Gadgetory

the jazz mini is a beautiful and compact aluminum stand for your smartphone that even holds tablets up to eight inches click now to learn more now this probably isn't what you're expecting to hear from me right now but let's all just calm our boobies on the Bose hate you know by other sound equipment you haven't felt heard it for a few minutes and approach the companion fives with an open mind because while working on my review I did find some strong points for this particular speaker setup so we'll start with accessories physical inputs all that good stuff the companion fives come with everything you see here and everything you need to hook up the two satellite speakers and powered subwoofer to your PC Mac or basically anything else the sub contains the amp and DAC so you can plug in via USB or with analog into the puck unit that sits on your desk the aforementioned weighted control puck has a great feeling rubberized volume control wheel and auxiliary input that I guess I mentioned before and a headphone pass-through if you want to use the companion fives to power your headphones instead of your normally terrible front panel audio on your PC it also features a touch responsive mute that at first I thought was kind of pointless I was like yeah okay then I had my music cranked I got a phone call it was really quick to swat at a touch-sensitive surface versus fumbling for a button so okay you got me on that one Bose my one complaint about the puck is that it's not linked to system volume in spite of the system being capable of USB input a feature that other speakers in my roundup have unlike something like the audio engine a two pluses with an add-on subwoofer the companion fives do not run at all without the sub connected so the number of cables required to set up this unit is going to be unappealing to some customers especially when you compare to some of the other speaker sets in this series of reviews that I'm working on but there's no real getting around this without putting the amp and DAC in a speaker which would make it much larger and would make no sense anyway because you've got a sub box already aesthetically I think the companion fives are a bit of a swing and a miss the black and anodized aluminum designs from Bowers & Wilkins and simple audio and the classic black audio engine monitors look more appealing to me but I can't deny the practicality of the Bose design they're the only speaker in the roundup that correctly plays music at my ears instead of at my chest and that is a pretty major oversight in my mind for something that you're going to call a desktop speaker as opposed to a bookshelf speaker I mean I guess you can buy stands for the other stuff so you can tow them in and then you can put little stands on them to aim them at your ears but I mean for something that you're calling a kit it should probably come with everything that you need to get started now when it comes to maximum volume the companion files deliver an amazingly full pounding sound that would be perfect for the occasional house party when you are not listening to music at your desk I mean yeah they're not going to be suitable for an outdoor venue perhaps but if you want in your large living room to be loud enough that no one can comfortably maintain a conversation while achieving very listen to a bull sound quality without any noticeable distortion the companion fives are going to look pretty good to you in my more you know quality focused listening tests I realized that these speakers are really made for a particular listener no offense to the authors but any user reviews claiming that they have amazing stereo imaging clear highs strong mid-range performance and whatever we're written by people who haven't heard better end of story the mids in particular get overshadowed enough that I had a hard time enjoying male vocalists but for the folks claiming that this system absolutely pounds with tight immersive bass well they could have easily been sitting in front of their new companion five speakers enjoying some tunes or some movies while they wrote the review because they really really do but honestly that's not what makes the companion fives a legitimate contender for your money they are not the best unit I've encountered for any kind of music really they're just alright I mean they're not even the loudest the audio engineer five pluses get that award in this roundup but with the turn of the knob on the back of the sub they go from being apartment friendly to delivering some pretty fun splosions in your favorite action flicks general entertainment is where I'd say this Bo's unit separates itself from the rest of the crowd in this roundup due to the included subwoofer and the fact that it sounds pretty darn good if you often watch movies at or near your computer even the a 5 plus doesn't really compare there's something about having an actual sub that is filling the room from the floor or the corner compared to firing directly at your face that makes the experience feel different with that said I'd recommend putting a knob back when you're ready to listen to music again I forgot to do that once and it gave me a real appreciation for the tuning that Bose did on this product during the design process turning base down yields slightly clearer lyrics but you lose the the kick that I feel is really the big selling point of this set given its included subwoofer and it definitely makes the set much less fun to listen to turning up the dial just drowns out everything else so it seems like bose knew what was best for you and intended for the subwoofer dial to sit around the middle most of the time so the conclusion here is actually somewhat simple if you're looking to host the occasional house party and you want something that will keep your guests on the dance floor and you want something that performs just okay for near-field music listening but is a lot of fun to listen to in movies and games movies and games then whatever you want to think about Bose products in general the companion fives are actually a serious option if movies and action games are less of a concern for you than house parties music then the a5 plus from audio engine should get your $400 instead but to beat the Bose package in every category you're really going to have to add a standalone subwoofer to the a5 pluses something that is more difficult than just buying a subwoofer and plugging it into them choosing and tuning a subwoofer for your setup is not as simple as just buying the audio engine s8 and assuming it'll complement your speaker's perfectly so and it'll be more expensive of course so while mix and match can and usually does sound better overall if you're not willing or able to put the work into it a package deal may be a better bet for you anyway speaking of package deals here's another deal from our friends at cheer oh now I know a lot of you don't use iPhones but hear me out maybe you know someone who does and this is a great thing to suggest for them to buy are also a great gift idea Cheerios power case for the iPhone 5 and 5s has a 2300 million power battery in it and considering it's available for $38 right now on Amazon it's got some really cool features number one is that while you can leave it on all the time you actually don't have to in addition to a USB cable and the headphone jack extender the kit comes with a slim soft touch case that offers basic protection for the phone that actually then slips into the separate battery casing when you want to use it so when you need more juice just click the phone in and you're ready to go the fit and finish of the unit is surprisingly solid and while it does add considerable bulk and weight to the iPhone it contours nicely with my hand and it's easy to hold one last point is that aside from what you can see cheero is actually using a genuine lightning connector not a knockoff one this allows the case to act as a pass-through so both the phone and the case can charge at the same time off of a single micro USB port check it out at the link in the video description I'm not naming any names but from a peer capacity to price standpoint it's about three times better than the leading brand iPhone battery case guys like and share this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it and leave a comment on the Linus tech tips forum link in the video description if you want to discuss the product or you have any constructive criticism for me and my team also linked in the video description is our support link with options to buy t-shirts like this one give us a monthly contribution or give us a kickback whenever you buy random junk on Amazon check it out if you enjoy our videos help set a whole bunch oh and as always thank you for watching and don't forget to subscribe