Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Well, I'm an audiophile with a $30,000 dedicated stereo system in a dedicated room and have written many in-depth reviews of high-end audio equipment for a premier review site. I find the negative reviews of this speaker unfortunate as this speaker is capable of very satisfying and high quality sound, but like most higher quality audio products it requires a little more effort to get the best out of it. Specifically, for starters you want to play some music through it for at least 50 hours before making any assessments of its sound. This is because right out of the box the drivers will be stiff and need to loosen up before they will sound as designed, and the internal electronics inside the speaker also need to burn in. Next, especially if the speaker will often be situated below ear height (but even if not) I'd highly recommend purchasing the associated ADS1 speaker "stands" as they aim the tweeters more toward your ears, which is critical as the high frequency sound from tweeters is highly directional and could be significantly compromised/decreased if your ears are well above or below the tweeters' axis. Secondly and also importantly, the rubber stands do a good job of damping vibrations between the speaker and whatever surface it's on, which improves bass tightness and evenness as well as overall imaging. These details may explain many of the reviews that found the B2 to be bass heavy or mushy sounding. Oh, and while we're on this topic, if sound quality is important and you want to hear the B2 at its best, REMOVE THE GRILL WHEN LISTENING. It blocks the sound -- especially the treble -- when it's on. The grill is more for protecting the drivers from prying fingers when not in use. THIS NEXT PIECE IS CRITICAL. The B2 is a pretty revealing of whatever quality is fed into it precisely because it uses higher quality components than most other products in this class. Many other competitors boost bass and lower mids and attenuate upper treble so basically all music will sound the same through it. They'll never sound accurate or great, but they'll pretty much always sound appealing no matter what's fed into them. If that's what you're after, the B2 may not be for you. But there's something most people ignore that can make the B2 sound significantly better than almost all of the others. In your phone or whatever you're using for a sound source you can go into the audio settings and choose from several preset equalization options usually labelled "Jazz," "Rock," etc. These settings vary the sound you'll hear greatly, so it's critical you at least go through them with some of your music to find the one or two that sound best to you. The B2 will reward you substantially for your effort with likely significantly improved sound. Even better, if your phone, tablet, or whatever has an option called "Equalizer" or the like you may have the ability to customize the sound you hear to your specific preferences (rather than being limited to the above preset options) by giving you the ability to adjust individual frequencies from the low bass up through the midrange and up to the high treble. Don't worry, this is easy and if you take some time to play with it and you'll likely find a personal setting you prefer to any of the preset options. That's what I did and the B2 rewarded with very well balanced and pleasing sound that greatly surpassed most other wireless speakers I've heard. If it at all helps get you started with this, a good curve to start with would look something like a small letters "nr" next to each other with the lowest bass frequency starting at the midline and rising a little before decreasing to the midline in the midrange and then increasing back up again and leveling off at the highest treble a good bit above the midline. You'll see what I mean once you're in the equalizer. Again, if you put some effort in at the beginning the B2 has the resolution and refinement to produce very nice sound. Basically, garbage in garbage out. The B2 will let you hear it either way. Don't be afraid to play around with it to ultimately find what sounds best to you. Lastly, there were some comments about the B2 sounding narrow unless you're sitting in front of it. I had the B2 out in a field while we played a waffle ball game and the sound does get compromised if you move off axis as it does with many high-end speakers. To mitigate this I turned the B2 up on its narrow end, and the sound literally filled the whole field with more than adequate volume and even decent bass. If you have the B2 in a larger space or in a party type situation you might want to try this if placement allows. By the way, I left the B2's volume controller on the rear at the mid level permanently and adjusted volume from my phone, and the speaker was always plenty loud enough so that's what I recommend doing. Sorry for the length of this post, but especially if you're willing to follow the steps above (or even if you're not) the B2 is a very well made and great sounding speaker that will reward you more than most competitors out there.