If stereo is not necessary then h/k Luna is a great portable option with great sound quality. Jbl flip 7 is also decent but battery life is pretty mediocre.
If stereo is needed Anker soundcore motion 300 is great for its price with decent stereo seperation and volume.
This is amongst the most impressive bluetooth speakers I've ever used.
Impactful bass but which in settings can dialed back some for clarity. Pretty detailed. Definitely better than the DOSS Ultra XL and at a fraction of the size. Compared to the Earboom L these are likely similar speakers but I think the Soundcore Motion 300 likely is better simply because it has much better codec support and more EQ app settings that are available. Earboom L does have 3.5mm which is unfortunately a rarity but the Motion 300 has LDAC.
The LDAC oddly enough is not installed out of the box and to enable LDAC you have to download the app and then update the speaker. It's a tiny update but kind of odd. Using adaptive LDAC I can definitely notice when it shifts between quality settings. I have it currently set on the highest quality LDAC and it is quite good.
A few things about portable bluetooth speakers. I find that I often have better experiences with these compared to earphones or standalone bookshelf speakers that are supposed to be a dozen feet away from you. There's something about having a speaker on your body and listening to the music come out from inches away from your face that makes these things really work, and especially in the past five years they've improved significantly compared to speakers ten years ago which often relied on SBC.
Probably this is because they can operate at lower volumes when closer to your ear so compared to bookshelf speakers the speaker material can be more forgiving due to the lower power. I have often noticed that at most concerts the detail of the music isn't actually very good and the best they can do is to simply boost the volume to something that is uncomfortable to listen to without earplugs.
But also compared to TWS or to wired IEM's speakers have better soundstages due to inherent properties and IMO give a better experience for music enjoyment even if they don't have as good detail as a wired IEM might. Of course TWS is invaluable as earplugs when in public places and wired IEM's shine on subway or public transit where you can't use a bluetooth speaker.
I have it enabled but it doesn't seem that drastic to me.
This thing also has white noise and "brain boost" settings in the app. This is kind of a big deal since Endel wants to charge like $8 a month for similar features.
I really like mine too. The only thing I have came to dislike is the soundcore app, after they added an AI component for no reason. I don't need that on a bluetooth speaker app...
My favorite TWS earbuds *for the price* would be a pair of **Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro.**
They are extremely comfortable with reliable wireless pairing and latency. The tonality is very good and they are extremely accurate to the Harman in-ear target, so they should closely track to the sound of a tonally neutral speaker, minus the room interaction.
And I am specifically saying the Buds**2** Pro, not the Buds3 Pro that replaced them. Those are less tonally accurate than the Buds2 Pro. And IMO, the form factor and comfort are worse. The downside is that the Buds2 Pro are no longer being actively produced. The upside is that open-box units and new-old stock is pretty cheap to buy. This is an example listing:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267222614087
I get that $60 seems like a lot to spend on open-box ear buds. But IMO, they are far better than pretty much any $60 option you can buy new.
Sound quality wise, I'd consider these better than the Apple Airpods Pro 2/3. The Airpods have better ANC and mic quality in my experience. But purely for movie/music sound quality, the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro are the best of the easily available wireless options. The AKG N400NC were even better as far as TWS earbuds went, but those are also discontinued and far more difficult to find in decent condition for a fair price.
If you want a speaker option, I would get something like the **Anker Soundcore Motion 300**:
https://www.amazon.com/Soundcore-Bluetooth-SmartTune-Technology-Waterproof/dp/B0CDJWTWMB/
I'm not going to claim that it is top-tier in terms of sound quality. But for the use case and price, it's very solid. It will sound better than the hotel TV speakers, and get louder. It will easily pair with the TV. It will fit easily in a suitcase without taking up too much space or adding too much weight (way too many people forget to consider this). It's waterproof, so you can bring it into the bathroom and use as a shower speaker. At less than $100, it won't hurt too much if it gets lost or stolen in your travels. And finally, if you really wanted to go balls out, you can buy two of them and pair them together to form a true stereo setup (not dual mono like most dual bluetooth speaker setups).
AciVici
