switch.-Sound Quality is good .
Is sound clear?
I bought this device for $150 instead of 200 during a (Black Friday?) sale. This is a pretty crucial difference.I'm going to basically jump into pros and cons, then conclude. I will compare to theMonster ClarityHD Precision Micro Bluetooth Speaker 100 Portable Bluetooth Speaker (MBL CLY SPKR BT)at some points.Pros:-Great design, looks fantastic (I like all the colors except red, but I really liked the "grill" on the grey one).-Very minimalistic, simple, and elegant. Follows an "Apple" product theme. It has only 3 buttons, and the on/off switch.-Sound Quality is good. This is a small speaker so its never going to be amazing, but I find it rather good for the size. This speaker shines in having good High/Lows, a very rich sound, and really good Bass. In comparison to the Clarity HD which I also tried, the sound is much richer. Though the Clarity HD does indeed have good clarity, the Jambox is as good in that sense as well.-Very easy to use, pairing is incredible fast and simple (after I got it out of the box it was paired in maybe 15 seconds).-Has a website where you can download some small features (kind of useless) but also new firmware and technology that is improving the sound of the Jambox such as "Live Audio". Live Audio (i think) separates the Left and Right more and I do indeed think it improves the sound, but it comes at the cost of having a lower Maximum volume. More on volume below.-10 hour battery life. I never actually checked this and I seriously doubt it's 10 hours, but it's much higher advertised than the other bluetooth speakers, so it's safe to assume that the batterlife even if not 10 hours, is still much longer than other speakers like the Clarity HD.Cons:-Loudness. I think the loudness of this speaker is mis-advertised as I was a little bit dissapointed. At home, this thing is great. Easily fills my room, and when I turned it up downstairs, you could still hear it Upstairs in different rooms. If you want the better sound with Live Audio, it is ~2-3 volume levels (Clicks of the button) less, so it is quite a bit. When I took this to a social function with about 15 people all in a room, you could hardly hear some songs when people were talking. This also however depends on the song itself. I think if you were to turn up most songs in Itunes (Volume wise) above 100%, they would still sound good (not distorted). So I hope that the volume cap is put higher in a update (which is why updates are a very nice feature). The Clarity HD gets much louder, but once again the sound is a lot worse. If volume is crucial for you, the Clarity HD might be a nice option (Check out my review on it). Overall I think most people are going to be satisfied with the volume, and if you really need a boost, you can connect the device by wire and the sound gets MUCH louder, as loud if not louder than the Clarity HD on bluetooth.Edit: Along with LiveAudio, there is also a feature called "Sound Clarity" which once again, says it will improve audio sound at the cost of some volume, when LiveAudio is DISabled. So I had both these features enabled therefore I didn't have maximum sound. So this device CAN get a little bit louder than I thought. I still think the choice between volume and sound quality is a nice one, however to change this you need to connect to a computer, so this cannot be easily shifted on the go.-Price, $200 is a lot but the market for these devices is quite high as it is. The Clarity HD is twice as cheap on Amazon right now, but as i said before, I got my Jambox for $150 so that made a huge difference in my mind. For $50 more, I would hands down prefer the Jambox over Clarity HD. For $100, the question becomes more clouded. If you have the money and are willing to spend it, you will not feel bad about spending $150 as I think you will be very satisfied with the Jambox, it's just got a pleasing feel to it.(This isn't really a con, but a concern) -Portability: Im not certain how portable this is. Its really small and easy to carry but you do need some kind of bag, as its awkward to just carry in your hand. You do get a nice case with it. The best option without an extra bag is I guess a decently big jacket pocket would fit it. It is portable but I think its kind of peculiar to carry around, if you have Purse or some kind of backpack or anything, that problem is dissolved.Conclusion: This is a great product though it is quite pricey. It has really good sound quality and bass for its size and purpose. I am concerned about how loud this could get in a very loud enviornment, but I suspect for most people, it will be good enough. The firmware updates make this kind of problem solvable, and leave the Jambox with room to improve. The design and features are really nice. Compared to the Clarity HD, I think the reviews are misleading. The Clarity HD has notable MUCH worse sound quality, but it does get louder and is cheaper. The firmware updates are a nice touch and give you options for better sound, which is also very nice. In every other aspect such as design and battery life, the Jambox is also supreme.Extra-Topical: My Jambox is actually going to be RMA'd beacuse it has some kind of glitch or is defective, but a few times, the Bluetooth connection would just be a random sound, like a signal, but it wouldnt play any music and would make weird crackling sounds. The wire would still play music however. Recently I could barely even get bluetooth to play music, rather than these weird sounds as if it were broken, so this is a big problem. I am hoping this is just my unit so its not impacting the review, but if my new one has this problem, I may make an edit.Also, this isnt really a connectivity drop because it isnt silence, its this weird droning noise. But on the topic of connectivity. Ive never had a drop on my Itouch even while walking downstairs which the Jambox is upstairs. However, my sisters IPhone 4G had like 4 drops in one session of listening. Im not really sure what caused the connection loss and I dont know if its specific to the Iphone 4G but this may be a problem. Never happend to me though. 