UKC

Anybody able to recommend a Bluetooth speaker that can be used in a van which has a bulkhead separating it from the driver and the cargo?

At the moment I have a Phillips SBT300 speaker and it ticks an awful lot of boxes. It run off 4 AA batteries and lasts about 10 sets of 12 hour shifts before the batteries die and need recharging. The sound quality is OK'ish but at times can be drowned out by the sound of the engine and the general noises of a work van.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-SBT300-05-Portable-Bluetooth/dp/B00DHHDUNM/...

Can anybody recommend a speaker with better sound quality and have enough juice to run it for at least a few sets of 12 hour shifts?

I don't mind plugging into a cigarette lighter to charge or power up the speaker.

In reply to The Lemming:

I have a Beats by Dr. Dre: Beatbox - it's the shiznak! (and takes batteries)

In reply to The Lemming:

Anybody heard of, or seen an Audio Pro addon T3?

Gets some good reviews

In reply to broken spectre:

Not the over priced Apple incendiary device, then...

https://www.apple.com/uk/support/beats-pillxl-recall/

I always thought Beats stuff was over-priced hype, and then I spotted the Apple recall notice a couple of weeks ago, and everything became clear...

In reply to The Lemming:

Minirig.

D

In reply to The Lemming:

http://www.minirigs.co.uk/portable-speaker

sounds great, can go really loud and lasts for ever. Check the reviews out.

In reply to The Lemming:

I bought one of these for my wife for christmas

http://www.ultimateears.com/en-us/ueroll#select-color

The sound quality is excellent. I don't know if it stands up to van working noise but I can hear it clearly enough to pick out whats being said on the radio when its on the outside of a perspex door and I'm in the shower. It's also waterproof and can stand a bit of dropping-on-the-floor if you're into that sort of thing. Doesn't take standard batteries and doesn't quite get to 12 hours battery life (9 hours advertised) but you can recharge it with a USB charger so you can plug it in to the cigarette lighter to charge it up.

In reply to The Lemming:

All I would say is get one that your music device can detect and connect to automatically. We have a Jongo S3 which is brilliant as it contains an integrated rechargable battery, but to connect to it you have to go to bluetooth settings each and every time which makes the idea of spontaneous music playing seem like something the future may one day deliver.

In reply to The Lemming:

Thanks for the suggestions.

In reply to The Lemming:

Assuming that by driving a van for work puts you in the construction industry, why not go for one of these?
http://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dmr106-bluetooth-site-radio-240v/8783h

If you don't already own a few Makita batteries it could well get very expensive very quickly however.

In reply to The Lemming:

I have a Bose mini soundlink, about £ 130 not cheap but it's sound is great, very small and portable, looks good, you can buy a 12 volt power lead for the cig socket, have a listen in your local currys, your want one

In reply to The Lemming:

I have taken a look at all the recommendations and read various reviews google threw up about them. Some of the reviews also suggested alternatives which the author's thought the reader may be interested in. And this sent me down an interesting voyage of discovery.

If anybody is still interested I finally chose a 'wild horse' which was not even on my radar, but got some excellent reviews. So I took a punt and went for a Marshall Kilburn. I placed an order and it arrived today giving me a chance to test it in my company van with all the background noise that it creates, including woo-woo noises.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2490249,00.asp

I have to say that I was mightily impressed with the sound quality. Its battery life should see me through a few shifts and its fookin loud. Some of the reviews put it as the loudest bluetooth speaker in its class and capable of knocking out 100 dellybells at a distance of 1 meter. It is audibly superior to my cheap Phillips speaker in all respects.

Now I realise that you should never compare proverbial apples with oranges but I gave it a sound test by putting it up against my Sonos Play 5 speaker. Obviously the Sonos speaker sounded better however my new bluetooth speaker was almost as good. Its sound quality was somewhere between my Sonos Play 1 and Play 5.

It looks sexy too.