Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Shopping for small portable speakers is often a hit or miss proposition. This is especially true with Bluetooth speakers, where the sound quality may have been sacrificed in favor of features. Then there is this one. The Sound Cannon Wireless Portable Bluetooth Speaker from Roker is designed to work with the iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android and all Bluetooth-enabled devices. It's available in glossy black and matte red, but I bought this one in the silver finish. It turned out better than expected as the silver portion is actually stainless steel... it passed the magnet test. But there are plenty of attractive small speakers out there, so here are my subjective key points: ◆ Likes: + Compact design; ~ 2¼" in diameter, ~ 2" high + Sturdy product; stainless steel upper body, rugged enough for travel + Excellent sound quality; 3W power, 200Hz-16kHz frequency response + Easy Bluetooth pairing; has a range of ~30 feet + USB charging port; charges in ~3 hours, cable included + Non-slip base; won't slide off of desk surface in use + Accepts TF (microSD) cards; handy for music storage ◆ On the Fence: ± The 5V/400mAh rechargeable Li-Ion battery may not be user replaceable ◆ In Use: The Sound Cannon Wireless Portable Bluetooth Speaker came in a no-nonsense, easy to open cardboard box. Inside was the speaker itself, an 18" combination USB/speaker cord, and a simple instruction sheet in English. Charged the speaker (LED indicates charge level, etc.) for about three hours, then proceeded to set it up for use. The directions are clear, and Bluetooth pairing directions made it easy to set this speaker up, first on my Samsung Galaxy S III Android phone, then on my Kindle Fire HDX 7" tablet. The sound quality was surprisingly rich, and even more so when the protective film was removed from the base of the speaker. It has a non-slip base that also serves to enhance the sound quality when placed on the desktop... very clever. There is a small slot to the left of the multipurpose USB port which allows for memory cards, such as the Sandisk 16GB 16G Micro SDHC Class 4 TF Memory Card with Micro SD Card Reader to be inserted for music playback. If you store your music files on one of these cards, this can be very useful. Tried this out with some original recordings made with my TASCAM DR-05 Portable Digital Recorder by pulling the microSDHC card from that unit, and the playback sound quality was quite good. ◆ Summary: This Sound Cannon Wireless Portable Bluetooth Speaker from Roker is a good one that lives up to its promises, especially in terms of overall functionality and quality of sound. My only reservations have to be with the rechargeable Li-Ion battery, which may not be user replaceable, and for that I will dock ½-star from this review, which may be changed if Roker verifies that it can be replaced. But overall, after a couple of months use, I'll round it up to being a 5-star portable speaker that truly exceeded expectations, especially for the price. It's a small speaker that offers big sound. JW 12/29/2013