NYNE Bass Portable Bluetooth Speaker with Built-in Active Subwoofer, USB Charging and Hands Free Microphone (Black/Silver)

I've been listening to and enjoying high quality audio for far more years than I generally care to remember. Some of my friends clearly qualify as true audiophiles and work in various parts of the audio / video / music / post-production industry, and I've enjoyed enough professional and audiophile grade listening experiences to be aware of the kinds of differences that accompany truly high end audio reproduction. That said, I was pretty confident that I wouldn't be tripping across a true "audiophile" experience when I started looking at mid priced bluetooth speakers, but I also found that each of the competing systems seemed to have a pretty unique sound signature, and a lot of these were "almost" what I hoped to bring home. I researched online and must have read several dozen reviews and articles, and many many dozens of comments here on Amazon about dozens of products.Next step of course was to check out as many of the contenders as I could find in person. For that, I spent time at Best Buy and a couple of other locals stores and must have auditioned a couple of dozen different BT speaker systems. In the $200 to $250 range, I wasn't really convinced that I'd be totally satisfied with anything I heard. In the stores, it wasn't until I hit the range with $400 Marshall speakers and the like that I started to really like what I heard. So...still unsure, I came home empty handed.I started up some new research, tripped across some newer devices, and finally landed on write ups and reviews about the NYNE Bass. Bigger than I had planned to buy -- but the reviews and individual descriptions were incredibly compelling. Knowing that Amazon Prime could get the speaker to me in a couple of days, and that I had the option to return it, I ordered one.It arrived, beautifully packaged, about 38 hours after I ordered it. Bigger than I thought -- and beautiful. I ordered the black one, and it's really gorgeous. Incredibly solid construction, beautiful fit and finish. Unlike the rubber membrane switches on the Big Jambox, the rubber coated buttons on the NYNE Bass are distinct blocks of material - perhaps there's a membrane switch underneath, but however they do it, the switches are solid - the whole thing feels incredibly well made.Pairing can be by standard BT search and pairing protocol, or you can use NFC to pair your phone with the NYNE Bass if your phone is so equipped -- I haven't tried that yet, but standard pairing has been excellent: it only took a few seconds. When I turned the NYNE Bass on, it wakes up in a few seconds and connects with the paired phone in just a few more seconds -- fastest and cleanest BT pairing I've experienced.The sound is, in a word, spectacular. My music source for this, so far, has been my LG G2 (VS980 on Verizon Wireless) using Google Play Music "All Access", giving me access to an incredibly wide variety of music. I've been exploring various genres with this, from Bach to B.B. King to Doobie Brothers, B52's, Joe Bonamassa, to Pink, Lady Gaga, Oscar Peterson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, AC/DC, Aloe Blacc, Pharrell, Maroon 5, Sia, Olly Murs, Pentatonix, etc. Wide variety indeed, and so far, it all sounds great on the NYNE Bass.At low, med and high volume levels, the sound is generally very well balanced. Even at low levels, the bass is pleasingly audible and punchy without being the least bit muddy or vague. As you increase volume, it remains balanced, and I find it pretty astounding that a portable speaker like this can fill a 15 x 22 foot room (my kitchen, for ex) with LOUD and clean music that sounds great, with balanced bass that you can feel -- and that's without cranking it up all the way....oh, and in case you didn't notice this in the spec, that was when I was listening purely on battery power. This speaker has a 4400mah battery estimated to provide 10 hours of untethered listening. Possible now to take this incredibly rich listening experience out onto my deck, on a picnic, out to the dog park while my puppy plays with his friends...on vacation if we drive down the shore (that's NJ for "visiting the beach") for a week.This is loud enough, clean enough, and has the presence you need to actually have a bunch of people over for a party.I'll add more after I've had more time with the speaker. But in the end: I'm positively thrilled with the purchase. Love the speaker, and I'm thinking now about putting one in a few other rooms around the house.Update a day later (4/2/15): I was working from home today, and had to participate in a number of conference calls. The speaker performed admirably. Everyone could hear me well, and the sound at my end was excellent.One item had concerned me: the built-in battery (I understand it to be a 4400mah Lithium battery - probably lithium polymer) is NOT officially user replaceable. This was an objection that a few people posted. Batteries in this class typically handle somewhere from 300 to 500 full charge / discharge cycles. With a cell phone, this is why built in batteries tend to hold noticeably shorter charges 14 to 18 months after purchase. I expect to leave the NYNE Bass plugged in much of time, and don't expect to be doing a full charge / discharge every day - or anywhere near that. So I'm guessing the built-in battery will likely be satisfactory for a few years. But... I submitted a support ticket via the NYNE website 3 days ago. I received an auto-response assigning me a ticket number, but nothing since then. I'm disappointed in that, but not overly worried...yet. I'm really hoping they don't skimp on customer support. I had read that somebody else was quoted $70 to have the battery replaced. I'm looking forward to learning more about this.In the meantime - using this speaker is a pleasure. Looks great, works very nicely and sounds great.UPDATE: 5/3/15 - So far, I still have NO reponse from NYNE regarding the ticket I submitted a few weeks ago asking about the battery. I was amused to receive an auto-generated follow up asking if I was happy with customer service, and I reiterated my disappointment that nobody had responded to my original ticket. Still no response at all from NYNE. Customer service seems to leave a lot to be desired there -- I truly hope they start paying attention to this. Amazon has demonstrated the incredible value of good customer experience, and it seems a shame that NYNE, putting out such a great product, might lose out in the marketplace due to poor customer support.Back to the product itself: NYNE Bass. So - I've been using this for a month since my last comments, and I love the speaker more than ever. Bluetooth handling is excellent. I've got the speaker paired to my laptop and phone, and my son paired his phone with it as well. Whichever device has bluetooth one when the speaker starts up grabs it right away. Both initial pairing and subsequent connection are fast and easy.The sound - wow. It continues to amaze me that this sounds so good. I've gone back to a couple of stores that stock competing products in the $150 to $300 price range, and this still sounds fantastic to me by comparison. Incredibly full sound, well balanced. Highs are crisp and clean without being harsh, and the bass is strong without sounds overly exaggerated (as you might find with many "Beats-era" products). The bass is also incredibly clean -- no muddiness at all. Very nicely done.As the weather has gotten nicer, I'd had the chance to take the NYNE Bass outdoors. I've used it sitting on a chair on my driveway while doing work on the car, and it's been on the back deck over the last couple of weekends while I've been rebuilding the deck and my kids have been helping with yard work and spring cleanup. The sound outdoors absolutely blows me away. Even without being against a wall, the speaker is LOUD - and clean - and the bass is incredibly apparently (and still balanced) even with this sitting outside in a 3/4 acre open yard. Amazing. Backed up to the exterior wall of the house, the sound carries farther. Oh - BTW, all of this outdoor experience happened with me using the speaker on battery power only. I didn't try running it down -- but I did use the speaker outdoors, on battery, with the volume cranked, for several hours, and didn't bother plugging in again until I'd bring it inside each evening. The volume / battery never faltered.Happier than ever with this purchase, and to my ears, it compares favorably with $300 speakers. The ONLY downside for me is the lack of response from Customer Service. Not too worried though. I'll track them down on the phone if ever needed, and the speaker seems to be sufficiently well made (as in rock solid) so that there's a good chance I won't have to worry about customer service for several years.Seriously thinking about adding these in a few more rooms of the house. This one is portable - but the sound is good enough so that it could make sense to have this equally accessible in several spots around the house. Very happy with this. Highly recommended.

I love the hell out of this speaker, and I've begun listening to music while messing around on my own and entertaining guests much more than I've been lately.I have a large master bedroom that very comfortably fits a queen bed, sofa, and two night stands against the wall that also has the door, with plenty of room for an L-shaped desk, entertainment set-up, etc on the opposite wall. This speaker fills the room with very robust high quality sound, slightly bass-heavy (which I like very much) and at top volume performs with little casually noticeable disturbances. In my opinion the sound is also incredibly good quality at low volume. At top volume the sound fills the room and can appear omnidirectional, and it certainly can overpower casual conversation with someone within 1-2 feet away. With my phone volume up all the way, the speaker wakes up my roommate on just the 4th volume notch, and ordinarily we hear almost nothing between the rooms. I've brought it outside on my balcony for parties and it can drown out conversation without walls on 3 sides for 43 floors down. I'd suggest following the recommendation and placing it 1-1.5 feet in front of a walk for the most robust and amplified bass. The Bluetooth works very well with my iPhone, allowing control of volume and Spotify, iTunes, etc., it connects quickly and stays connected until I'm about 10 feet out of the room (if you have trouble pairing when in search mode, just turn the speaker off and on to re-start the search, and press the Bluetooth button on your phone again). The speaker plays at medium volume on battery alone for several hours.I'm not an audiofile, sound geek, or tweeter connoisseur, but I'm a long-time percussionist and bass addict. I did significant research into this purchase, and for the size and cost (and probably $100+ more) you can't do better in this department. Note that I principally listen to percussive/tribal house (NYC underground), rap and R&B, and some dark pop or arguably gothic type stuff (think Lana Del Ray). Classic sounds decent but this isn't the best choice for that.It's worth mentioning that I initially bought this speaker for one totally idiosyncratic purpose that it wasn't well suited for: greatly amplifying an alarm clock app to help me wake up during high intensity periods of work, when I'm at risk of oversleeping. In the off-chance that you're looking for this too, or if a lightbulb just went off, the rest of the review is for you:I was surprised and initially annoyed to find that it shuts itself off to conserve battery after 30 mins out of use...it shuts off and drops Bluetooth at that time, so more needs to be done to get there. The set-up I use involves connecting the speaker to my MacBook using the included AUX cable to allay fears of a random Bluetooth hick-up. For those with Macs, in Settings there's an option to have a human voice announce the time at specified intervals (I go with the foxy sounding British lady), and set to 15-minute intervals. Turn the speaker up very high, but your computer volume down very low so it's just barely audible through the speaker and won't disrupt sleep. Download an alarm clock app that lets you set a volume override feature with each alarm, and crank that way up. And there you have it: now you too can be scared half to death and do the 6:30 am sprint across the room to shut it off when Drake screaming at you wakes you from your beauty rest. Like a more tolerable version of being drenched with cold water, in 7-8 months I haven't used snoozed once.