Hi! Since we’ve been discussing airPlay quite a bit lately I thought it time to ask the question again, is there a good portable AirPlay speaker still available? I don’t know the exact answer to that question but if you’re talking about a good quality portable AirPlay speaker then I would suggest that such a thing is rather thin on the ground. The irony of all this is that I bought - what I believe to be - one of the best Portable Airplay speaker systems to have been produced in the form of the Bose Soundlink Air, that was 3 years ago so this model is no longer available. The Bose Soundlink Air even sounded far different than the usual run of the mill stuff from Bose exhibiting quite nice highs, quite a bit of mid range and not the overpowering bass you usually hear from Bose stuff. So why isn’t the Bose Soundlink Air being sold any longer? Well battery life isn’t very good at around 3 hours on high volume but I can assure you that no one in their right mind would listen to the Bose Soundlink Air at anywhere near high volume but - suppose you did - you’d still hear lovely clear sound, how the Bose Soundlink Air can still pump out sound with no distortion at such a volume in a portable is truly remarkable. The other problem with the Soundlink Air was that it didn’t actually come with a battery, that accessory was sold separately costing a good quarter of the value of the system itself but still, well worth it it you wanted a truly portable system with a good sound. Setup is easy enough and the Bose can connect to your iPhone in three different ways, “Wi-Fi Direct mode”, the phone communicates directly with the Soundlink Air, “Standard Wi-Fi”, the Soundlink Air joins your Home Network via Wi-Fi and the Aux-in jack, your choice. The soundlink Air comes with a very nice remote control that puts volume and track selection at your fingertips, though the buttons look like your rotten typical rubbery cheap remote control buttons they’re far from cheap, the rubber covers nice clicky type buttons, you feel and hear them click. So why am I mentioning the Soundlink Air if its not available any longer? I did find a couple of new Soundlink Air’s available at very reasonable prices to my way of thinking, around half of what they were worth originally so - given that and if you’re looking for a good AirPlay speaker with plenty of flexibility and functionality - then the Bose Soundlink Air - if you can still buy it - is a true bargain which you’ll treasure for quite a long time. List members may remember that I recorded a sample of the Soundlink Air which I posted to the list quite some time ago. And finally, if other list members have suggestions for a good portable AirPlay speaker then perhaps they could post them, always interested to hear about other devices. Another good portable AirPlay speaker one might consider is the Denon Cocoon, the Cocoon is more functional than the Bose Soundlink Air but is nowhere near as powerful.
********** Those of a positive and enquiring frame of mind will leave the rest of the halfwits in this world behind.
