Bill Brasky—August 27, 2025
The whole point to getting these was to pair them, and they won't pair. It's probably my fault, theres some trick I'm not "getting" and it's simple, but it evades me and I gave up. I wanted one by my chair, and the other in the kitchen, so I didn't have to pause a podcast when i go for a beverage. Whatever. So I came up with a different set-up with different speakers, and this pair is now my yard set. They sound really good, and I swap out the dead one for a fresh one when the battery dies. They're waterproof and (relatively) small and durable. Plenty loud for me in the yard, I only turn them up to about 50 or 60% and thats more than enough. I don't abuse my neighbors. Sitting 10 ft away on a normal patio, they sound clear, and the batts last a good while - maybe 7-8 hours. So, for the price, I can't ask for more. (even though the pairing didn't work, thats why the 3/5). --changed to 5/5 stars on 9/13/25 see Update below, I did not change anything in my original review-- -- UPDATE -- Ortizan reached out to me because of this review and "made it right" by sending me a new speaker, free of charge. The customer service guy "Kevin" sent me an E-mail, and asked what he could do about it. He offered to work on the pairing problem, but I had discarded the boxes which have ID numbers - and honestly it wasn't that big a deal. Instead of "walking me through" it, he just sent a new speaker, I didn't even request any kind of compensation. He genuinely seemed to want me to have a good customer experience, and as I mentioned above, I was already relatively happy with the speaker(s), they sound nice and I use them all the time. So, I have to admit, they made a new friend, and I did receive a brand new speaker - QUICKLY, no hassle. So, when I want some little device, I will be checking to see if they have something in the realm of what I'm looking for. They make good affordable stuff, I've been happily using them just about every day for a year with no issues on the quality of the item itself. Kevin claimed there might be some issue that they used different chips in each pairable speaker that didn't recognize each other, different "batches" of the same model. That probably IS the case. For the price-point, I have really no complaints, they hold their own against more expensive competitors. You have to get up into the expensive stuff (and I do have some good audio electronics) before it gets outclassed. Thanks, Ortizan. Read more
Neil N.—August 7, 2025
Edit: 09/04/25 My original view was thumbs-up except for lack of shuffle-play for memory card (to be fair, no similar products have it, either). I was contacted by their support after my review here. I was emailed what I assume is "custom" firmware for my speaker, which enabled shuffle play. Absolutely amazing customer support. Why can't every company be like Ortizan? Thank you, Eddie!!! Sounds great, better than I expected for its size(just right for kayaking, throwing in a beach bag, etc.), takes a good splashing, very good battery life, great price. No regrets. I'm one of these people that has to have music everywhere, all the time, I've been really enjoying this speaker for those times when a proper amp/big speakers just isn't practical. Sorry, I just cannot listen to music on a smartphone, lol. Read more
Joseph C. Bogo—October 21, 2023
Without bothering to look at any instructions, it quickly paired with my Samsung S23 Ultra. Although my phone initially identified it as headphones, so I had to change it to identify it as a speaker. It had a mostly full charge out of the box, with it's own led indicator showing that it was near full as it was flashing upon my plugging it in. My phone reported it's charge level as already being at 100%, but the led was still flashing to indicate that it was still accepting a charge, so I left it plugged in until it eventually stopped flashing. The sound quality is ok. It sounded fine on it's default EQ mode, and it didn't really distort at the highest volume level. It didn't sound particularly weak or tinny, but it didn't have much bass. Both of the other EQ modes sound ok too, although the Base boost mode did start to sound distorted at higher volume levels. The base hits in that mode do hit harder and deeper, but they also sound restrained, and it sounds like maybe there's a point at which a crossover prevents damage to the speaker by holding back on me. The overall volume level doesn't really seem to get very loud, either. Just lots enough for a fairly big room, and I'm sure it will suffice for sitting around a campfire. The perfectly round shape might become pretty annoying when I just want to lay the speaker on it's side. I wish they had built in a couple of hinged flaps that could be swung out for the purpose of preventing it from just rolling right off of a flat surface like a table. Just little solid tabs that could pop out and stay extended in place by magnetic force or something, and then be retracted back flush into the side of the speaker when not needed. Although at least there's a nice, thick rubber strap on a swivel at the top for carrying or hanging, and it seems like it might be just enough to prevent the speaker from rolling away as long as you position the strap in just the right way when you lay the speaker on it's side. Of course you can always just stand the speaker up vertically, but with a bass radiator on each end the one on the bottom might cause undue rattling of any stuff on that table, especially at higher volumes. I need to see how long it will last during my upcoming camping trip, and I think 10 hours of battery life at a volume around halfway to three-quarters would be ok for me. 30 hours seems like something you could maybe get at a really low volume and with the cool lights turned off. I think it takes maybe 5 hours to fully charge, and that's fine for me. That means the internal batteries don't get really hot by cramming a bunch of energy into them really fast. So you'll likely get years of reliable use before the batteries ever start to crap out on you. Beware of any Bluetooth speaker that claims to have "sick, lit, extreme fast charging* or whatever, because it's internal batteries probably will start letting you down within a year if you use it frequently. And this thing is built like a tank. If I accidentally drop it off a rocky cliff, there's a fair chance that it will survive. As long as it doesn't land directly on either vertical end on a point, since the bass radiator in each end is exposed and has no casing over it. The buttons definitely feel like military-grade or something. They are bizarrely hard to press. Just hold an actual rock in your hand, and start squeezing that rock. Pretend that the solid rock has imaginary buttons recessed into it's side. Pretend that you are trying to push those buttons inward with your fingertips. That's how hard it is to push these buttons on the side of this speaker. Drop this thing into the North Atlantic so it sinks down next to the Titanic, and the extremely intense water pressure down there might not even faze these buttons. For a comparison of the sound quality, I think it's pretty similar to my old Bluetooth speaker that was shaped like a lone triangle. The angular one. And I really liked that one back in the day, so that's saying something. Compared to Echo smart speakers, it sounds much, much better than my Echo Dot (4tj Gen), but not as good or as loud as my regular Echo (4th Gen). For the money, I'm happy to go with this instead of blowing much more money on another brand that probably doesn't even sound much better than this. If it turns out that I get Herculean battery life during my camping trip next week, I might update my rating from 4 to 5 stars. Read more
