Altec Lansing iM227 Orbit MP3 Speaker

This fellow is small, simple and cheap, all good things.When it works, it produces surprisingly good sound, loud enough to fill a room. It does not produce any bass at all, but for NPR or a little relaxation music while travelling, it is perfect, much better than the horrible clock radios in hotel rooms. It connects to anything with a 1/8" socket, such as Android phones, most MP3 players and the little pocket FM radio that I was using. It doesn't even have a volume control; you use the control on your sound source. It doesn't have Bluetooth, but Bluetooth would cut battery life, add expense and possibly hurt the sound, without adding any real function. Not necessary.Unfortunately, it started making a loud static-y howling noise a few weeks after I bought it. It would start producing music fine, then after a few minutes, the howling would start. The howling would continue after you turned down the volume and even disconnected it. I would have to turn it off to make it stop. I eventually realized that the howling was caused by dying batteries. Replacing the batteries eliminates the problem. There is something weird about the amplification circuit that causes that, and it is something I have never seen in any of the dozens of pieces of electronics I have owned. It actually is a design flaw, but one that is easy to fix.Another small flaw is the silver paint, which will begin to scratch and wear off if it is tossed in your luggage. I have kept on the clear plastic sleeve it was shipped in, which looks fine.Some phones or small radios use the headphone cable as an FM antenna, and since this thing replaces the headphones and has only a eight-inch cord, you might need an extension cable to get good FM reception. (Of course, if you listen to MP3s, you won't need one.)All in all, a simple, effective, cheap product. I don't travel without it. It would also be great for laptop presentations, because it sounds better than laptop speakers or the speakers built into projectors.

Pretty tough unit, so far I've had it buried under stuff in a backpack and the thing has very minimal discoloration and scratching, I keep it for grid failure or special situations where I need a sound boost. It offers pretty decent bass, and is better than my ipad and iphones built in speakers. It makes a difference. It's not my Sony Boom Box for sure, but it puts out when all else fails and uses easy to find batteries. Not a bad little unit, it won't fill up a noisy room, but it will make a clear loud statement wherever you're chilling with a decent amount of thump to the bass. The wire on it has held up too. my fear with any item that does not have a detachable cord is that it will fail and you're done. Good news is that's not the case, the thing has held up and still looks next to new months and months later after being lugged around outdoors in a backpack. If cost, portability, and easy to find batteries is your game along with decent sound this thing is your guy. Battery life is on point as well, outpreforms other units that take larger batteries, or are overall larger and outputs similar sound also giving you pretty good battery life. Space, battery life, sound quality "slightly above medium on the quality bar", is where it's at.

NOTE: Please excuse how poorly this review was written, I was trying to keep it short so it is almost just a list of facts...I had to write a review even though it will be so far down the list as to never be seen. IT was the one star reviewers that made me feel I needed to chime in. Some of them probably got a defective one, (which is frustrating) and I guess I can understand being upset and writing a bad review, but I also see people who clearly expected way too much from a tiny, battery powered $20 speaker. I also saw some from people who just don't "get it", so with this many reviews, you do have to expect a certain number of bad reviews. That being said, I am blown away at how good this little $20 speaker sounds! This is not a speaker to use if you are planning to blast your music in the garage as you work on your car or set on the patio table and listen to podcasts while you weed-eat! However, if you are going to play music or listen to spoken word stuff at a normal conversational, or even a bit louder level, this is a great speaker! I use it a minimum of 30 minutes a day, (usually at least twice that) while I take a shower and get ready, or when I am doing things in rooms other than the room where my computer is. I wish I could tell you how long the batteries last, but it has been so long since I replaced them I can't remember when it was. A long time is all I can say, and that is sing it at around 60% - 70% volume out of an iPod Touch. (I use regular Energizer batteries) And that includes several nights of being left on for 24 hours unplugged from the iPod. I mostly listen to audiobooks, but occasionally play music through it as well. When I have had to turn it up to around 80% - 85% to hear it over other noise in the room, it occasionally breaks up a bit with certain tones, but when it does I just bump it down until it doesn't do that, and it is still loud enough. The only quality issue (if you can call it that) that I could comment on, is you might need to take a small screwdriver or nail file, and bend the contacts in the battery case out a bit to hold the batteries more securely. The ONLY time this was needed was when I first changed the batteries, and all I had in the drawer were some cheap, off-brand batteries that had come with some other electronic device, to hold me over until I bought some new Energizers. Honestly, that was more the fault of the batteries than the speaker. The sound is crisp and clear when being used as it is meant to be used, and sounds better than any other small portable speaker I have heard, including a dual speaker AC only unit I have with an iPod dock in it. I am tempted to buy another one or two of these to keep on hand for when I finally either break, or wear this one out I love this speaker, and it is absolutely perfect for my needs.