MB Quart QUB1.10301 QUBOne Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker with 5-Hour of Music, Red

This little speaker has quite a punchy sound, appropriate for many styles of music. I have had other MB Quart speakers prior to buying this, and they make great car speakers. I find this is one of the very few small Bluetooth speakers that I can feel satisfied listening to. I can hear the highs and lows very clearly with this. The speaker cube is quite small, but feels sturdy and heavy - which I like. Designed in USA and Made in China.

This review is for the QUBOne: I was hunting Amazon Warehouse Deals to find an affordable bluetooth speaker w/microphone and I came across the QUBOne. The reviews were a bit difficult to decipher, as it appears that the entire lineup of MBQUART QUB speakers are lumped into one. From what I could gather, the consensus was that the QUBOne was decent, but not extraordinary.I believe that you shouldn't reasonably expect hi-fi sound from a single small speaker...so I'm going to compare the QUBOne to another similarly sized portable bluetooth speaker that I own: the iHome iBT16. The iBT16 is slightly larger yet lighter than the QUBOne, measuring in @ 2.75" square 5.6oz vs the QUBOne @ 2.5" square 8.6oz. I believe that the weight difference is due to a ballast on the bottom of the QUBOne which helps hold it in place when the volume is turned up.So how do these speakers sound?QUBOne: very high highs; almost no lows. Overall it sounds a little better (think louder) than playing music through a landline telephone. Microphone quality is fair, but doesn't do well with softer voices.iBT16: surprisingly deep bass; fairly clear voice reproduction; average mids/highs. Pretty impressive considering its size! Not equipped with a microphone.Pros:Attractive stylingBluetooth pairs easily & reliablyColor-coordinated & braided power & 3.5mm cables (very short lengths)Good battery life (lasted almost 4 hours on 1 charge)Cons:-Poor sound quality-LOUD & annoying voice prompts that can't be disabled: "QUB IS ON" "QUB IS CONNECTING"...-Poorly designed device control (volume/pause/play/skip all in 1 tiny rocking button)-Microphone only picks up louder voices/sounds-Silicone pad on base of speaker attracts dirt/hair/crumbs etc.I purchased my QUBOne through Warehouse Deals in "Like-New, Damaged Box" condition for less than $6 shipped, so it's pretty difficult to complain about price/value in my case. Personally if I had paid $15+ for this device I would consider returning it.

I'd read several reviews for this speaker and the majority of them spoke to what great sound quality it has for the size and price, including exceptional bass. It almost makes me wonder if I got a dud, either that or I'm more of an audiophile then I thought because that is the exact opposite from my experience.This is my fifth portable Bluetooth speaker. I already had 2 JAM Plus speakers (the kind that pair with each other), 1 JAM Touch, and 1 Philips DOT splash-proof speaker before I got this. All of those speakers are at a similar price point, and while the Philips is considerably bigger, the JAM speakers are of a comparable size. All of those speakers also have far superior sound quality, in my opinion. The QUB isn't terribly loud, so don't count on it for mega volume (the JAM speakers are probably twice as loud), but the real issue I had with it is to my ears it sounds tinny, almost like an old radio broadcast. I think it has a severe lack of depth and bass (it seems to be all treble), and I tried it with several different music genres to see if it would perform better in any of them but that tinny sound was present across the board.The other major issue I had with it is its buttons, or lack thereof. It only has two tiny plastic switches, one that turns the power on and off and one other switch that has to do everything else. Therefore operating the speaker from the unit, which you're supposed to be able to do, is extremely tricky. You have to tap quickly to play/pause, push to the right or left to go back/forward tracks, and hold down and move to the right or left to raise/lower the volume. All from the same switch. Needless to say errors will occur. More times than I can count I tried to adjust the volume and ended up accidentally switching tracks, and three separate times when attempting to adjust the volume I'm not even sure what happened but the music stopped and the speaker said it had unpaired from my phone. Once it did this and even completely froze up my phone where I had to pop open the back and remove the battery to even get it to restart. Beyond that, a slight annoyance is the cord they give you for charging. The cord itself (not including the connectors that go inside) is literally 3.25 inches (yes, I measured it) meaning if you're going to charge via computer it needs to be practically on top of your laptop and if you hope to use a USB outlet plug that's even trickier. I ended up having to stack it on top of a box because the cord wouldn't reach; otherwise it would have been dangling in the air while it charged which probably would have pulled the plug out.So to sum it up, this speaker is just 'okay'. It does everything it's supposed to do in terms of pairing and playing, but in my experience with other similar speakers on the market I would rate its sound quality as below average (this is all based on playing music, mind you, not on calls or spoken word). If you're looking for something to play high quality music, I'd go with one of the JAM speakers before this. They're almost exactly the same price and you get far richer sound.