Used - Good Condition, Speakers only, no box nor charger.
T**D
Good speaker, some limitations.
This Sinoband s100 speaker looks great and sounds great, so why am I giving it only two stars?Whenever it is connected by bluetooth, it "skips." In fact, what appears to be happening is that in moments of silence (which can be just a quarter-note pause in a song, or a podcaster taking a breath before continuing a discussion, etc.) the speaker seems to switch off (maybe it's going into a sleep mode, maybe its losing the signal...) in any case, it switches from very quiet to silent. It resumes almost immediately afterward, but "almost" isn't good enough. You will reliably miss the first part of the sound. (In my case, I was listening to a podcast which mentioned Bach (the composer). The sentences "But some composers are not like that. Bach, for instance..." consistently came out as "But some composers are not like that. Ach, for instance..." After a pause (even the short pause for a period at the end of a sentence) the next sound is always clipped. This kind of bluetooth dropout makes the speaker useless for listening to news or podcasts, and only tolerable for musical pieces that don't contain any silence. I confirmed this by rewinding the same bit of audio, playing it in different places throughout the house and at different distances from my phone -- in all cases it skipped at the same point of the audio (so, this is not environmental distortion, etc., it's almost certainly a flaw in the speaker itself.)Otherwise, the speaker comes with a nice faux leather case, it looks great (amazingly slim), very good top volume, etc. It has two minor design flaws both due to making it so slim -- first, the disk in the middle is actually a woofer, it pulses out of the dimensions of the rest of the box, so, the box cannot rest on (or even against) anything, it must stand alone; second, the box is very thin has tiny "feet" and is rounded on all edges, so, it is extremely easy to knock over (just walking past it made mine fall over, instantly scratching the shiny woofer disk).Those flaws would cost at most a single star, but the bluetooth skipping, clipping, dropout, or however you'd describe it is a complete deal breaker. The best case scenario for this beautiful (though now scratched) speaker is to end up on a permanent wired connection (the only way to avoid the clipping) on a countertop somewhere. If I can't make that work, I'll be giving it to goodwill.UPDATE: after living with this speaker for a long time, I'm upgrading it to 4 (of 5) stars. The "cut out" or "skip" behavior I noticed before still persists, but it is now much less common than it was before (I have no explanation for this, except maybe better drivers or newer Android versions made a difference). The sound it still quite good (as above). At night I will set this on a shelf on the far wall of the bedroom and watch Netflix on my tablet with my wife at the other side of the room, the sound fills the room in a very pleasant fashion. I am still frustrated by the thin profile (it looks good, but adds little, especially when the thing falls down), and the vibrating cone (the central driver moves in and out, beyond the dimensions of the rest of the box, so, if it falls over, it rattles, constantly lifting itself up and dropping itself back down). Still, time has shown this is a good speaker, I am improving my review.
Y**!
Sounds TERRIBLE!!! SO disappointed
Remember those little AM radios of the late 60s, early 70s? With their tinny, static sound? Well, this brought me right back to my childhood, and listening to the fuzzy tinny little speaker poolside.Let me back up--I should describe the stellar presentation: I was leaving the house and noticed the mailman had passed by, and left me a padded envelope in the mail box. I thought it might be some fabric until I picked it up and thought, "that's pretty heavy...what did I order?" I was expecting this to come from amazon in a box, with my other items, and I thought this was one of those things you buy on ebay, from China, that get sent to you in flimsy wrap, and when they arrive seem beat to crap.I opened it when I returned home, and out slipped this player. AND ONLY THIS PLAYER. No "slip cover case" as mentioned in the listing, no cables, no instructions even (and it's got multifunction buttons--a plus and a minus that serve as track advance, but also as volume, depending on how you press them.)Annoyance.What really got me, was that it was scuffed and there's a dent on the side panel where the USB cable (the non existent cable) would plug in. It appears to have been dropped. Repeatedly."Ok, get over it...you got a deal. For $20 with shipping...what if its sound blows you away?" I thought... HAH!I plugged my Mini SD card in, and after the really loud blooping and bleeping of the bluetooth (still have no idea about all the things it does or should do) I started turning the volume up to test it. It sounded terrible. I mean, so bad I was embarrassed that I'd tried it out with my husband around. He just looked at me like I was a fool. UGH! The reviews were so good! And spec-wise, it should sound better than my cambridge Oonzt (it wishes!) It's going back, I assured my hubby.This morning I thought "maybe it was just a fluke" And tried it again. The buzzy-fuzzy sound is only inaudible at the lowest volume.At anything above a whisper, it is fuzzy and tinny. Sounds like those old tin can telephones you made as a kid "Hello? can you hear me? Yes...can you hear me?" Only now it's music I remember once making me want to get up and dance...now it only makes me want to cry.There is absolutely NO bass. So, my guess is if you just want to listen to spoken word--audio books, or maybe something without a lot of low end, like a piccolo flute symphony, then this might work for you.The thing is HEAVY--like twice the weight (or more) than my Cambridge Oontz, and the sound is nowhere in the ballpark with that thing.. It's like comparing a toothless bag-lady to a supermodel...The only reason I deviated from my Oontz is that it doesn't accept TF cards, and you can only connect to it via bluetooth--which is ok, but I have a small mp3 player that I swap out TF cards, and can carry zillions of songs, and audiobooks, and so forth. I don't want to load all that stuff onto my iphone and then use the battery up streaming music, I'd rather use my small player.PS--I'm adding a second star because of the very fast reply from the vendor, and return slip (also, the good belly laugh in the instructions for sending it back in a box, carefully padded, and to include all the accessories--good one! Granted, that's a default blurb from amazon, but it was still funny.)I'm sorry this thing didn't work out, because I had great hopes for it. I work as a nurse in the OR, and we listen to music ALL the time, and I could see this thing following me all around my life--but it's embarrassingly tinny.PPS: I'm taking that star back as I had to pay for shipping, AND THEY EXPECT ME TO PAY FOR RETURN SHIPPING FOR A DEFECTIVE ITEM! I probably will just save myself the effort of packaging it and shipping it and the cost--I'm going to be out $10, to get back 15. SERIOUSLY? Screw Amazon and its vendors, I'm done.
S**R
Barely earned 2 stars.
The Bluetooth portable speaker market is crowded so you really need to make a decent product for it to be a stand out. Fortunately, for consumers there are many choices, even in this price range. There are loads of speakers in this price range that are better than this speaker. I made an error when ordering and tried to cancel it before it arrived. However once it arrived I decided to open it and give it a listen. I packaged it up immediately.It does feel pretty solid for it size. It comes with a beautiful leather carrying case. I ordered the gun metal silver and it is a nice looking speaker.Now, I have a multitude of speakers, at various price points so I am not a snob. I am not comparing this speaker to any other speaker. It stands on its own merits and believe me when I say, it is worse than a transistor radio. Since I said I am not comparing it to anything else, I won't make suggestions as to what I think you should buy but, I strongly urge you not to make this purchase unless you are going to give it to a small child.With all due respect, this should be a $15 speaker. Please note: Six(6) of the 5 star reviewers were given the speaker for their (unbiased) review.
C**Y
This is a great little speaker
This is a great little speaker. Only issue is with the lack of controls. All functions have been applied to a few buttons so that you mistakingly change a song when you meant to turn the volume up! Great sound though even at loud volume.
Trustpilot
3 weeks ago
1 week ago
