Customer Reviews

WOWee One Power Bass Portable Speaker for iPad, iPhone, MP3 Players, Laptops, Mobile Phones, and Personal Game Systems (Black)

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I've had the Wowee One for a little while now, and I've used it in every possible situation I can come up with. This is a great little product that gives some heavy duty sound.

I bought the Wowee One after seeing it reviewed on Engadget. I leave all my music/podcasts on my phone, and I'm constantly streaming music from Pandora, so I wanted something extremely portable that would give clear, audiophile quality sound. The Wowee One looked like the perfect solution.

First of all, let me say I couldn't be happier with my purchase. This is one of those products that you can't really appreciate until you see it in person. Every one of my friends has asked to borrow it just to try it out, and every one of them has ordered their own.

When I first opened the Wowee One and connected it to my Palm Pre with Pandora streaming, it sounded very muffled. I was really disappointed, until I realized I hadn't taken off the plastic cover (duh!). Once I took that off, the audio was booming. The first thing you'll want to do is try it out on different surfaces to see how it affects the sound. My glass table produced a clear balanced sound. Then I moved it to my hollow wooden cupboard, and the bass filled the room. I even put it on a large water cooler, and you could feel the vibrations.

Obviously, streaming audio isn't the ideal situation to test the device, so I put a Blu-Ray in my laptop and connected it to the Wowee One to test out something from a lossless audio source. Again, the clarity of sound was incomparable. It literally feels like there are layers upon layers of audio that were completely hidden when listening on my crappy laptop speakers. I've used it hundreds of times, and I still find myself lifting it in the air, and then placing it on different surfaces to hear how each affects the audio.

The packaging is simple - which makes you realize how portable this product is. All you need is the device, and a 3.5mm audio cable. It also comes with a USB cable for charging.

My one qualm with the Wowee One is the battery life. It's not bad by any means, but I found it lasted around 17 or 18 hours on a charge, not the advertised 20 hours. I'm not sure if that's because I was using it so heavily in such a small period of time, but I like knowing how long the batter will last me, and mine lasted around 18 hours. The good news is, all it needs is a standard USB input to charge from - no proprietary charger, so USB is generally easy to find no matter where you are.

The price seems high at $79.99, but so far I feel like I've gotten full value out of it. The sound quality is as good as (if not better than) a pair of $60 computer speakers with a woofer, and the portability alone makes it well worth the difference. If you're on the fence, I'd say pull the trigger - you won't regret the purchase. If you're able to demo one in person, I'm sure you'll be as sold as I was.

Very nice to find a product that is "as-advertised". Quality build, professionally presented in very nice, well-designed case with holders for everything (nothing falls out when you open it.) Definitely created by guys who use cool toys like this. But its more than a toy. It's a tool.

Read other reviews and you'll get some cool ideas of how to maximize it: put it on an inner tube at the beach, or a closed toilet seat lid in a hotel room (!), or a bedside table, or use the Wowee Pad to attach it to a window or sliding door (with AMAZING results.) Or do like one person and carry a small Tupperware container and set it on that. (I tried that on a small one and it resonated very well-- Led Zeppelin sounded excellent!)

I've tried and owned several smaller, portable speaker systems and none compare to the Wowee One. They just don't have the capacity for bass so you never get the full-throated range of the music that the artist intended you to have. Wowee One delivers what other systems can't: serious bass. And also: serious volume. It is VERY loud when you want it to be. Considering the size and weight (and price, for that matter), it is a serious achievement in entertainment technology.

Without question the best travel speaker for your iPod or MP3 players. I can also see myself using it with my laptop on location and when editing... beats the built-in speakers hands-down. I work in the film/TV business and I see a lot of applications for this. Am referring a lot of my soundman buddies to the Wowee One.

I love this thing.

I mean, how often do you use a new piece of technology that puts a big grin on your face and makes you say outloud, "WOW!" ?

Or even, "WOWee!"

Unlike the other reviews, I've bought this on Amazon and actually use it for a while. The built quality is pretty decent - feels solid, plastic surrounding with gel like surface at the bottom. The device is automatically powered on as soon as you plug in the 3.5mm plug and turns off when you unplug it. The sound quality is mediocre at best, the power bass as advertised is near non-existence. It's supposed to vibrate the surface to give you the feeling of a subwoofer but you can't really hear it. If you place it on a hollow or thin surface such as a glass tabletop, you'll feel the vibration, but if you use it rock solid office desk like myself, you won't feel a thing. Obviously it sounded better than the built-in computer speaker but the retail price tag is unjustifiable for its sound quality. I would say the device is probably worth less than half of its retail price.

I forgot to mention that there is a fairly loud hissing noise as soon as you plug in the 3.5mm jack so you'll have to turn up the volume to overcome that. In a total quiet room, its very noticeable. Not sure if it's only my unit that's causing it but it is somewhat a nuisance

This little guy is what I've been waiting for! I am a CPR Instructor and music is a part of my class. The sound from my Hero phone just blows people away. It's hard to believe the amount of bass and the fullness of sound that comes from this little unit. And it's great fun to try different surfaces for different sounds. I use a 6x8 Tuperware lidded container and just set it on top. When done, I store it inside for carrying, along with cords and other equipment.

Like a lot of others, I'd been looking for a quality speaker small enough to carry in my brief case. The best I'd found to date was the JBL onstage portable dock for ipod (though I don't think I've ever docked an iPod in it -- always used it for other players and for my laptop). Having just purchased an iPad, I returned to my speaker search. Like a lot of others, too, I saw the NY TIMES capsule review of the Wowee gel audio speaker. I'd begun to worry a bit reading the reviews at Amazon while waiting for my speaker to arrive, but believe me when I tell you that this is a fine product. It's small enough to fit in your pocket, but when properly set on a surface it produces sound out of all proportion to its size. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is that I hope one day to see an even better solution to my needs. Still, for the coming year or so, this is definitely it. The only caution I'd raise is that you need to be mindful of where you sit this down. I accidentally set a corner of it on top of a glossy photo, and the gel got stuck to the photo. No irreparable harm to the speaker, and I can print another copy of the photo, but now I know to look out for gel interactions!

I would recommend this to anyone who travels a lot and wants to escape headphones from time to time.

I saw the reviews of this on "This Week in iPad", and thought this would be great to travel with. I guess I expected too much. While it does give a much expanded bass via the table surface, the rest of the audio is really lacking. I have a cheap battery powered ipod speaker I paid $12 for that gives a much clearer sound, sans the thump. It's OK I guess, just not $79 worth of OK. Too much money for not much sound.

I bought the speakers for $75.99. It was expensive but based on the good reviews I've decided to jump the gun. After nearly half a year of using it I'm beginning to get annoyed by it. The speaker was fun at first; to be able to try the bass on different surfaces like windows, desk, guitar, bathtub, cooler, you name it. The best sound comes from the bathtub because the bass was booming!!! The magnets on the speakers held onto the bathtub and turned the whole thing into a loud thumping speaker system.

However, I like studying outside at school. The speaker doesn't work on cement or wood benches, it doesn't work on grass or trees, the only flat surface I have is my laptop (which btw had harman/kardon speakers and sounds a lot crisper and better at the sacrifice of some bass). So I would like to narrow this review down to pros and cons:

Pros: On the right surface i.e. bathtub or guitar, the bass is great and the treble is mediocre. It's portable and solidly built, it dropped accidentally from a window 5 feet down and was fine cosmetically and functionally. It's fairly quick to charge about only 40 to 50 minutes for a 15-17 hours operating time. It's novel and fun to play with on different surfaces.

Cons: Definitely pricey when I got it. It's not even worth the $60-ish now. If I'd known the sound quality then I would have passed. The rubber surface has to be cleaned all the time for the best adhesion to any flat smooth surfaces. And flat, smooth, hollow surfaces are the only things that'll make it work. I forgot to mention that the surfaces has to be leveled or only slightly angled. Lastly the mid-tone isn't that great.

Conclusion: Unless you live in the bathroom or always carry an empty Tupperware container around like some reviewer said than by all means this speaker is worth it. But if you're like me and looking for a portable speaker that can go truly go anywhere than this is NOT the speaker!

I saw this item reviewed on a news program and had to have one. I was looking at stereo shelf systems to hook up to my iPod because the sound you get out of the iPod is no better than a transistor radio. I thought this item might be a nice alternative to a bigger system. I hooked up the Wowee and have tried several surfaces. I would NOT recommend vertical surfaces such as walls or windows. Mine fell off twice within 30 seconds or so. Although the news program showed it vertcal, I won't trust it again. There's a good bit of vibration coming off the bottom. The best sounding, secure spots I found so far is my kitchen countertop, the smooth glass stovetop and the washing machine, which is a top load with a metal lid. The bass and overall range sounds much better when the Wowee vibrates down through something hollow below. There is a lot of treble, just like with the iPod by itself. The treble seems a little distorted and tinny once in a while when you crank up the volume. I would prefer a little less treble. I tried different equalizer settings in the iPod and it seems the dance setting works about the best for my preferences. Like I said, the Wowee is certainly better than nothing at all but I guess I expected something just a little better. I want to believe that small, portable devices can provide big, spatial sound but I don't think technology is fully there yet. The device is built well (it survived two vertical drops) The price could be a little lower though for what you are getting and in comparison to what else is out there like this device.

Tired of the tinny sound from your tiny netbook? Love watching video clips on your smartphone, but having trouble making out the dialog in the background? This little powerhouse has solved those problems for me. It's a bit thicker than your standard candy-bar smartphone, but not as wide, making it able to slip into your pocket or purse easily. It's ready to go right out of the box, assuming the rechargeable battery has any charge in it - connect the cord, press it down, and room-filling sound emanates from whatever device you've connected it to. Need more bass? Set it on an empty but sealed plastic food container - so far, that's what has allowed for the most "sympathetic vibration" in my unscientific testing so far. Love this thing - and yeah, it works with your iPod, too.

WOWee One has been one of the best toys I have owned in a long time. Smooth quality sound from this small portable speaker. I highly recommend to check out the WOWee One website and order the anywhere mount/holder. This will enable you to stick the speaker on the wall, window, fridge, or other surface which will enable the speaker to deliver the sound properly. I purchased the mounts, extra gel pads and leather case. In all, I am extremely happy and got extra few for friends and family. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!WOWee One Power Bass Portable Speaker (Black)