Soundmatters made a few (sine) waves last year with the introduction of its awfully cute foxL Bluetooth speaker, but for those preoccupied with other matters, there's nothing wrong with snagging v2 in order to catch up. The pocket-sized (5.6- x 2.2- x 1.4-inches) speaker sports new BT circuitry that allows for 3x better reception than the prior version, and it also automatically pairs and searches for Bluetooth devices. Users can now answer and terminate a call from the speaker itself, and as expected, you'll also get a bit more volume out of this one compared to the original. The rechargeable battery will keep the jams spinning for five hours on a full charge, and if the international charging prongs weren't enough, there's also the option to regenerate over USB. It's set to ship later this month to jet-setting music junkies for $199, while a wired (read: non-BT) variant will go for $30 less.
posted December 1st 2009 11:08AM
A minute of warning to all... if you listen to music with bass then this speaker gets real distorted real quick. If using it to add some boost to your laptop while watching a movie, completely awesome product.
Just get some good heaphones... they probably have better sound quality even when used as speakers.
A Sony SRSBTM30 is working well for the GF and I, not exactly pocket size but easily portable anyway. I paid $49 a couple of months ago, the price is $70 today.
Volume control over BT with my MT3G works great, but not at all from the GF’s 3GS.
As an fyi...the new V2 also has smoother deeper low frequency output capability and it less likely to overload, playing up to 3dB louder... of course it does have limitations and will distort if deep bass is played to loud - and yep, I do work for the company.
@somalee Since you work for the company, I have the original FoxL. I've been really disappointed with the battery. I use my speaker at my lab bench maybe once a week, and then when I travel (about once a month) in my hotel room. I have never, ever had the battery work for more than 20 minutes. Every time I try to use it, the battery is dead. I charge it, and the battery is dead. Is it a Nickel Cadmium battery? It sure behaves like one.
I'm a bit disappointed hearing about all the improvements and lower price and it's less than a year since my purchase.
I use the Blueant M1 Bluetooth speaker with my iPhone. You can't answer calls from the speaker, but I usually have my phone close anyway. It sounds better than this speaker because it has a bass boost button, great battery, sounds great, and can get really loud. It comes with a headphone plug for non-bluetooth devices. I use it all the time in my house and don't turn it louder than halfway because it can get that loud. It lives up to the specs of around 10 hours of battery life too! It comes with a case for the speaker. I take it to the beach all the time, just put my phone in a plastic bag to keep it safe from the sand. Just letting people know there are other options that to me seem better. And nope, I don't work for the company.
Is it loud though? No point in having a little portable speaker that no one can hear!
The Foxl is the best portable, battery powered speaker for its size that I've heard. Nice to see them improving the technology and decreasing the price at the same time.
"I'm rockin the suburbs! Just like Michael Jackson did. I'm rockin the suburbs. They said that he was talented."
I'm surprised no one made that comment. Does no one know Ben Folds? I'm assuming that's why they titled it this. Great song, PS.
Responding to Brad S... The battery on your foxL certainly should last much longer than 20 minutes; there must be a problem with it. Please contact our tech support folks, 800.698.7662x2 or support@soundmatters.com, and it'll be replaced for you.
As to our updates...we have to keep improving our products, and a yearly product cycle is pretty common these days. We were able to reduce the new model's price by using the industrial design and enclosure from our earlier model (which was fully amortized over our initial model).