it will always have power next to it but batteries would be nice.
bluetooth is pretty much required but if you can sweet talk me out of it do try.
do not need any smart functionality
does not need waterproofing/dustproofing/shock resistance
needs to sound good at high volume levels because it will be in a machine shop environment (low distortion)
aiming for under $200
preferably available on Amazon but not required
I’ve been comparing the JBL charge 3 and flip 4. There is a person at work with a charge 3 but they dont work by me and dont use it that much so I dont know how it performs.
Even a 2.1 stereo shelf system would work but it cant be massive.
thoughts?
also another thread coming soon because I need 20x the amount of vaporwave I have now because I work 60 hours a week
I don’t personally own one, but I have heard the sound outta the small Bose Bluetooth speaker and it’s impressive. It’s the Sound Link Mini II. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like you can buy them new on amazon anymore. Really too bad cuz it was a great sounding speaker.
EDIT: Looks like you can still buy them from Costco if that helps.
I have the full size SoundLink and it’s pee goo. I don’t use it much but it gets plenty loud. You could roll your own solution with your own speakers which would make for neat project and might sound better for less $$
I own a flip 3 and I love it. The flip 4 has a marginal sound clarity improvement, and is waterproof(where mine is not). The charge 3 is basically a flip 4 with bit more volume, bass, and 2x the battery life. With the additional ability to charge your phone. So given that you need one that gets fairly loud I would go with the charge 3.
Chromecast audio is not a bad idea. I started going down the RPi route to build something for streaming when I realized I could just get a Chromecast audio for cheaper than did exactly what I needed… and much smaller.
I’ve been wanting to get the JBL Xtreme for the garage. It’s sub $200 on Amazon right now. Would that be overkill for your box?
The CC audio is just more hardware dragging you into the google account. They are cheap and even have optical out but they are also listening to whatever you are listening to. Even if you wanna run only spotify or something.
Yes, I know, but I also have an Android phone in my pocket the majority of the time so there’s really no point in me losing sleep over them jamming to my Spotify streams on the CCA because that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the data they have on me.
not only will it last days of use 4-6? but it charges while still playing, its on from waking up to shower / breakfast, throw on my bag for bike to work, at work and back home. if it starts to die USB it for a few hours? it seems to have 6 volume levels
1: can hear if on me
2: can hear well
3: around the house
4: unnecessarily loud
5: rude
6: uncharted territory
again back to the it charges while playing, i keep a battery pack in my bag and just plug it in… my god i love this thing