Christopher A. Wheeler

So I’ve been looking around for external speakers for a Kindle Fire, in anticipation of receiving such a device for Christmas. I came across this speaker on Amazon. It looked so cute! The reviews were good, and for about $20 seemed like a pretty good deal.

It arrived yesterday. I opened it up and was surprised to see how small it was, about the size of a small orange. There isn’t a lot in the box: the speaker, a mini-USB cable, and a picture of a panda you can color… you know, if you have kids. On the bottom of the device there is an on/off switch, and a door for 3 AAA batteries (not included, optional). The 3.5mm headphone jack has a short cord that wraps around the panda when not in use. On the back is a mini-USB port, which you connect to the USB port on your computer for power if you so desire.

Using this product is easy, you provide power either through the batteries or the USB cable, and plug in the headphone jack into the appropriate location on your device. I did not have batteries so I did not test this feature; I have no idea how long batteries would power this. I plugged into the USB port on the computer and tested this speaker with both my Android powered phone, as well as my laptop computer.

I must say I was impressed. This is a tiny speaker but the sound is good for what you get. Serious audiophiles need not apply, but a serious audiophile I am not. The sound output through this from both my phone and my computer were significantly improved. I tested first on the phone using the default Music application playing “The Most Beautiful Girl In The Room” by Flight of the Conchords, then on my laptop, playing a variety of songs from my iTunes library, as well as selected scenes from the movie Moulin Rouge! The big criticisms I have from both my phone and laptop speakers is the low volume and lack of bass. This works.

If I had any criticisms to this product it would be the following: the cord is too short, limiting how far away the speaker can be placed from the source, and it isn’t rechargeable. To be fair, before I ordered this rechargeable wasn’t anything I was concerned about, but I came across another speaker on Amazon that IS rechargeable and in hindsight this would be a great feature. For anyone looking for an affordable solution to portable sound, I would recommend this.

So recently I purchased a pair of Koss KE29E Noise Isolating Earbuds from my local WalMart. I generally am not a fan of earbuds because I’ve never found a pair that fit very well; they always fall out. However, I’ve not had good luck with regular over-the-head headphones because they always get broken in my backpack. These come with three different size ear pad things to help fit any size ear.

I’m not an audiophile by any means, but to me these sound great. They fit snugly in the ear to block out a lot of the ambient noise. And I tested the fit by shaking my head all around, so much that I got dizzy, and still the earbuds were securely in place.

Like I mentioned, I got these at WalMart, and they were about $25. So far, so good.

Thumbs up.