Portable Waterproof Bluetooth speaker recommendations.

Caporegime
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Looking for a waterproof speaker
Must be portable.

Looking for something decent but not too pricey. Not really sure what even I have to spend.

Guess looking at 100 - 150 gbp?
If anything is decent and less that's great

Doesn't need to go super loud. More emphasis on sound quality.

One suggestion was the UE boom 3 (or whatever its called)
 
Soldato
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I'm pretty happy with my JBL charge, sound quality is pretty good, it gets 5 stars from What Hifi, battery life is good you can even use it to charge another device if you need to, it's currently going for £100 or you can get its bigger brother the Extreme for £150 which also gets 5 stars. I watched a video of a guy dunking a charge into a bucket of water and giving it a good drowning and it came out still playing so it should be fine if it falls in the water if you're kayaking, the extreme has strap mounting points so that would allow you to secure it better in case you capsized.
 
Soldato
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I have the UE Boom or Megaboom whatever it is called, pretty durable, dustproof, waterproof, loud and decent quality. Perfect for a throw around bluetooth speaker really, i've chucked it in a bag and used it in all sorts of weather too never an issue. I like the look and feel of it too but guess that is personal preference.
 
Associate
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Check out clavintejunkie YouTube channel, the guy is a bit arrogant and has terrible taste in music but he really knows his stuff. He's one of the few bt speaker reviewers I actually believe. Head and shoulders above any big website reviews. Recently he's been more into bt headphones but he's reviewed an absolute ton of speakers. There is also a link from his channel to an online sound comparison tool, many many speakers recorded under same conditions and you can switch between them.

UE outdoor speakers are very rugged, good build quality and go really loud, less bass and a bit thinner sounding than many others of a similar class. Still sound good though. I've got loads of bt speakers. Of the waterproof/rugged type medium size I like my Tribit stormbox (formerly known as xboom). Can be had for £50 when it's on sale at Amazon. Well built and competes with more expensive speakers soundwise. Things have moved on really quickly with bt speakers, I probably wouldn't look too hard at models older than 2-3 years. Also you can't really go by brand alone, various iterations of the same speaker, let alone different models of the same brand can be a hit or a miss sound-wise. They're not outdoor speakers, but just in case you consider Denon I would avoid. They can sound amazing but many of them seem to have terrible battery problems, mine included.
 
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Caporegime
OP
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13 Jan 2010
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Check out clavintejunkie YouTube channel, the guy is a bit arrogant and has terrible taste in music but he really knows his stuff. He's one of the few bt speaker reviewers I actually believe. Head and shoulders above any big website reviews. Recently he's been more into bt headphones but he's reviewed an absolute ton of speakers. There is also a link from his channel to an online sound comparison tool, many many speakers recorded under same conditions and you can switch between them.

UE outdoor speakers are very rugged, good build quality and go really loud, less bass and a bit thinner sounding than many others of a similar class. Still sound good though. I've got loads of bt speakers. Of the waterproof/rugged type medium size I like my Tribit stormbox (formerly known as xboom). Can be had for £50 when it's on sale at Amazon. Well built and competes with more expensive speakers soundwise. Things have moved on really quickly with bt speakers, I probably wouldn't look too hard at models older than 2-3 years. Also you can't really go by brand alone, various iterations of the same speaker, let alone different models of the same brand can be a hit or a miss sound-wise. They're not outdoor speakers, but just in case you consider Denon I would avoid. They can sound amazing but many of them seem to have terrible battery problems, mine included.

Thanks for that. I will definitely check this source. I didn't see denon recommended anywhere. But I probably would consider them (my d2000 cans are amazing). But if there are battery issues I'll avoid
 
Caporegime
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I have the UE Boom or Megaboom whatever it is called, pretty durable, dustproof, waterproof, loud and decent quality. Perfect for a throw around bluetooth speaker really, i've chucked it in a bag and used it in all sorts of weather too never an issue. I like the look and feel of it too but guess that is personal preference.

This was the one I was leaning to.
Any comments on sound quality? Obviously I'm not expecting audiophile levels. But I'd prefer quality over volume.
 
Caporegime
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Llaneirwg
I'm pretty happy with my JBL charge, sound quality is pretty good, it gets 5 stars from What Hifi, battery life is good you can even use it to charge another device if you need to, it's currently going for £100 or you can get its bigger brother the Extreme for £150 which also gets 5 stars. I watched a video of a guy dunking a charge into a bucket of water and giving it a good drowning and it came out still playing so it should be fine if it falls in the water if you're kayaking, the extreme has strap mounting points so that would allow you to secure it better in case you capsized.

This looks great. Those straps would actually be of massive use. (pretty much for the reason you state) I have a drinks flask that has similar mount points and it's incredibly useful for sports.

If the quality is good. This is a strong strong contender
 
Soldato
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This was the one I was leaning to.
Any comments on sound quality? Obviously I'm not expecting audiophile levels. But I'd prefer quality over volume.

Well I am not expert in audio, but to me it sounds like it is of higher quality for a bluetooth speaker. I mean you will never get hifi standard quality on a portable bluetooth speaker but you can definitely get volume with it whilst maintaining the level of audio quality.

My main reason for getting it was the durability of it over the sound, but the sound still impressed me.
 
Soldato
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Old thread I know but I've just bought an Anker Soundcore Soundcore motion+
IPX7 rated to waterproof to 1m

Need to decide over keeping this or a Bose Soundlink micro, which is also IPX7 rated but a lot more portable at the expense of sound quality, battery life, charge time and AUX input
 
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