OontZ Angle 3 ULTRA - Black

I'm really not an audiophile, but I know what sounds good to my ears. I've built giant car stereos, continually swapped out speakers in both cars, home, the garage, etc until I had a sound I was happy with. That doesn't make me an expert just an enthusiastic listener. I don't know how this thing has so many rave reviews. If y'all think this is what good sound is, ya might need to hear some more stuff. Is this HORRID? no. Is it worthy of rave reviews? No. Is the battery life impressive? Yes. Did it pair easily and consistently? Yes. HOWEVER! You had one job speaker! Audio = thumbs down. It is loud I'll give them that. Not blow you back loud, but truly loud for its limited size. In a half volume listening environment I have few complaints. I find these little guys end up being CRANKED though. I use mine mostly by the pool although almost all of my listening has been done indoors on the Oontz. And outside you want your speaker to spread its wings and give you every crystal clear note it can. Here is what I don't like. In a high volume state it heads for distortionville, population ~ clipping. If I hadn't read multiple glowing reviews about the AMAZING sound then maybe I'd swallow that pill. As is its just OK in the sound department. Highs and mids start a warbling as soon as you throw a decent amount of volume it's way. Also the bass.... Oi vey. I know it's not a subwoofer. I have plenty of experience with big deeep bass throwing subs. I know that is not what I'm getting here. It just doesn't do a good job at anything other than providing a bunch of sloppy muddy deeper tones that you are supposed to confuse with bass. The diagphram is certainly moving about its just so sloppy and uncontrolled that the output is so muddy. It has quite a bit of protrusion and in this case it's not a good thing. It will shake itself pretty impressively when tipped on its end, but vibrating speakers don't equal quality sound. I applaud the smart design of the speaker feet though. They do a great job of providing a speaker platform base that will allow for Daddy's little floppy diaghpram to not shake the whole dang thing and providing even more undesired sounds when placed in its "natural" listening position. There is also sound processing going on here. If you want to play with your own EQ prepare to be frustrated. Boosting tones means something else is pulled back and you can hear it. Now it makes sense to me. It's only capable of producing so much and it compensates for your ridiculously boosted taste in bass by dropping some mids.... Or highs or whatever it seems to arbitrarily choose. It's just trying to protect itself which I could appreciate more... IF... It wasn't allowing for distortion at the high end. PROCESS IT OUT. it doesn't provide for a neutral sound signature but at least you can sleep at night knowing why it does what it does. "Oh well, it's not as loud as I want or as bass heavy but, it doesn't distort under any playing conditions!" Yea... This isn't the route they went down. So you're saying man... This guy hated this speaker! No not really. I understand the draw at the price point and I appreciate it for what it is. At 35 bones it's hard to get a portable rock show. It is loud and depending on the music it may or may not do a decent job at reproducing sound. The battery life is impressive. Splash proof is good, the build quality seems good. The overall design is a good size. I'm just not impressed. I have a JBL little guy too (it suffers from sound processing as well BUT it is nice enough to not allow distortion. It sacrifices some volume and fidelity to get it done but I'd rather have that then Sloppy Mcslopperson of the USS Slopship Speaker. Maybe you never need to go above 50 percent volume and if not... This guy might do just fine for ya. Maybe you prize the great battery life more than sound. Maybe you like the sound signature it creates and maybe you like clipping and distortion. Fine by me. I've come only to this realization, the things I value are good sound reproduction. I'll give up some volume for it this just isn't the one to do it. I don't know what I am going to get to replace this but at this price point and the middling sound I'd rather just save the $35 and put it towards a grown a** man speaker. The $30 JBL GO2 sounds good enough for what I need. I have had a DK Knight unit as well that finally died in me, and it did a fair job of providing decent quality audio in a reasonable package and price point. I'm looking for cleaner audio. I'll find it but I am thinking I'm gonna have to pony up a few more dollars.