Top 10 portable speakers
(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET)
You want to take your tunes on the road, but headphones don't always cut it, and even the smallest home speakers and receivers/amplifiers aren't portable. Technology has come to the rescue with a new breed of portable speakers that sound a lot better than the tinny models you might remember from the Walkman days. These useful devices are the hot ticket for travelers, dorm rooms, the beach, or the office; they plug into iPods, MP3 players, and laptops' headphone jacks, with sound that can easily fill a small to medium-size room.
It's also true that you can get much better sound with a decent set of headphones, which are even more portable and have deeper bass, superior treble detail, and better stereo imaging. But headphones are best appreciated alone. Portable speakers are ideal for social settings where you want to share your tunes with a few others or when you're milling around your hotel room getting ready for a night out on the town. Below you'll find the Top 10 contenders that have been reviewed by CNET. Some are perfect for frequent travelers, while others are best suited for the office or trips to the beach, and all of them have the option of being powered from built-in or replaceable batteries.
For more than five years, Jasmine France has covered a variety of tech products for CNET--from scanners to keyboards to GPS devices--but she's happiest where she is now: sitting atop a pile of MP3 players, "testing" every music service known to man, and jamming a variety of earbuds in every shape and color into her absurdly small ears. E-mail Jasmine. 
Perhaps the reason it wasn't included is that it isn't widely available any longer, but when I was searching for something portable, I remember it getting much better reviews than the clam shell LG thing.
Sorta makes up for that battery compartment problem you mention.
- by ballen1230 January 1, 2010 9:22 PM PST
- I am really surprised that the Livespeakr by Digital Group Audio is not up on this list. I am pretty sure they have been around since early 2009, I purchased my first one in May. Since then I have bought four more as gifts for friends and family. As far as portable speaker solutions go, Livespeakr is absolutely head and shoulders above all of the competition. I originally owned an iMainGo (#1 on this list of portable speakers) and the sound quality of Livespeakr puts it to shame. And that's just the beginning... My new favorite portable speaker system also has a rechargeable battery that lasts all day when playing... it's shielded from interference so I don't hear that annoying popping static... It's also the only portable system I've seen that works with both portrait and landscape mode, the speakers expand and contract when you rotate the cradle.
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(8 Comments)I just felt like I had to say something! This was a "best portable speaker system" article and I feel like the absolute best all around portable speaker wasn't even included! Hopefully next time around the journalists do a little better research!