Milwaukee - M12 Radio + Charger 2951-20

If all you will use it for is the Bluetooth speaker and not the radio the newer cylindrical m12 for its size is ok, my coworker has it and it’s significantly louder than mine- I have the older style m12 that’s rectangular and has a radio. I have to say I wasn’t blown away by the sound quality but it isn’t bad. If I were to choose between the two having neither I’d buy the newer one he has, as I really very rarely listen to radio. All that said I was working in a garage for months during the winter and wanted something that was gonna make some real noise and I have m18 and m12 batteries. I tried every m18 radio they make other than the flat packout one and returned all of them. Hooked up to my phone none of them seemed loud to me in the garage. I had recently been looking at JBL because I thought it might be a better value but never got around to pulling the trigger on one. Sadly I’ve just said fuck a radio lately (very unlike me) and have just been going AirPods all day. Pros and cons to that of course but I definitely prefer a radio experience all things considered if you can find one that’s a good fit for your work environment.

So I currently have a few of the Anker Soundcore line of speakers, some Skullcandy, JBL, Sony, Ryobi, and Milwaukee's 2950-20, 2951-20, 2891-20, and 2955-20, which is both M12 and M18 packout speakers and two of the Jobsite radios. I have had many other speakers in the past. It really depends on if you are looking for a speaker for the quality of the audio, one that's more portable and easy to carry around, or if you have a lot of batteries you can swap so it can always be in use. Basically, what's your priority for it? Quality wise, the Bose/Sony/established audio brands *will* be better quality audio, but that's mostly at the loudest volumes there will be less distortion. The average person can't really tell a quality difference when volume is at 50-75%. For a power tool brand, I've actually been pretty impressed with Milwaukee's, but of course it's going to depend on how much $ each costs. the higher the cost, the better the quality, just like every brand. Depending on your budget, the newest M12 packout and little M18 Jobsite speaker are great options, depending on what battery platform you are mostly on. I have to say though, unless you are planning on securing it to your packout, the M12 packout one is not very sturdy standing up on its own without it being secured. especially if you are you using an M12 battery that doesn't have the flat square part to stand on (like the 3ah, 4ah, 5ah, or 6ah). The M18 packout one is awesome, except for if you need to move it around without it being on a rolling packout stack. it's heavy to be picking up a lot, and pretty big. My favorite one has been discontinued I think (2891-20), but it was my favorite because of the quality and because it took M12 and M18 batteries, I loved the versatility of it. I also have a few gripes with the M12 packout speaker besides how it sits, but it also has the newest thing where it can sync with other speakers and play the same thing out of all of the ones synced together, I like that feature. I've been an audiophile for as long as I can remember, I used to be an audio engineer in a past life, that's what I went to school for. Speakers and headphones are my kind of my thing. good luck picking one!

I bought this on a HD glitched bundle that ended up being like $65 bare tool. I like it, but honestly, it doesn't really sound much different than the M12 Bluetooth radio. I like that it has packout compatability though. That was a very nice touch. But if you already have the m12 radio, imo I don't think it's really worth it.

Have you messed with the audio settings? My speaker already had the bass levels raised out of the box. After lowering it and playing the same song through both speaker and radio, I couldn't tell much of a difference. I would say though, the bass boost on the new speaker is noticeably better. But for the most part, they're very close imo.

I bought this on a HD glitched bundle that ended up being like $65 bare tool. I like it, but honestly, it doesn't really sound much different than the M12 Bluetooth radio. I like that it has packout compatability though. That was a very nice touch. But if you already have the m12 radio, imo I don't think it's really worth it.

Have you messed with the audio settings? My speaker already had the bass levels raised out of the box. After lowering it and playing the same song through both speaker and radio, I couldn't tell much of a difference. I would say though, the bass boost on the new speaker is noticeably better. But for the most part, they're very close imo.

Nice! Really been thinking about getting one after watching all of "jagist reviews" on YT doing some side by side comparisons....then I won a big Milwaukee bluetooth speaker at work yesterday. It's...ok, and I'm grateful. Just makes it harder to justify spending money on a speaker when I got a serviceable one for free lol

Milwaukee hands down. No worries about the internal battery failing and turning the whole unit into a useless brick. I

I have both as well and think the new speaker is far superior.

I got one and really like it, especially the mounting/hanging options and mobility compared to my Makita DMR115. The sound quality is very good and the bass is fine - make sure to max out the bass in the speakers equalizer settings!

I was doing electrical inside a small addition and next thing you knwo my homie brings in his new toy and started blasting this 10 feet away from the building. I could hear it loud and clear, with bumping bass. He's charging his phone with that speaker too. I'm an M18 guy but this M12 is definitely worth investing.

For $129 and being used frequently, its better than the M18 invertor that's $100 and rarely gets used outside of charging phones.

Its probably on par with JBL, and yeah their speakers like this are over $100, last I checked, so this is a good choice since its battery is interchangeable.

Here ya go buddy. Its pleasantly good for something so small https://preview.redd.it/ocojosjwrhkf1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=921d0e0dd369d9fe1b426f9450f690c0d4710bd4

When on full, it sounds like somebody is throwing a loud house party. I could be wrong because I haven't had a JBL for a while since I switched over to earbuds, but this is pretty good.

Son of a bitch I bought the speaker 2 weeks ago at full price

Its a great speaker. Its almost as good as JBL plus you can link multiple speakers together and turn the whole house into a nightclub. 4xc battery gives you 10hrs on medium volume I believe

Yeah, I got in on that deal too. I bought two, in the hopes that the "audio link" feature could make them work in proper stereo. However, that wasn't the case, so I returned one set. They accidentally refunded me for both. Oops. That said, I don't really have a use for the batteries, so I'll probably try and sell them locally. But, the speaker is quite good, and certainly better than you'd expect from a tool company. It's also built a lot better than your typical audio brand speakers, and would definitely survive a fall or other accident better.

Milwaukee's speakers can be hit or miss. Some good, some bad. It's obvious you've never actually given this one a chance, since your assessment simply isn't accurate for this one.

>I have heard it, as a matter of fact. It suffers from the same sound distortion and bass issues as all of the other Milwaukee speakers that I've heard, and produces far inferior sound quality to similarly sized speakers from UE or JBL. It sounds like the one you listened to was defective. Mine does not have those issues. It compares favorably to multiple JBL and UE speakers that I've listened to. >It's obvious that you don't give a shit about audio quality Interesting assumption. Wrong, but hey, you do you boo. >and like to make asinine assumptions about other people's points of view and experiences. Says the poster who just made an asinine assumption about my views and experiences.

I have it, and it sounds just as good as the JBLs I've heard, which are considered very good amongst speakers this size. And, you don't have to worry about the batteries wearing out or going bad and turning the speaker into a paperweight. Those complaining about the lack of bass are simply expecting too much out of a speaker this size. The Bose speakers make it "sound bigger," but at a huge cost to actual sound quality. I'd rather have good sound, than fake, bloated bass.

Don't get me wrong; I love good bass. The key is **good** bass, not fake, bloated bass.

Well, for many of us, we already have way too many batteries. They'd just go unused and rot away.

Live mine, no problems whatsoever, and great sound. No idea why others say otherwise.

Sound quality is fine but every Milwaukee speaker has Bluetooth issues and is always hard to connect but at that price I might still snag it

$129 with two “free” 2.0s was worth it for me. Bought last week, I’m happy with it. I wish it had a radio function, but the sound is good and I can charge other stuff with it.

not the greatest speaker but it makes up for it by being M12 and matching the rest of your tools. durability is nice too ig

It’s a great speaker for what it’s designed to do. The other day I had it going for several hours with a 3.0 battery and it still shows fully charged.

I swear the box said it was like 200 feet... I've never been more than ten away yet.

I bought this when it first came out and yes it's fricking awesome. Bought a second one because it was free with a battery purchase. You can connect a ridiculous amount of them together, granted I've only tried 2 but they're still cool.

I have it and I think it’s good too! It doesn’t have that tin can sound. There’s a larger m18 that was introduced and it sounds really really good.

I’ve had one for about 6 months and found it to be a great speaker . Not as loud as a JBL or not as much bass but I did accidentally run it over with a hay wagon and it’s still working as designed .

I’m a big fan of the new M18 and M12 Bluetooth speakers. Amazing sound quality and the M12 one is PACKOUT compatible. Plus with audio link you can combine hundreds of them I believe to create a surround sound on the job.

I have an older M12 Bluetooth speaker. Of all the things I have owned over the years, it has the absolute best Bluetooth connectivity of all of them. If I'm playing music and walk out of range for less than 5 or 10 minutes, it instantly connects again when I'm near it. I don't have to push any buttons, it just automatically reconnects. The range is phenomenal, the sound is decent and the battery lasts a good long time. Hopefully they haven't screwed them up.

The benefit is the battery. Other brands are basically toast when the battery dies. M12 should be around a while.