Soundmatters foxLV2 Platiunum Portable Pocket-Sized Bluetooth Speaker (Silver)

This is a comparative review of six Bluetooth portable speakers: Denon envaya mini, Bose soundlink (full size), Bose soundlink mini, Jawbone mini-Jambox , Beats Pill portable, and Soundmatters foxLV2 Platinum Portable Pocket-Sized Bluetooth Speaker (Silver). Each one is good for what it is. Which one you will like depends on your needs and your musical tastes.I listen to a lot of classical music, from opera to Bach keyboard to symphonies. I also like Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Willie Nelson, Beatles, Django Reinhardt, Elton John, Otis Redding, Diana Krall, 50’s early rock and roll, and just about everything from the 1930’s and ‘40’s. For me clarity and a clean warm sound is essential and both not enough and too much bass are equally problematic to my ears.My source for comparison has been my iPhone 6 playing my own CD’s downloaded to the phone, and occasionally my iPad or MacAir, usually by Bluetooth and once in a while by connecting cable. My test music is Bach’s Goldberg Variations with Glenn Gould’s later performance, Miles Davis All Blues from Kind of Blue, Louis Armstrong Body and Soul, Mahler Symphony No. 5, a Heifetz recording from the late 1930’s, Django Reinhardt Moonglow, Chordettes Mr. Sandman, Queen Don’t Stop Me Now, and Willie Nelson Highwayman. I also listened to at least one 3 minute selection from an audiobook for each speaker.Bottom line: for portability nothing surpasses the foxLV2 Platinum. The sound has the clarity I value and the size is perfect for travel. The volume will not fill an entire room but everyone in a typical hotel bedroom can enjoy the music. It also works as a phone speaker and is outstanding for those who listen to books on Audible.com.For best sound without respect to size an argument can be made for the Bose Soundlink full size and the mini, and my favorite, the Denon envaya mini. The full size Bose has the best bass of the group, a touch too much for me. The mini is a much better deal, and the cost to sound ratio is excellent. The Denon is on the large size for travel, though weighs less than the full size Bose.The Beats and the Jawbone are less expensive and most surely do the job. The Jawbone is smaller but the Beats has a richer sound.Full disclosure: I own the Denon, foxLV2, and two Jawbone. The others belong to close friends and relatives. One Jawbone simply refuses to link with my iPhone6, though it did link with my old iPhone 5S. I travel everywhere with the foxLV2 and use my Denon at home and at my office. The Jawbone is a spare in the garage for when I do stuff there.Finally, there are many excellent and thoughtful reviews of nearly every Bluetooth speaker. Ultimately it all boils down to your ear, your musical taste, your use of the speaker (travel or other), and your pocket book. As they say, “Your mileage may vary.”

The FoxL v2.2 Platinum is absolutely stunning in it's ability to offer true high-end audio performance at such little cost in such a portable package. No other competitor - from Jambox to Bose - deliver this much resolution or captures this much of the high-end audio experience in a single unit. Music is neutral, dynamic, and extremely transparent, and together with the included high-quality Audioquest cable, provides a sense of "snap" and "speed" to the music that I simply haven't heard at this price. It was this sense of very clear, articulated dynamics that absolutely floored me - I would never expect to hear transients this transparent, clean, clear, and detailed coming out of something so small. Listening to some jazz (Dexter Gordon's "Go"), the FoxL projected Dexter's saxophone well above and forward of the unit, tracking his every inflection to a degree I normally associate with much bigger high-end setups. Bass was present (if not overwhelming), while Billy Higgins' cymbals had just the right amount of sheen and was remarkable in its realism. I had to keep doing a double take to remind myself this was coming out of the FoxL.It is remarkably full-range too (well, up to 8 octaves on its own), but yet this is not something that will rattle the walls with bass. What is there is clean and clear, much like a good pair of mini-monitors. However, I much prefer bass to be accurate than loud, and here the FoxL delivered bass lines that were always clean and clearly articulated. (That said, the accompanying subwoofer (FoxLO) might be a worthwhile investment if you want those last few octaves and a little more weight, but that is for another review). I also found that a significant amount of break-in time was needed to hear all that it is capable of, and in my experience a good 20 hours or so of full-range music was enough to open up the sound and reach into those bottom octaves (not sure if it was the unit or the cable that needed break-in but I broke in both). It is also very sensitive to level-setting: expect to spend some time dialing in the right level on both the unit as well as the source, as this was key to getting good sound. As a high-resolution playback device, it is quite easy to overload the unit, so I had to adjust levels fairly frequently at first to get the strongest, cleanest output.A note on usage: the FoxL is designed to be a near field system and I believe it performs best when you listen up close accordingly. Although it can easily fill a small room with music, the magic happens when you are seated in front of it not more that 2 feet away. The company provides instructions on different ways to connect the unit and I found it sounded best as a direct connection (ie., using the included Audioquest cable instead of bluetooth). That said, the bluetooth functionality was seamless and actually sounded pretty good too on its own, and that is with an IPhone 6 Plus as the source.I am still astonished at how good this thing sounds - and the fact that it is no bigger than a large candy bar, has a cool little pouch, easily fits into your pocket, and lasts 20 hours on a single charge was enough to make me want to carry this thing around with me everywhere I go, along with my phone and wallet. I have an instant high-end stereo in my pocket that can go anywhere - a true high end audio triumph if there ever was one. If you are a music lover and appreciate high-quality playback, you simply must get one immediately.