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!
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
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.
kuda26
