I will hopefully be able to compare it with the latest 01.00.46 firmware which is claimed to improve sound quality and overall loudness! I will try to prepare some comparison videos as well as detailed frequency response measurements. Of course there will be also a comparison to the Soundlink Mini, and maybe the UE Boom, but after having listened to to the Fugoo for some minutes only, I can already claim by now that the Fugoo is just a class above the UE Boom with a much more mature sound, while the UE Boom can play considerably louder, but just sounds like a tin-can speaker, not a grown up system!

Please be patient and give me some time to prepare everything!

I got a visit of RIVA's and ADX' chief engineer Donald North and we had lots of talk about RIVA's current and upcoming products as well as portable speakers in general. I have prepared a short interview with Donald where he talks about the challange of speaker design and finally shows off their upcoming smaller speaker: RIVA S




Although we both had a great time in general, the most exciting part of Donald's visit was definitely trying out the new RIVA S. They decided to drop "Turbo" for the smaller model as it doesn't have any dedicated "Turbo-mode" anymore like the bigger X model, therefore the new model will be simply called "RIVA S".


The RIVA S is considerably more compact than the Turbo X while being slightly larger than the Soundlink Mini, more similar to the Sony SRS-X3 or JBL Charge 2, but still very portable also because of the rounded edges, which makes it easier to be stowed away in some jacket pocket.
When I asked Donald some time ago, what I could expect from the S, he answered quite understated that I would be pleasantly surprised. He wasn't lying, because despite showing still an unfinished working sample with some bugs, the RIVA S managed to impress me completely.


We have put the RIVA S against some other leading portable speakers I still have at home (although they are obviously going to be sold soon...) like the Bose Soundlink Mini, the JBL Charge 2 and the Denon Envaya Mini, but the RIVA S seemed to be a perfect blend of the best properties taken from all of them and extending it with even more features like wireless stereo pairing etc.

Although driver tuning was still not finished nevertheless I would like to give you some first opinion on this speaker. Don claimed to continue working on the final sound details, so it might even become better for the production model, he might even be able to squeeze some more dB out of it. But what I have heard so far was already mindblowing to say at least. It isn't the fact that the RIVA S is a super loud or super bass heavy speaker, but rather the fact that it is tuned so well. It simply sounds right. I was already impressed by the tuning of the Denon Envaya Mini, but the RIVA S tops this with an even smoother sound and better bass extension at the same time, it made the Denon sound honky somehow. The RIVA S has the bass extension of the Soundlink Mini but without its artificial boom, but my personal hightlight was treble response of the RIVA S, which was very even without any obvious peaks up to 17.5kHz and made the JBL Charge 2 sound metallic and clonky in comparison.


Loudnesswise it doesn't break any records and is rather comparable to the others in this class including JBL Charge 2, Bose Soundlink Mini and Denon Envaya Mini, but the RIVA S never sounds as if it was playing at its maximum. There is no obvious compression and I couldn't hear any kind of distortion even with the heaviest tracks I tried. The same music played through the Bose Soundlink Mini made it sound as if it was broken, while the RIVA S managed to keep all the dynamics of stronger peaks.


The most shoking part for me though was that I really preferred the sound of the RIVA S over its bigger brother Turbo X. It was only when the Turbo X was playing close to maximum where it had an edge, but at what I would call "normal listening levels" the RIVA S simply outperformed the Turbo X making it sound a bit tinny. The missing treble-sparkle of the Turbo X I criticised in my review was completely absent on the smaller model and I also loved the fact that treble response was not that directional together with the side-drivers you really got a huge listening angle, not fully 360° but still listenable from slightly behind. Interestingly the bass reached even lower than on the bigger model, to assure that we also made some quick measurements, although I am not quite sure if I am allowed to post them, as they might be not representative of the final model. But the impressive bass response comes probably also due to the fact, that the RIVA S applies some kind of dynamic loudness compensation, something the Turbo X doesn't. Therefore at lower levels the RIVA S will simply sound more substantial and serious than the Turbo X. On the other hand the Turbo X will play much louder thus has its own strengths. According to Don the Turbo X uses another variant of his Trillium processing and indeed the RIVA S doesn't have that depth and 3D-sound stage of its bigger model, but it still sounds much more open than most other comparable speakers.

If you finally consider the fact that 2 RIVA S can be paired for wireless stereo, this puts this speaker in a completely different class than all the others, nearly substituting a small hifi-system. Although meanwhile there are many Bluetooth speakers that support wireless stereo pairing none of those I have heard so far, sounded really good enough to justify buying 2 of them. Not so with the RIVA S where I could imagine myself getting a second one (maybe in gold) and putting both at the opposite corners of the pool...

People are asking me again and again, which is the best portable speaker, which has best bass, best clarity, highest loudness etc. I think that the RIVA S is finally the portable speaker that everyone was waiting for. I cannot await to finally hear the production model!

Stay tuned for more updates on this promising speaker soon...

Today during lunch I met my friend, who just received a Beats Pill XL as probable substitute for his IK Multimedia iLoud, after the iLoud started getting battery-problems with self discharge after one day without usage etc.



We didn't have much time for any torough test, but he also had his iLoud as reference and I took my Bose Soundlink Wireless Music System to have a direct comparison. As we only listened outside I cannot say how good the Beats Pill XL would sound indoors.


First of all, the Beats Pill XL is a funky speaker. As bad as the original small Beats Pill was, as good and impressive is the Beats Pill XL. The first you notice is the weight the speaker has. It doesn't feel cheap, it really gives the impression of high quality, except the gloss-finish on some parts, which makes the speaker look pretty dirty after some touches.
The volume controls are awkwardly placed at the back, but usually you won't need them often. The big lit Beats logo at the front also acts as control button for pausing or resuming music, skipping tracks, taking calls etc.
The Beats Pill XL even has some kind of retractable ports at the sides, which probably should take a strap for shoulder-wear. I am sure the strap will come as an accessory, as it wasn't included according to my friend.


The Beats Pill XL might be slightly bigger in overall volume than a Bose Soundlink III or TDK A33 for example, but it packs much more punch and power. Because of the round form factor it is still pretty packable and should find space in every bag or rucksack. Meanwhile I have heard lots of portable speaker that compact, but so far the Beats Pill XL seems to be the most powerful.

Strangely enough we noticed that output and maximum volume varied depending on the device used. The Android phone of my friend seemed to play with a considerably lower volume than my own iPhone when connected through Bluetooth. Also audio seemed to be loudest when streaming through Bluetooth compared to aux-in, which seems to hint at a rather low-quality pre-amp or ADC.

Apart from that the Beats Pill XL reached nearly the top volume of the already loud iLoud, but it played cleaner at full volume, with only very slight hints of distortion. The iLoud was slightly louder but it had to fight heavily with distortion and clipping.
The Beats Pill XL didn't reach the top volume of the Bose Soundlink Wireless Music System, but it didn't seem to compromise sound much at high levels, unlike the Bose which starts to compress heavily with strong distortion and dialed back bass at the same time. When the Bose was playing at acceptable distortion levels, the Beats could keep up pretty well, producing a similarly powerful and loud sound.


I didn't notice much bass-decrease at high levels as sound remained bass-heavy and dynamic up to top volume, but the sound was especially thick at medium volumes, easily beating the iLoud in overall fullness. The iLoud might sound clearer and more natural, the Beats Pill XL has more of a sculpted sound, but it doesn't sound bad at all. Depending on the genre, this might be an advantage, especially for dance music or R'n'B or Hiphop. The Beats Pill has more upper bass than the Bose for example, and it has clearer treble. Also noticable are somewhat subdued mids when directly compared to both the iLoud or the Bose. The Bose had the deepest bass playing down to about 50Hz and even slightly lower. The Pill XL seemed to have the passive radiator tuned at about 60Hz, below there was hardly any output. As there are is no bass-reflex port bass seemed even cleaner and more powerful than on the Bose or iLoud, because any possible port noise was completely missing. I also noticed quite good treble dispersion, the Beats Pill XL seemed to be less directional than the others.

With all the available features (Apt-X, NFC, stereo pairing of 2 speakers, charging of external devices) the Beats Pill XL might be one of the best choices if one looks for a powerful but still pretty portable speaker. The Beats Pill XL doesn't reach the power of a Klipsch KMC-3 for example or even bigger boomboxes, but it easily beats all comparably sized rivals I have heard so far.
If you don't need that sheer power, the much smaller Bose Soundlink Mini might still be an interesting choice. Up to its limits it should be able to keep up in sound quality with the Pill XL, maybe even beating it at lowest levels, where the Beats Pill XL seemed to sound a bit thin, at least from the short impression I had outdoors.

I really liked the Beats Pill XL and if I was in the market for that kind of speaker, it would be definitely on top of my list, outperforming most similarly priced alternatives like the Bose Soundlink III, Loewe speaker2go, Big Jambox etc...

Bose announced the new Soundlink III speaker!
The third generation comes 1.5 years after the Soundlink II and 2.5 years after the original one, which was announced in September 2011.


The new Soundlink has a slightly different design and comes naked without any cover now, but there are optional covers with various colors available, for those who actually need one. I am not sure if I liked the old design better than the new, especially the limited white edition was really an eye catcher. The new one reminds me a bit of a squashed B&O Beolit 12 just missing the leathered handle. At least the buttons are rubber covered now, similar to the ones from the Soundlink Mini. I must confess that with the Soundlink II I sometimes encountered unwanted resonance vibrations from the buttons that were rattling at particular frequencies, due to being a bit loose. This probably won't happen with the new one anymore.

I am not sure if much changed on the hardware side apart from cosmetic adjustments. There is still no Apt-X support, no built in handsfree or USB-charging, the functionality remains exactly the same as before. Also the acoustic core consisting of 2 transducers per channel including 2 opposing passive radiators seem to be the same, so maybe the sound tweaks come only from different DSP-processing. But at least the new one is claimed to have an improved battery life of 30% which should make it play up to 14 hours. The battery doesn't seem to be directly accessible by the user anymore, but according to Bose it is still easily replaceable by pulling out the rubber feet, which I didn't try though.
I also found some new contacts at the bottom which would maybe suggest an option for a future charging cradle similar to that of the Soundlink Mini.



Thanks to Bose I already got a demo unit of the new one as well as the previous version. As my neighbour still owns the first version, I will be able to compare all three generations.

First impression so far: The new one sounds definitely better than the previous one. The sound is less veiled, broader and more open with more brilliance in treble and seems less directional too, not suffering that much in treble response when not listened directly on-axis. Bass seems a little better controlled, not that artificial sounding as on the Soundlink II, at the same time the Soundlink III doesn't sound as stressed at top volume with less obvious dynamic compression and it sounds less boomy at low levels, which is pretty welcome if you want some low background music, which was hardly achievable with the old one, as that one sounded extremly dull when not applying some special "tricks". Top volume is more or less the same, the new one sounds a bit fuller at top volume with more upper bass and therefore can make the impression of being a bit louder, but don't expect any loudness miracles. The very first Soundlink still remains one of the loudest and most powerful portable speakers, but at a slightly larger size of course.


Soundwise the Soundlink III seems to more resemble the Soundlink Mini now, although the differences are not huge between all of them to tell the truth, you are still hearing the same Bose sound signature, so don't expect JBL or Loewe sound now.

So far I have the impression that this is the best sounding Soundlink yet! I am planning to prepare an extensive comparison video and review soon, so stay tuned!

Update: full review can already be found here, enjoy!

After the announcement of the JBL Charge 2 and the Infinity One I asked Harman if they would send me review samples. They didn't but instead responded about the Infinity One to be not released in Europe at all, but rather be a U.S. only model. Strange decision, but as meanwhile at least the Charge 2 became available here, I simply ordered a white one to try it out and satisfy my curiosity.

All I can say: JBL should have sent it to more beta testers than they obviously did, because as it is now the Charge 2 seems unusable, at least for anyone who wants to listen to music, not noise!
Maybe my unit is defective, therefore I already ordered a replacement and will hopefully get this soon to have a direct comparison and be sure if not all of them are like that.

But judging the unit I currently own, which I assume to be alright, there seem to be considerable problems with either sound-processing, the amplifier or whatever. Apart from that, the sound is indeed great if not even best in class and a huge improvement over the old Charge, although not in all aspects. I will cover that more in detail with my final review. As for now I only want to demonstrate the problems my JBL Charge 2 unit suffers from.

As I sometimes like to listen to music at low levels depending on the situation and mood, I wanted to try out if the JBL Charge could deliver enough sound for my needs. The first thing I noticed was, that it didn't sound that overwhelming at low levels. The Charge has only 15 dedicated volume-steps, exactly like the Fugoo, volume control is synced on both the speaker and streaming device, at least with an iOS device. When controlling volume through the speaker, it seems as if there were 30 steps, but you can only hear a jump of volume every second step. Unforunately the speaker becomes too loud too quickly. Step 5 is already as loud as 50% on the Soundlink Mini. Nevertheless within the very first volume steps the sound remained a bit flat only to become more punchy at higher levels. Compared to a Sony SRS-X3 that I reviewed here, the Sony managed a much more profound sound down to lowest levels while the Charge 2 sounded more canny at comparable loud(soft)ness settings. But the more worrying fact was, that the sound became really strange at low levels. The bass sounded as if it couldn't come through and aside there was some distinct noise and interference artifacts, that I first thought to be the influcence of a mobile phone network, Wifi, or even Bluetooth. Later when I could narrow down the problem and try different solutions to solve it, I realized that it was not solvable. The artifacts which I thought to be interference were even present with the iPhone set to flightmode and with music playing through line-in.

The other problem I heard was some severe distortion on particular tracks that are mastered with a very high gain close to 0dB. Strong peaks like that from a bassdrum start to get a scratching sound. First I thought it to be a problem with the drivers, the passive radiators etc. But this distortion was noticeable at lower levels as well. I thought that because of the synced volume, the input gain through Bluetooth was maybe set too high causing this distortion. But when trying to listen through line-in while lowering volume on both speaker and player to prevent any clipping, funnily the distortion remained exaclty the same as if it was "baked" into the track directly, which of course is not the case, because any other speaker plays these tracks perfectly. To further test this issue I played some sine-sweeps and heard that particular frequencies or frequency changes seem to cause these artifacts. I guess the sound processor is responsible for that, as it maybe tries to process bass adequately, but fails, who knows!

You can hear or download quite an extreme example here. This is an MP3-file of a close mic recording from about 15cm with the JBL Charge playing at volume step 4/15. I switch over to the Fugoo 2 times in this file, and you can hear that beside all the grumbling background noise the JBL has also a much higher overall noise floor compared to the Fugoo. Both speakers were recorded in exactly the same way with the volume more or less matched, which was about half way on the Fugoo thus not that low anymore.

I also prepared a video which demonstrates the problems of the JBL Charge 2 with some selected tracks. To show how the music should sound in reality I also recorded the same with the Bose Soundlink Mini and the Fugoo using equivalent loudness settings and switching between the speakers.
My only hope is that my unit is indeed defective, otherwise the JBL Charge 2 would be a complete fail!

I was about to prepare some further reviews of speakers like the Pioneer Freeme or the Cambridge Audio G2, when I received the freshly announced Denon Envaya Mini which suddenly makes the reviews of all the other speakers pretty much obsolete. Although I hadn't noticed any big announcement to tell the truth, I was really curious to hear it when I finally discovered it and did my best to get it as soon as possible. In Germany there are already offers for as low as 90€ including shipping, which puts the Envaya Mini on the same price level as the NudeAudio Move Super M I reviewed recently. Not sure when the Denon Envaya Mini will become available in the U.S. and how much it will cost though, so jump in to ease your waiting!



This is going to be a first impression, therefore I don't intend to do any big comparison with the Super M, just let me tell you that as much as I was disappointed or underwhelmded by the Super M the Denon is definitely going to become something like a game changer in the whole mini speaker class below 100$. It is making most offers sound like toys at once.



First let me clarify that it doesn't have the "PHAT" bloated bass of the Bose Soundlink Mini, no, but the Denon sounds better anyhow. It is much more musical than the Bose. There is a really healthy amount of bass. It sounds definitely better than most other current offerings, even bigger ones or more expensive ones including Bose Soundlink Colour, Fugoo, TDK A33 etc. Of course you shouldn't expect the ear-splitting loudness of all the larger speakers, but played at comfortable indoor listening levels the Denon Envaya Mini really kicks especially when looking at the size of the speaker compared to the size of the sound it has to offer! It will play louder than many other small speakers and reaches about the same loudness of the Super M, just with much more bass and more of a wow-factor. I would say the Denon will reach about 75% of the Bose Soundlink Mini but without any obvious dynamic compression or other strange processing. There is some slight bass-reduction at higher levels, but Denon has the DSP pretty good under control with distortion kept to the minimum. The Envaya Mini is perfectly usable even at its maximum loudness setting.

I have put the Denon right beside my Infinity One and although the Denon doesn't have the same bass-punch of the much larger Infinity it doesn't need to hide itself. You don't have the impression as if something was missing, it is just pleasant and fun to listen to. The sound is natural, full-bodied, punchy with sparkling treble and most important there even is some amount of real stereo separation you usually don't get of speakers that small.
The Denon Envaya Mini is very slim, you can easily grasp it with one hand, it is just a bit on the longish side, but this is probably also the reason why it sounds that wide together with the alleged DSP stereo widening algorithms. The JBL Charge 2 gives a rather a mono-impression with the differences being even bigger when put against the Bose Soundlink Colour, because the Denon wipes the floor with the more expensive and larger Bose thanks to a better sound overall, wider, just smoother, the Bose on the other hand sounds a bit edgy. I am not sure if the Envaya Mini applies any kind of real physiological loudness compensation, but it sounds perfectly full-bodied at lowest levels too, you never get any anemic or tinny sound, neither does it tend to sound boomy regardless of how I put it, there doesn't seem to be any distrubing low-frequency resonance you have to fight with on many Bose speakers. I must confess that I remained impressed and won't waste any further words about it, just add some facts, which make the Denon Envaya Mini definitely one of the most interesting offerings in its class: it is water resistant, has AptX on board, can quickly pair thanks to NFC and is able to connect to multiple devices at the same time. Handsfree is included and the play/pause button can also be used to skip tracks. It doesn't need any proprietary charger (there isn't any included either) as charging is done through Micro-USB, last not least Denon also added a simple carrying bag.

I was just about to prepare a "best-of" list of all my favorite speakers, but the Denon Envaya Mini screwed it up completely and made many of my current speakers that would originally find their way onto that list pretty useless including the JBL Charge 2, Fugoo which all have to go etc.

The Denon Envaya Mini is definitely a keeper, stay tuned for a detailed review if you are still not convinced or simply klick the order-button!

Update: You can find my full review here.

It was a stressful evening. I got the Marshall Kilburn from my friend and wanted to concentrate on this next, prepare some preview video or even a full review. But arriving at home the JBL Xtreme was standing in front of my door.
I already had a short listen to the Kilburn together with my friend where we did some switching between the RIVA Turbo X and the Kilburn, and although quite a bit fuller sounding than the RIVA, the Kilburn didn't really manage to knock my socks off, but when I turned on the JBL I immediately knew this is going to be more fun. Suddenly the Kilburn started sounding a bit honky and tinny. Both are not neutral speakers like the RIVA for example, but the JBL is simply tuned for more fun. It is a bass-monster, very powerful, louder than the Kilburn, louder than the RIVA Turbo X and probably as loud as the Beats Pill XL (RIP), but with the difference, that the JBL still sounds punchy and powerful with lots of bass at maximum volume and the bass sounds like bass, not as if someone was knocking on wood. I couldn't notice any stronger distortion at maximum volume, and although there was some slight dynamic processing, it was not as extreme as on the JBL Charge 2 or on the Infinity One. The JBL Xtreme is a real party machine. Take it to the beach and crank it to the maximum, it will still sound impressive. They claim 40W but from AC-power, I tested if it became any softer from battery and although there is a slight difference in loudness when run from AC-power, I had to check several times to really hear the difference, it is by far not as pronounced as on the Harman Kardon Onyx for example. The JBL Xtreme gets just slightly louder maybe 1-2dB when plugged in, but it doesn't reduce bass or deteriorate sound by any means.
Everyone who is already in panic looking for some substitute for his Pill XL, because he sent it to Apple already, don't look any further. Even if you are still undecided if you are really going to send it in, just take the 300$ from apple and order the JBL Xtreme immediately!
Now the Megaboom really became an expensive toy.

Meanwhile I managed to prepare a short introduction of the Kilburn and soundcheck between Kilburn and the Xtreme, as well as a full review for the Xtreme here.

Please have a listen and let me know what you think:


And the winner is? I think I must have a bit more listen to the Kilburn...