VeeshanVault

Mostly on a whim, I bought the bluetooth Big Jambox speaker made by Jawbone.

It's a little pricey. Retails for 299. I got it for 279 at Costco which included the carry bag.

It's a wireless bluetooth speaker that gets 15 hours of battery life and sounds extremely good for its size. Being a big user of bluetooth devices like the iPhone and iPad, I figured I'd pick it up to use it with those devices as well as replace my PC speakers since it also has a regular audio in jack.

It also acts as a bluetooth speaker phone but I don't have plans to use it like that although may end up doing it since it's so easy to pair devices to it.

I paired it with my iPhone and two iPads. Extremely easy to do. It takes 2.5 hours to fully charge the speaker for 15 hours of use. You can also just leave it plugged in if you're going to use it as a PC speaker replacement.

Gotta say I'm impressed. For a portable bluetooth speaker it's amazing but it also sounds really good in general, especially considering it's size. It's easily portable and keeps playing when you plug/unplug it from the charger.

I'm not a into bass but for it's dimensions, it provides quality bass for Netflix, Youtube, etc.

It remembers up to six bluetooth devices and stays connected to two devices. I switched between my iPhone and iPad and it played audio from both.

This is something you can use wherever for quality audio. Back yard, garage, camping, PC, etc and get solid 15 hours of sound that can fill a good size room. High quality construction. It's a basic brick with 8 rubber feet to reduce vibration from bass, It's heavy duty. Something you can stick in unusual places and not worry about it breaking.

I became a bluetooth junky as soon as I got my new car with bluetooth audio. Having shit play without hassle from my iPhone/iPad is great. Hate wires. Hate hate hate.

Price point may be a tad much for most but if you are mobile a lot, this is something to seriously consider. I'm not even that mobile and like it. Toss it on the bed beside you as you play a movie on your iPad and enjoy really good sound instead of using headphones or the minimal speakers on phones/tablets. I'm not big on docks, etc. This works with anything bluetooth.

Here's some guy reviewing the Big Jambox. You can get an idea of the features, speaker phone, etc. Skip the music sound demonstration as there's no way to actually demonstrate a speaker using your own speakers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiM7BewkDAs

The only thing that might deter you from this portable speaker is the price. You might think it's ugly but so are you. I like the basic no frills grey brick look but you can get it in white or red as well. The different colors have different grill patterns. I think you can get it for around 250 without the case now if you look around. If price isn't a factor, this is an outstanding portable bluetooth speaker. Sounds great.

With sound quality and ease of use being most important, Big Jambox delivers. 15 hours of battery life is also quite impressive.

I've only had it a day so will get back to this thread if there are any quirks.

I have a regular jambox.. not impressed.. gets kinda loud for a tiny speaker, but quality stinks.

Mine is a refurb thouagh so that might be it. But I spent many years designing audio systems so I might be a snob.

I think there are better options out there... the UE by logitech interests me.

Ransure wrote:I have a regular jambox.. not impressed.. gets kinda loud for a tiny speaker, but quality stinks.

Mine is a refurb thouagh so that might be it. But I spent many years designing audio systems so I might be a snob.

I think there are better options out there... the UE by logitech interests me.

Yeah, most reviews I saw also thought the smaller jambox is pretty crappy. Big Jambox is three times the size and sounds good. I'm not looking for audiophile quality from a portable bluetooth speaker. I've got my Paradigm speakers for that. This is more for audiobooks, web videos, netflix, and some spotify music. Being just a solid brick shape, it's easy to tote around and no worries about where you grab it. A long lasting battery, hassle free easy pairing speaker with solid sound is what I wanted and so far is what I've got. Still testing it out.

I don't have a need for a BT speaker, but I would like to point out that I have indeed owned a Jawbone BT ear-thingy for phone-talking and it sucked massive donkey balls.

So, maybe they are using better technology now (this was about a year ago when I purchased one of their overpriced products.) but still take heed!

The issues with the device were:

Next to no battery life (maybe 30 minutes)
Calls cutting out regularly
Silly price point (Think it was around $80!)

Let us know how the speaker holds up over time! If they have improved upon their signal and battery issues, this could be a decent device to use.

Canelek wrote: Let us know how the speaker holds up over time! If they have improved upon their signal and battery issues, this could be a decent device to use.

The battery life seems accurate at 15 hours. I've been using it to play ambient sounds while I sleep and it's still going after two nights on battery power.

As for price point. It may cost more than it should but it works very well. Still testing! I'll decide by the weekend.

Returned it.

Overall it's OK, but not worth $299.