Soundboks. No contest! Loudddddddd, great sound, can take a beating - practically indestructable, bluetooth. And a great company that stands behind their product.
adamecdaMy UE Boom 2 is good, but part of me wishes I bought the JBL flip 4. Both now have a new model this year. After hearing the KEF Muo, if you can stretch that far buy it. These are what is called portable, but everything else here seems luggable.
Jail4bankstersThe AIWA and Teufel have good reviews for sound quality, but otherwise yeah: nothing on this list is portable, they're all transportable.
For a portable audiophile-grade speaker poll we would've had to see the likes of the Flip 4, Envaya DSB-250, Riva S and so on. (And definitely not some UE boom-boom, LOL.)
abm0I have a proper big boy hifi, so I don't rely on my Boom 2 for music, but on my last trip it acquitted itself reasonable well playing Dark Side of the Moon, filling our Florentine palazzo with adequate rock.
Thanks for those suggestions. The Denon looks interesting, and they say it's durable. I bought the Boom because it's durable. It took two serious falls on this trip and survived without a scratch. I also like it's vertical orientation. All those others seem to try for some kind of image in a horizontal position. Sometimes, in my use case, the small footprint when vertical is best.
Not to put stock in the herd mentality, but there's a reason the Boom, or its brethren, are on every "best" Bluetooth speaker list. I get this poll isn't for this form factor though, but it'd be a perfect candidate for a drop.
Jail4bankstersThat's like Sony, Bose and Beats headphones being on every "best" headphones list, I'm afraid. :) Listen to clavinetjunkie's comparative sound demos on YouTube (or on switcher.oluvsgadgets.net): all of UE's boom-boom speakers sound like they've got their backs turned on you, compared to proper portable hi-fi stuff like Vifa, Harman/Kardon, Riva, Denon, a couple of JBLs and Ankers here and there, B&O's (expensive) Beoplay A1, Sony's (expensive) SRS-HG1 and some other lesser known things like the Vava Voom 20 or iSoundbar SL1000s. They're omnidirectional alright: omnidirectionally bad. :P
abm0Again, yes, I know, my big boy setup is equivalent to a Honda civic. But at $150 you have to respect it the Boom 2 for what it does. I like the flip 4 a bit better, and the others you mention are great I'm sure, but they move way up the price performance scale to do it. A drop for any, or all of the above would be great.
Jail4bankstersThat's the thing: no I don't, have to respect what it does. There are multiple speaker models that produce better sound at $150. It's only the omnidirectionality that really makes it hard to find equivalents, the sound quality is nothing special for the size and price.