Gadgetory

I'm David Carr Noah here with another portable Bluetooth speaker with so many of these guys on the market we sometimes end up being tardy covering certain models we should have reviewed sooner such as the case for the TDK life on record 8:33 wireless weatherproof speaker which has been on the market for a while and received mostly favorable reviews from consumers the first thing you notice about it when you take it out of the box is that it's got some heft to it it weighs around 2.8 pounds which makes it more of a mid-sized wireless speaker than a true mini bluetooth speaker if you're looking for something really portable this is an it but the exercise at least in this case means better sound well that's a pretty straightforward boxy design I liked it it's got clean lines and the buttons on top of the unit are nicely indented and clearly labeled with LED lighting there are volume controls on the unit but no pause play button or transport controls so you'll have to control playback through your smartphone tablet or other Bluetooth enabled device the speaker is equipped with 21.5 inch drivers plus a 2.5 inch subwoofer on the front and two rear three inch passive radiators on the back its splash proof has speakerphone capabilities and its ports are covered by a removable rubber door that keeps moisture and dust out behind that rubber cover you'll find an audio input for non bluetooth devices a USB charging port for charging your smartphone from the speaker's internal battery a power on/off switch and a 12-volt DC in charging port I last liked some of these more powerful compact speakers you have to charge the unit with a separate AC adapter and not with a standard microUSB cable all of these smaller bluetooth speakers have their sound limitations and the 8:33 is no different but it did acquit itself better than a lot of other speakers in our tests it had some punch to it space offer decent clarity played loud firt size and sounded fairly natural it was able to handle most of today's simpler pop and techno music without distorting and had a pleasant enough vibe to it with relatively well-balanced sound how it fell down a little bit with certain tunes for instance with Nirvana's all apologies there was a little background buzzing and it became apparent speakers simply lack the dynamic range to be able to handle more nuanced tracks gracefully as I said the a33 fared better in our tests than many speakers in its price range and higher in the end while it has a few small shortcomings including only average battery life at 6 hours it delivers very good sound for its size and $150 price tag combine that with an elegant splash proof design as well as speakerphone capabilities and this becomes a very solid speaker for the money it may not be a steal but it is a good value I'm David Connolly and that's the TDK life on record 8:33 wireless weatherproof speaker thanks for watching