PHILIPSAudio Portable Speaker Bluetooth, TAS7807W/00, Highly Wireless & Waterproof IP67 Speaker With Built-in Microphone For Calls & Powerbank, Up To 24 Hours Playback, White

I love bluetooth speakers, but Philips speakers are generally available here in the USA, so after stumbling across this speaker on Amazon UK I took a chance and ordered 2 of them (so that I can use the Stereo linking function). It seems here in the USA the high performance bluetooth speaker market is dominated by about 3 or 4 companies. These seemed to be very comparable to the Sony XRS-SB43 and the JBLXtreme, they are similar in size and all 3 have 4 drivers and 2 passive radiators. I was hopeful that these Philips speakers would be at least decent. Although they dispatched at the same time they didn't arrive on the same day, and something happened in shipping and both boxes got extremely wet - kind of a disappointment - but the speakers were not damaged and they are waterproof so even if they had gotten a little wet they wouldn't have been damaged. But the real joy with these speakers is there simplicity (no app needed!!!) and of course their sound, they sound fantastic, every bit as good as the Sony and JBL speakers I mentioned but with their own audio "Personality". These Philips speakers don't get as absolutely loud as the Sony and JBL speaker, but they also don't have obvious sound processing that both the JBL and Sony speakers have, as the Sony and JBL speakers get louder you can hear the sound change as the bass drops out, but it seems that Philips has decided to simply not drive these speakers quite as loud, a very reasonable approach and one that means you don't notice the DSP as much, the down side to this is that when these are playing loud, the bass can and will distort a bit, I feel like the DSP in the Philips is slower to react but that it does seem to react, overall I'd say the sound from these speakers is relaxed and smooth, less party focused than the Sony and JBL speakers. These speakers also don't project sound out into the room as well as the Sony's do. The Sony and JBL speakers can fill a large room with full bassy sound, but these are more suited to smaller rooms and more intimate settings, where they are closer to the listener, I'm not sure why this is, but I believe it may have something to do with how the passive radiators are positioned within the enclosure, the JBL and Sony's have side firing passive radiators. These Philips speakers are rear firing passive radiators. as with any speaker positioning within a room can make a big difference on how they sound. These speakers with their rear firing passive radiators do well when there is a wall or similar structure a short distance behind them, too far from the wall and some of the bass get lost, and to close to the wall and the bass gets trapped, these kind of factors effect all speakers and are not unique to these speakers. One nice thing is that when used in stereo mode with my PC and watch movies the sound stays is sync with the picture, this means that I can use these when watching movies or music videos - no all bluetooth speakers work well with video, and how successful this is depends on all of the equipment being used - but it was a pleasant surprise. That's actually a good description of these speakers in general, they are a very pleasant surprise, and are much better than I'd hoped. I would buy them again.