Customer Reviews

Motorola MOTOROKR EQ7 Bluetooth Portable Speaker

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The speaker sounds great for its size. It is the size of a discman.I use rechargeable batteries, and take it camping. It saves the space of a big boombox and a book of cds.My kitchen must be 20x16 ft. and the sound is enough to make you have to yell over it to hear someone, w/o hearing any major distortion.Pretty good bass for a little speaker as well.Easily paired to my cell phone with 350 plus songs, makes it a good purchase for me.

I have a blackberry 8350i Curve (software version 4.6.1.204) with the Nextel push-to-talk feature. I find the EQ7 to have excellent sound quality and range. Set up was extremely easy and it only took me about 1 minute to open the box, plug in power, and connect to my phone using Bluetooth. The hands free phone features work with the push-to-talk and regular phone calls on the 8350i. When I leave my office, I just press the pause button on the EQ7 and walk away. After I return (sometimes +90 minutes), I just press the play button and start the music again. The EQ7 would also work as an excellent conference phone for small groups.

EQ7 Pros:
- easy to set up and use
- uses 4 "AA" batteries for music on the go
- very good sound quality for music and phone, it can play very loud for its size
- affordable price, looks good on your desk
- comes with double 3.5 audio connector if you have mp3 or IPod device. (My blackberry only has a 2.5 connector and adaptors don't work well with the 8350i).
- You can control the music/phone features with the EQ7 or by using the 8350i (volume, track, pause, voice command dialing, pause, play, mute).

EQ7 Cons:
- The music kept cutting in/out every 30-90 seconds when I had my Plantronics Discovery 925 earpiece connected at the same time. I disconnect other Bluetooth devices on my blackberry when using the EQ7.
- The music cuts out momentarily if you are in the process of connecting another Bluetooth device in the same area (Example: when syncing a Bluetooth PowerPoint presenter to a laptop within 30 feet).
- Battery life isn't very long (about 7-9 hours), I changed to rechargeable AA.

Purchased this primarily to pair with new iPad and secondarily with a bluetooth cellphone. Packaging and quality feel of the unit is excellent. This is not a cheap device. You do pay a bit more for the quality.

It pairs with the iPad perfectly following the easy directions in the owners manual. iPad discovered this device almost instantly and paired with it without inputting any codes. Once paired with the iPad, all audio which normally comes out of the iPad speaker plays through this system. Volume is then controlled by volume controls on this device and not the iPad. Sound quality is far superior to the iPads small speakers and matches or exceeds all portable battery powered speakers I've listened to in its size range. Its small footprint complements the iPad and makes it an ideal traveling companion.

It also pairs with my bluetooth cellphone and allows pairing to both my phone and iPad at the same time. So far, it exceeds my expectations and complements my iPad and cellphone perfectly. Additionally, I also use Apple's wireless bluetooth keyboard with my iPad. The wireless keyboard and this device operate fine together without any disruption or interference to either device.


Highly recommended.

I was looking for a decent-sounding bluetooth desktop speaker / speakerphone for my macbook when I use it closed on my desk with monitor, external keyboard etc., and this item seemed perfect, if a little pricey. Unfortunately, the bluetooth connection between the speaker and macbook was faulty: although they pair correctly and the speakers were recognized as "headphones", audio would only stream in one or two second bursts. After a little Googling, I believe the problem lies with Apple and their implementation of the stereo bluetooth protocol in Leopard, so I can't really ding the motorola on that issue. Beyond that, though, the sound from the speakers was just "ok", more suitable for voice than music, and overall the product seemed to be a speakerphone that had been re-marketed as bluetooth music speakers. If that's what you're actually looking for, it's a tight, well-built product and very portable.

When I got this one at first I thought it was little bit expensive, but it worth every penny, it is very easy to set up with the pc or the phone, and you can change next or previous song, answer the phone or even make a call from it (if you have voice commander), it will pause the music automatically while you are calling, the sound is really cool (JBL quality!), you have the option to use batteries or DC in (it comes with it), and even if your want to play from a device that does not have Bluetooth you can use the provided audio 3.5 cord. The only thing I would love it to have (since it is an expensive device) it would be a rechargeable battery.

I've used the JBL On Tour travel speakers for years. They're small, elegant and not made anymore--a lot of people are selling them for $200 to those desperate to replace them.

Branded Motorola, this is also a JBL unit and worth considering if your On Tours die.

The EQ7 is little bulkier and heavier than the On Tour. Still fits easily in carry-on luggage, but doesn't quite allow me to zip it up inside the side zipper compartment. I still put it there, but the zipper only closes half way. The new AC power cord is a beast compared to the On Tour's. It's like a 2-piece laptop cord with the transformer in the middle. Much more annoying than the old power cord.

The On Tours have a slide shut cover that protects the control buttons. The EQ7 has an on/off button on the back that could be set to on by jostling in luggage. No idea how much that would drain battery, but it might freak out airport people because when it turns on it emits cheery annoying welcome beeps and sounds.

The EQ7 Takes AA instead of AAA batteries. I don't know what the battery life is yet, but on the old On Tour I got about 20 hours out of four 700mAmph rechargeables. I'm optimistic given that AA's have a lot more oomph. But maybe all the new bells and whistles suck battery life. Changing batteries in the EQ7 is painful and may take a minute to figure out the first time. Worst battery compartment I've ever seen.

The EQ7 isn't as pretty. It looks like a conference room speakerphone (which, it can actually be). It's not ugly, it's just not pretty.

The EQ7 plays music via Bluetooth from your phone. It paired with my laptop, recognized as a headset, but I couldn't find a way to get it listed as a playback device or to make it work as a headset. Range is excellent: worked great with my phone 20 feet away. I get full control of volume, track skipping, pause from either phone or speaker. It is also a Bluetooth speaker phone. I haven't tried a real conversation yet with it, but the microphone seems good--it recorded voicemail to myself just fine with me 20 feet away.

The EQ7 tries to pair with whatever is around it when you turn it on. Pairing has been reliable with multiple other devices.

Like the On Tour, the EQ7 supports standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone input.

Sonically, the EQ7 has a much improved low end compared to the On Tour. The new form factor allows a tuned bass port. Still, it's not real bass, but it does anchor vocals and provide more warmth. Otherwise the sound quality is similar to the On Tours. Also, the maximum volume is about the same--plenty for a hotel room, but not loud enough to prevent conversation. If you've never owned an On Tour, they're excellent for something this small. I've had Sony and other travel speakers, and these are by far my favorite sonically.

Physical construction of the EQ7 is sturdy. Metal top grille to protect the drivers, solid feeling plastic case. It's heavier than the On Tour--a little less than 3 pounds. I've seen these on sale at Amazon for as low as $45 at times. That's a ridiculous good value. Double the price and they're still a really good value. I paid $60 for my first set.

Lucky for me, I started writing this review and they're on sale at the moment for $45. I just picked up two more.

The Motorola EQ7 is a great little portable device, and its better than any I've seen or heard from so far. The four JBL speakers and the miniature sub sound pretty decent for something this small, I actually was not expecting the sound quality to be this good. They can fill a room with very good sound, just don't expect 12" sub bass and you'll enjoy this device a lot.
I've tried using both the bluetooth connection and the headphone jack connection and they both work well.

When connecting, make sure the device you have can play music through bluetooth. Some earlier phones allow for hands-free only but not music playback (even though the phone can play MP3's) After bluetooth connection the Motorola will notify you which options you have by using the lights in the front.

The only drawback I found was the battery compartment. Rather than placing four AA's side by side like most devices with four AA's, this unit has two next to each other and two on top of those. The problem is the springs get in the way so if you pull two hard on the plastic strap to get the batteries out you can end up bending or breaking a spring. They could've done better in that dept.

This bluetooth stereo speaker system has rich and powerful sound. I bought it so I can listen to music being streamed to my notebook computer. The notebook computer is in the living room and the speakers are placed in the kitchen. The separation distance between the speaker system and the computer is about 26 feet. No wires from the notebook to the speakers in the kitchen; the connection is a wireless bluetooth. I am using an iogear usb bluetooth dongle. I experienced the rare interruption in signal but it only lasts for a split second and reception resumes automatically (I doubt that a hard wired connection will experience this interruption). The speaker system came with a power adapter and an audio cable for making a hardwired connection with audio devices if needed.

We also found that it works real well with the iPod Touch 4G. Just remember when pairing a new device to temporarily turn off the other paired devices until the new device has been paired, then turn on the others as normal. It is all in the easy to follow user's manual.

I have tried a few different bluetooth audio products and they have all had buffering and range issues, or problems re-connecting the device, so I didn't have the highest of expectations for this product. I had bought it so that I would have a battery powered speaker for my upcoming camping trip. When I got the package in the mail and opened it up, I was pleasantly surprised. It paired easily, would automatically reconnect on subsequent uses, the range is great and never has any problems buffering within an acceptable range. Finally, a bluetooth audio product that works exactly as advertised, and it sounds great.

It's dual power makes it very versatile and instead of packing it away in a box for camping use only, I now use it everywhere. In the living room or dining room when company is over, when having an outside dinner or backyard picnic, and I have it connected to the power outlet in my game room for use when working out or playing games.

Others have mentioned that the batteries are difficult to get in or out, sure it may be slightly cumbersome, but really its not very tough at all. My only complaint with the product is that it doesn't charge the batteries when connected to power. This has completely restored my faith in bluetooth and Motorola products. If you are undecided, this speaker is definitely worth a listen.

I bought this for use only as a speaker with a no longer serviced Android handset (G1), which I now use only as a media player. Since I do not intend to use the speaker phone capabilities, I have not tested or reviewed them.

I just received this unit and have connected it to my HTC HD2 smartphone and ASUS laptop. Both the music player and Slacker radio worked fine, although the playback controls only work for the HTC music player (probably due to the phone settings)

Linking up was no problem for both speaker usage and handsfree. The effective range seems to be at least as good as my Jawbone headset (> 30 feet).

Feedback from people I have called on my phone said the sound quality was better than my Jawbone headset. The noise and echo cancellation seem OK.

Sound quality was clear and well defined. Bass response is not really present for this small a unit, but adequate for vocals. The volume is more than sufficient for normal listening. Anyone who wants room rattling sound levels should look elsewhere.

The AC adapter is somewhat large, but it does support international voltages so I can take it on trips.

The supplied documentation is sufficient.
The only thing I wish it had was a speaker mute function. It does have a microphone mute function.