[Jam Man Jerry]

My Wifes birthday is comming up and she wants a Portable Speaker.  She teaches fitness classes (mostly spin and cross fit) and that will be its primary use.  Classes are about 60% indoor and 40% outdoor.  My budget is under $150.  Her requirements are that it  needs to be loud and sound good outdoors in areas like sports fields as well as in a room the size of 1 to 2 raquetball courts.  Typical class size is 5 to 10 people with it pushing up to 20 people on very rare occasions.  It also needs to be reasonably portable considering the other requirements.  Right now I am looking at the TKD LOR TREK-360 ($130 on Amazont) and NYNE Bass ($150 on Amazon).  They both have really good reviews from my research.  We are stationed in South Korea right now so unforutnantly I cannot goto a local store and try them out for myself.  I keep going back and forth between the two but I am leaning towards the TDK because it is also dust/ water resistant but Amazon says it will take 1 to 2 months to ship the other draw back i see is that it is only running Bluetooth 2.0 vs NYNE with Bluetooth 4.1.  I plan to order this week so any recomendations, espcially from first hand expirience would be greatly appricated.
 
Thanks Guys

 

[cel4145]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about which version Bluetooth the speakers is running for a fitness class that will sometimes be held outdoors. I think volume is going to be far and above THE most important consideration. Not only that, but your wife could plug an mp3 player (my sansa clip+ sounds great) or phone directly up to the speaker, which almost always gives you better sound with portable bluetooth speakers than using the wireless.

I haven't heard those speakers (I have the JBL Charge and TDK A33). The thing about the TDK 360 that would worry me is the 360 degree sound for outdoor use. Unless you put the speaker in the middle of the group doing the work out, much of the sound will be radiating away from those that are in the class. So I would guess, each speaker being roughly equally powerful, that I'd rather have a speaker that is direct radiating all of it's sound out from direction.

If you are in South Korea anywhere near a city, I would hope that there would be some bluetooth speakers that would be cheaper in a store there than what you could get shipped via Amazon from the US. South Korea is one of the leaders in electronics, after all. Seems worth checking it out if you can.

 

[Jam Man Jerry]

Thanks cel4145
I had also looked at the TDK A34 but was looking for something with a little more punch (I will plan to use the speaker on occasion myself).  I understand the A34 is basically an upgrade to the A33.  Can you comment on how your A33 performs in open spaces outdoors?
 
I agree that the plug is prefered method of hook up but she wants to be able to keep her phone with her to change music quickly on the fly during class as needed so thats why she wants bluetooth.
 
Even though a lot of electronics come out of this area of the world a lot of them are actually more expensive to buy locally than if purcahsed from the states.  (Koreans are willing to pay a premimum for Korean made products even if they are inferior to imports from what I have observed).  I haven't checked out audio gear but I know that is the case with things such as TV's and other large electronics.
 
I have a "US Address" so I do not pay international shipping which is why I have been looking at Amazon (I buy a lot of things off there).  At the PX on post I am limited to the likes of BOSE and Beats with a few other names I do not remember.  I don't want to pay for a name which is what I feel I would get with those.
 
Does anyone else have any other recomendations to look at or insight into the systems I have mentioned?

 

[cel4145]

I think the A33 does very well for it's size. That's the problem with these smaller, portable bluetooth speakers. They have small drivers, which limits them as to how loud they can get. But the A33 was definitely one of the better ones in its price range and size for volume. Now I just looked up the TDK 360. It has 4 x 1" drivers aimed in different directions; the A33 I believe has 2 x 1.5" drivers, but aimed in the same direction. So I would wonder if out doors if the 360 would do better unless everyone is around it.

I heard this one in Brookstone (their speaker).
http://www.brookstone.com/big-blue-party-indoor-outdoor-bluetooth-speaker
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Blue-Indoor-Outdoor-Bluetooth-Speaker/dp/B00H5SFQ54/
It gets pretty loud and has 4 x 2.5" drivers with a 5" subwoofer. And it weights 12 lbs

That's too bad about the electronics prices there. I would have been disappointed.

 

[Jam Man Jerry]

Just an update incase anyone was actually interested decided to try the Klipsch KMC 1.  It was a bad expirience and ended up returning it within the week.  While connected to bluetooth (when it would connect to bluetooth is more accurate) it sounded great.  Both audio quality and volume were suberp.  However bluetooth connection was constantly dropping out.  When connecting using 3.5mm plug max volume was half of what came in over bluetooth.  tried muliple cables and devices all to the same effect.  Couple poor audio quality when wired with bluetooth connectivity problems and I decided it was of no use.  During this same time period the NYNE Bass has dropped by $20 on amazon so I ordered that instead.  It should arrive this week sometime and will update on that one after breaking it in some.

 

[DopeMusic]

Hello, can anyone recommend for 30-35 available through Amazon (ITALY possibly)? All that matters is the bluetooth connection and the possibility to connect the player through AUX cable (Sorry for the english xD)