Think Outside Boomtube H2O1 2.1 Speakers

The Boom Tube is a 40 watt system that consists of a tubular aluminium unit housing a battery pack and subwoofer, with two satellite speakers. The unit is well designed and feels very solidly constructed. The package comes with thoughtful little touches, my favorite of which was a pair of foam earplugs labeled "for your neighbors." Also in the box are a nylon carry case, a headphone cable for input, a power adapter, and two three foot speaker cables. For you Spinal Tap fans, the volume dial goes up to 11.

The system is surprisingly loud for a portable speaker system. I frequently use it on my patio with my iPod, and for sitting around and talking, setting it to 3 or 4 is plenty loud enough. Turning it up to 8 or 9 provides enough sound to get a group of maybe 12 or 15 people dancing. The battery is rated to last six to eight hours, depending on volume...I've never used the battery for more than four, but it's never given me any problems.

(One note about the battery...it doesn't charge if the unit is on. Make sure you leave it plugged in over night with the power off before you expect to use it on batteries...I didn't see this anywhere in the manual. Maybe this is corrected in newer versions of the product.)

The design is clever. When you're moving it around, the satellite speakers twist onto the end of the subwoofer, making a silvery aluminium tube vaguely reminiscent of a bazooka. Volume, bass, and a power button are simply mounted on the center of the subwoofer unit; the power button has a ring that glows red when it's low on battery power, green when it's good, and flashes green while it's charging.

A couple of shortcomings of the product: the cables make it a mess. It's great to be able to set the satellites far apart for good stereo separation, but I really wish it were just one unit I could just bring outside and turn on, without having to worry about plugging and unplugging a bunch of cables.

The included bag doesn't quite fit the cables and the A/C adapter all at once. This is fine if you're going to the pool and need some tunes, but not so hot if you're traveling and want to keep everything in one bag.

And finally, the sound isn't all that great. I don't notice it all that much when I'm outside, but I use these occasionally in my kitchen and the sound is distinctly lacking in the mid-range. I'm not expecting concert hall here, but for the $199 advertised price, I'd expect better.

I ended up picking up this set-up at Amazon on sale for 70 bucks... If you can find it for less than 100, it's a great relative to other portable speaker systems. The volume comes at some expense of sound quality, but the system is perfect for the patio, car camping trips, pool or the beach.