Review: Jawbone Mini Jambox - the better Jambox?

 
We all know that the Jambox is just a piece of overpriced garbage... well the truth is, the original Jambox was nevertheless something like a game-changer for the whole portable speaker market.
Up to then all portable speakers were either small and sounded tinny, or they were too large to really be called "portable".

When the Jambox was announced about 3 years ago, there were hardly any comparable speakers available. The Jambox was overpriced for sure and it should have cost half of its original price already from the beginning. Even before the Jambox and something like its inofficial "father" there was already the FoxL from Soundmatters, but it never became as popular as the Jambox, which I never understood. Maybe it was the design of the Jambox, which made it look like anything else than a speaker, but I didn't care much about the strange Steve Behar design and all these regular geometric patterns, I really never liked nor did I understand them. Therefore I understand even less, why so many copycats tried to use similar patterns for their speakers, meanwhile there are so many cheap replica on the market that try to look like a Jambox, which looks just ugly in my opinion. A simple metal grille would look much more elegant in most cases than all those patterns.
I compiled a quick collage of some examples that are just brash copies of the original design, some look extremly close!

Apart from the unique design some of its features were also pretty new by then. The Jambox had the option for firmware updates, something no other speaker offered at that time. Bit by bit Jawbone offered new functions to the Jambox through updates, one of them being "Liveaudio" which was quite of a mixed bag and only worked with particular recordings, another late update finally allowed to turn off all voice prompts or status sounds. Unfortunately many copycats also started to use the same voice prompts in their speakers: "the speaker is now in pairing mode...", you can hear this phrase in every second speaker now. They also copied all the turn-on or turn-off sounds, and it seems they really took the worst they could find and meanwhile nearly all portable Bluetooth play sounds that nobody needs at all, or they talk to you...

In reality the Jambox didn't sound that good, but it managed to create a more full-bodied sound than the small size would suggest. Thanks to its acoustic design from Soundmatters with their "twoofers" and the back passive radiator being actually the battery, the Jambox was able to produce a fuller sound than most other even larger speakers. But it was far from perfect, it didn't play very loud, all samples I have tried had some resonance-issues with particular frequencies (see my teardown here, where I tried to fix it, but never really succeeded) and if we compare the Jambox to the Bose Soundlink Mini today, which is only slightly larger, the Jambox sounds like a toy. Bose finally showed last year with the arrival of the Soundlink Mini what kind of sound is achievable from a speaker that small. They had already showed off big sound in small speakers like with their Computer Music Monitors, and my hope was that one day Bose might make a portable version of it. They didn't, but surprisingly designed a completely new speaker: the Soundlink Mini.
Since then the Jambox had hard times to survive, the price dropped and now Jawbone finally discontinued it. You won't find the original Jambox on their site anymore. Suddenly all copycats started to copy the Soundlink Mini, but so far I have not heard a single one which would come even close, despite all the criticism about muffled sound or boomy sound, the Soundlink Mini remains a pretty unique sounding speaker that small. The only speaker that might have an edge over the Soundlink Mini, although still not perfect, is the new Sony SRS-X3 that I reviewed here.

Unfortunately the Sony is even slightly larger than the Soundlink Mini. What is missing though, is a really portable solution, smaller, lighter, but still being able to produce a convincing and full-bodied sound. I tried many ultraportable speakers, like the JBL Micro Wireless, the TDK Trek Micro,... and although they sound quite acceptable for their size, they are still far away from impressive sounding.

In the meantime Jawbone had announced the Mini Jambox, a smaller and lighter version of the Jambox, and they had the chance to really improve things and make the speaker something outstanding. The Mini Jambox didn't seem to be the success Jawbone had expected, so the price fell pretty quickly too, and when the price jumped below 100� I finally grabbed one to try it out and compare to some other speakers I currently had at home.

Designwise the Mini Jambox is a huge improvement over the old design. Not only the Mini Jambox is roughly half the size of the original Jambox, it is the aluminium body, the clean and polished look, and altough I still don't like most of the offered patterns ("diamond", "graphite", "snowflake", etc), the dottet one looks best and together with the neutral silver color the Mini Jambox manages to look just as classy as the Bose Soundlink Mini.

But what can you expect from something that small? The Mini Jambox is full of useful features that I would like to elaborate on a little bit and as my neighbour still owns the old Jambox, I also wanted to see if the shrinking made the sound much worse or maybe even improved some things?

What I really love about the Mini Jambox is its size. It is even smaller and lighter than the FoxL which I often carry inside my trousers pocket if I need a portable speaker. Usually I would have loved to take the Soundlink Mini instead, but it is just too large to really be packet away without being noticed. This is where the Jambox fits the bill. It slips into my shirt-pocket and I don't think about it anymore. It weights nearly 100grams less than the old Jambox and slightly more than 1/3 of the Soundlink Mini.

I especially like some of its features. The Mini Jambox supports multipoint pairing through Bluetooth and it is the first speaker I have tried where this functionality is finally implemented well. The Jambox Mini automatically reconnects to all already known devices unlike many other speakers where you have to force Bluetooth connection every time again. On the Mini Jambox this means that if you are already connected to it streaming some music and your wife comes home her mobile phone will automatically pair to the Mini Jambox as well and you will hear a confirmation beep. Now your wife could start playing some music, then your playback will be automatically stopped! Really cool, no need to reconnect, repair, or stop music. Just press play, and you can switch from one device to the other.
The Mini Jambox also supports wireless pairing with another Mini Jambox, Jawbone calls this Multiplay, which is possible in either unisono-mode or real stereo. I haven't tried that yet, but I am sure it should enhance listening experience even further. The pairing process seems pretty straight forward as you can see here.
Other new features include track control through the Play/Pause button, which was somehow missing on the old Jambox. With double press you can switch to the next track, three presses will take you a track back and you can of course take calls with the same button, as handsfree is built in as well. This is quite nice, as you can do nearly all directly from the Mini Jambox without having to touch your mobile phone at all as even the volume is now synced between the devices! Really helpful and how it has to be done in a Bluetooth speaker!
Thank godness the Mini Jambox also has the "silent mode" which turns off all sounds and voice-prompts. You enable it by keeping the play-button and minus-button pressed simultanously before turning the Mini Jambox on. Strangely the Mini Jambox will still hum with a deep bass note when turned on or off even sounding slightly distorted!

I was very curious to hear how the Mini Jambox sounds, as I have never heard it in person yet. The Mini Jambox seems to use the same new slim drivers of the FoxL Dash7, otherwise such a compact body wouldn't be possible. The battery is still acting as passive radiator, but it is forward firing this time, making the back completely closed without any grille but with the same front-pattern. Allthough bass is rather non-directional it is still better to have it emit directly frontally rather than to the back, like it was on the old Jambox otherwise you would always need some back-wall to reinforce it, because when standing completely free it would rather get lost in the distance.

 
According to Jawbone there is a DSP on board now, that's why the sound is so "incredibly rich" at lower volumes. Well, in reality it is everything else than rich. My impression was that it sounds like an old muffled transistor radio when I played some first tunes. The loud power on tone will sound more powerful than every music you throw at it and the Mini Jambox sounds even more veiled than the Bose Soundlink Mini. Especially at low levels I could hardly hear any of the claimed richness.
Before going into detail, I will first post a frequency response measurement which shows how the Mini Jambox compares to the Soundlink Mini. Volume was normalized with pink noise at 65dB for both speakers, which corresponds to pleasant background listening volume. As you can see the frequency response of the Mini Jambox is surprisingly flat (within +/- 3dB) from about 170Hz to 12kHz, but there is hardly any bass below 100Hz with rolloff already starting at 170Hz while treble already starts to fade above 12khz which seems to be the reason for the even duller impression the Mini Jambox gives over the Soundlink Mini. The Mini also has strong treble rolloff above 12kHz but the whole frequency-band above 3kHz is already boosted, so it won't stand out that much. You can also see from this curve how much more bass the Soundlink Mini is able to produce:

Now comparing the Mini Jambox to the original Jambox, the differences are not huge at the first look. The old Jambox doesn't have this strong treble roll-off, but it has quite a big dip at 12kHz.

 
This could be interpreted as a big advantage for the Mini Jambox being able to produce similar audio despite being nearly half the size, or also a big letdown because the Mini Jambox is not able to offer that much improvement over the old version. In reality it is indeed an improvement. Although both still sound pretty similar, the Mini Jambox sounds less stressed with a more solid sound, while the old Jambox sounds rather compressed and somehow dirty. This is especially noticeable at higher levels on the old Jambox, where you will hear distortion creeping in already far below maximum, while the Mini Jambox will overall sound cleaner. Both have a comparable maximum volume, depending on the music either the Mini Jambox or the old Jambox can be slightly louder. But while the old Jambox compresses dynamics to achieve a higher maximum volume (similar to what Bose does with the Soundlink Mini at levels above 75%), the Mini Jambox remains without that obvious dynamics processing resulting in a more natural sound but with slightly less bass at the same time. With some tracks you might even notice pumping effects with the old Jambox, which means that the whole music suddenly becomes lower when a bass sound is played to become louder again when there is no bass anymore. I haven't noticed anything like that with the Mini Jambox.

Things change a bit if you enable "Liveaudio". Liveaudio does not only open the stereo-image quite much, but it has also some influence on the overall frequency response. With Liveaudio the Jambox gains quite a bit of bass and it becomes clearer with higher frequencies at the same time. The difference doesn't look serious from the graph, but including the enhanced stereo-field the sound becomes much more profound and large. I think it is especially the BACCH crosstalk canceling filter (this is what Liveaudio is based on) which adds to the overall effect.

The Mini Jambox seems the first speaker where Liveaudio really is a benefit, assumed the listener and the speaker are located at optimum positions. I have tried Liveaudio on the old Jambox and on the BIG Jambox, but neither of them was sounding that convincing as the Mini Jambox. Maybe the filters were tuned even better now, or the drivers are just better in the new version, because with the old Jambox I got pretty heavy resonance issues when I tried to listen to some music with Liveaudio turned on.

Liveaudio usually works best with binaural recordings, it works with normal stereo-recordings too, but you might get overly exaggerated stereo-effects. With binaural recordings the effect will be outstanding and very realistic though. I have listened to some nature recordings and with the Mini Jambox placed directly in front of me I got the impression of being totally surrounded by sound, it is more impressive than a 5.1 surround setup. I didn't experience lots of back-localisation, but the sound comes much farther from beyond the speaker edges, than most other stereo enhancing algorithms I have heard so far. The best distance seems to be around 50cm from your ears. You can also try longer distances up to 1 meter, but 50cm seems to be the sweet spot. For biggest effect just lay down on your couch and place the Mini Jambox on your belly. You will probably have to lay it down flat, otherwise it won't stand upright, except if you have a hard and flat sixpack. Now play some binaural recordings like the youtube video above, or listen to Ottmar Liebert's "Up Close" which was recorded with a real dummy head, and enjoy!
Thanks to Liveaudio finally binaural recordings can be enjoyed through speakers as well, otherwise binuaral stereo only worked well with headphones.
The problems start when the speaker is not placed optimally anymore. Turn the Mini Jambox away slightly so that the drivers are not facing you anymore and you will notice that the mix starts sounding different. Reverb effects become more pronounced, background sounds might become too loud. Keeping Liveaudio on whole the time is not a solution if you just want to place the Mini Jambox somewhere and walk around, as it will really only sound good when placed in front of you at the perfect distance or close to it.
Another issue is Liveaudio introduces a slightly lower maximum volume, this is probably due to the crosstalk filtering, which has to compensate for some frequency loss and therefore boosts several frequency bands to avoid sound colorations. It is not that severe as on the old Jambox which became about half as loud with active Liveaudio, but on the Mini Jambox Liveaudio will still give a slightly lower maximum volume than without. When switching between both settings you will also notice how the volume-bar on your player jumps up or down, as Jawbone tries to match both levels not to make this difference that obvious. It is just at maximum volume, where you cannot match them anymore.

A bigger issue is that the Mini Jambox cannot reach a very high volume at all. Good thing is, the Mini Jambox doesn't show any distortion issues even at top volume. Some reviewers seem to have noticed mid-frequency distortion, but I found the Mini Jambox to play very clean up to its maximum volume. The old Jambox was much worse in this regard as it showed both distortion and stronger dynamic processing while not being able to play louder at all. But meanwhile most comparable speakers play nearly twice as loud, like the JBL Flip for example. Even smaller mini speakers like the JBL Micro wireless will play louder than the Mini Jambox and just for fun I even tried putting a cheap Music Angel which you can already get below 10$ against the Mini Jambox, and although the Music Angel sounds pretty harsh and by far not that balanced or full bodied, it will play nearly equally loud, which is a bit embarassing if you ask me. 

The only speaker which has even more loudness-issues than the Mini Jambox is the Soundmatters FoxL (I still have the 2.2 Version). Although the FoxL can play quite a bit louder it will already distort quite heavily at levels where the Mini Jambox still sounds clean. But this is probably the price you have to pay for a speaker that small, still I would have loved a little bit more power and a little bit more bass-punch especially at low levels. I measured the Mini Jambox at 55, 65, 75dB and at maximum volume and you can notice a stronger bass reduction at maximum volume, but the claimed bassboost at lower levels is hardly noticeable:

For a better view I normalized the graphs for all volume levels shown above, and you can indeed see slight differences in the amount of bass and treble depending on the volume, but from 65dB down to 55dB there is less than 4dB of bass increase, and while 55dB is already quite a low volume, the frequency response seems most linear at this level only to further reduce bass and treble at higher volume settings. In my opinion it should be the other way round, more bass-boost at lower levels, and a rather linear response at 75-85dB.

As the sound of the Jambox is quite thin on its own (missing any deeper bass frequencies) it will give an even thinner impression at low levels, due to the human ear becoming less sensitive for lower frequencies at low amplitudes. There should be much more of a bass enhancement at lower levels than now. You rather get a bass-reducer at high levels, than a bass-booster at low levels.
It is only when directly compared to the old Jambox or the FoxL, that the Mini Jambox sounds slightly more full-bodied at lower levels (the example below was measured at 55dB). Here you can really notice an advantage for the Mini Jambox and that the dynamic processing although subtle does its job.

 
For my taste it is just not enough, I don't expect the boomy kind of bass Bose usually does, but a bit more punch would be welcome, therefore I tried playing around with various equalizing apps for iOS and found that the Mini Jambox responds pretty well to stronger frequency boosts without producing any kinds of artefacts or distortion, this is probably also the reason why Liveaudio works so much better with the Mini Jambox, as the sound remains stable even with stronger equalizing. For my taste Bongiovi DPS gave the best result because usually with most apps you have to lower the gain if you boost some frequencies too much. Bongiovi DPS on the other hand seems to really boost the overall sound and manage to keep the same volume at the same time unlike the preset EQs from Apple like "bassbosster" that rather takes away high frequencies instead of boosting lower ones. With the Bongiovi DPS app the Mini Jambox sounded best when enabling the "Annapolis" profile and adjusting the EQ for additional bass and treble boost like this:

With this setup the Mini Jambox will sound fuller and larger and it will even play slightly louder than without any processing. Of course processed like this there might be some slight distortion introduced on very bassheavy tracks when played at higher levels, but overall distortion is still pretty well under control, what surprised me most. Such a strong bass-boost would not be possible with the old Jambox, because the whole body would buzz and rattle. However Bongiovi is better suitable for lower levels, as a kind of poor man's loudness function, which unfortunately is not dynamic. Of course one can go even further and try using Bongiovi together with Liveaudio for maximum effect, this will result in a really BIG sound and interestingly obvious processing artefacts or stronger distortion are still missing, at least if you don't exaggerate setting the volume too high.
I tried to prepare a video where I switch between normal audio, "Liveaudio" and the Bongiovi processing. I think Bongiovi DPS manages the most convincing audio boost, although it won't give you that strong stereofield from "Liveaudio". Both Bongiovi DPS together with Liveaudio sound most impressive although it might already appear a bit exaggerated, have a listen:

I also experimented with flat positioning which can boost bass even further on particular surfaces. It is a pity that Jawbone didn't think about this feature and made the back-side completely rubbered, because due to the single passive radiator the Jambox can vibrate slightly. When laying flat it tends to rattle against the base at higher levels, some cloth or fabric below will help to avoid any rattling.
The vibration is not as strong as with the old Jambox btw. and I didn't notice any problems with stonger creeping or dancing around, the Mini Jambox usually keeps its position, but the bottom surface only has 2 little rubber feet, which are not enough to securely keep the Jambox stable on uneven surfaces. I tried positioning it on concrete several times and I could feel how the aluminium was touching the base, instead of the rubber feet. The whole bottom should have been one big rubber foot, because as it is now any less smooth surface might scratch the body from below, especially at higher levels, where the Mini Jambox starts to rattle against the base.

I think as personal speaker and not so much as party speaker the Mini Jambox can mostly convince. It won't give you the heavy sound of Bose, but with enabled Liveaudio and the right recordings it can sound very appealing. I would have only preferred some stronger sound adjustment at lower levels. But even now the Mini Jambox sounds better than most models from the competition that are by far not as portable and compact. I found the Mini Jambox to sound more natural than the JBL Flip which has an extremly boosted treble, while having even worse bass extension despite being larger, on the other hand the JBL Flip doesn't suffer that much from treble loss when heard from an angle, while the Mini Jambox will sound rather dull, you cannot have it all!

 
I also found the Mini Jambox to outplay the Sony X2, especially with enabled Liveaudio the sound coming out of the Mini Jambox was heavier and more impressive.

I prepared a video with a direct comparison to the original Jambox. I think you can hear that the Mini Jambox sounds somewhat less stressed, especially at maximum volume the original Jambox shows obvious distortion, while the Mini Jambox stays pretty clean even with active Liveaudio, which becomes pretty distorted on the original Jambox.

Here is another video comparing the Mini Jambox against the Bose Soundlink Mini which might appear a bit unfair due to the size difference. But originally the price difference between both was not that high, therefore someone how doesn't care much about size, will probably decide on sound quality alone:

The only thing you might be missing from the Mini Jambox is high volume. So if you need high volume by all means, look somewhere else!
I would have never paid the original asked price, but below 100$ the Mini Jambox might be quite a good choice for an ultraportable speaker. Although meanwhile there are lots of different options from other companies, none of them is really that small, and none of them sounds really that much better (except louder of course)! In any case the Mini Jambox is a big improvement over the old Jambox, which now gives an even more toyish impression. I am also finally going to sell my FoxL now, as it will be replaced with the Mini Jambox. The FoxL has still a surprisingly more refined sound although I was finally hoping for something that would outperform the FoxL. Nevertheless the Mini Jambox is the much better speaker with considerably better features, longer Bluetooth reach, better shielding against mobile radio and just better design, not to forget Liveaudio which really sounds great with the Mini Jambox now.

Now I still hope for some similar sized model, which might add a bit more loudness and even better bass extension with all the nice features the Mini Jambox already offers now.
By the way what about a "Soundlink Micro", Bose are you listening?
Maybe such a small speaker from Bose will finally sound more balanced, as they probably won't be able to push bass as much!

+ great design and high quality aluminium finish
+ smaller and more portable than similar models
+ balanced sound without obvious frequency-humps
+ Liveaudio adds fullness to the sound and incredible 3D-effect to binaural recordings
+ multipoint Bluetooth connections with automatic repairing
+ pairing of 2 speakers for unisono mode or wireless stereo
+ synced volume between streaming device and speaker
+ track control through the speaker
+ no distortion up to maximum volume
+ all unnecessary voice prompts or sounds can be turned off completely
+ long battery life 
+ allows firmwareupdates 


- muffled treble (no upper treble above 12kHz) 
- too light on bass (hardly any response below 100Hz)
- maximum volume lower than the competition
- hardly noticeable dynamic equalization, thefore thin sounding at lower levels
- Liveaudio might sound overdone with many standard stereo recordings 
- can rattle on particular surfaces
- very small rubber feet, so bottom can scratch easily
- original price too expensive for given performance

Review: AudioActiv Vault LS waterproof case for Soundlink Mini

AudioActiv asked me if I was interested in testing their Vault series waterproof speaker case and sent me one for the Soundlink Mini.
I was looking forward to trying it out, because I use the Soundlink Mini quite regularly also near the pool when swimming, so it could be nice to either have the speaker finally protected somehow against splashes, or even take it directly into the water for an even better and more immersive sound experience.

        Here a first short demonstration video:

I sometimes already tried taking the original Jambox with me into the pool and placed it on the mattress right beside me. With the passive radiator facing the mattress directly bass could be reinforced to some more impressive levels, the mattress acting like an additional resonator. But I was always afraid the Jambox (not even worth half of the asked 199 by then) could fall into the water, when I wasn't careful enough, therefore I haven't dared to try such experiments with the Soundlink Mini yet.

Meanwhile another unexptected source of danger is my dear little son who seems to be even more interested in my speakers than I am. But he is still pretty clumsy and tends to drop them sometimes and I am pretty sure he would also like to test how the Soundlink Mini might sound under water. For that reason I thought the AudioActiv case would be a welcome aid to keep the gadgets alive, without the need of forbidding him to use them.

The cases from AudioActiv are available in various sizes and it seems they are available in either black or white, mine came in black, although for outdoor use I would definitely choose the white one. The biggest model should be able to accomodate the BIG Jambox, and it has also the right openings to fit a Soundlink II or III beside some place for the mobile phone etc.
Before ordering your case, you should make sure to select that one which fits your speaker.
Although the cases for the Soundlink Mini and Jambox are pretty much equal, the inlays inside are prepared to be used with the correspondent speaker. The inlays are made of a conventional foam material and are very accurately fitting. I managed to fit the Sony SRS-X2 inside the case with some force, but the bigger SRS-X3 wouldn't fit before cutting the holes within the foam inlays bigger.

The build quality of the case gives a pretty tough impression. The interior is padded so that a Soundlink Mini should be pretty safe inside even when dropped. There are holes at the front and the back of the case, where I first thought they would allow water to enter, but behind the holes you can see a thin membrane when looking close. This membrane should be acoustically transparent and is called AudioClear by AudioActiv. Let's see later if this membrane compromises audio quality in some way, or if it is rather negligible.
The AudioActiv cases are equipped with different lugs at the sides and at the top, to either use them with some strap or maybe even allow tethering to other objects or whatever.

In order to use the case there is not much to do, just open the case as you would do with a suitcase, place your speaker inside and close the case again. For testing if it is waterproof according to the included manual you should submerge it under water for 20 seconds and look inside afterwards if everything is still dry.
The AudioActiv Vault cases do float and they are waterproof to some degree, but shouldn't be submerged deeper than 30cm. The case is not meant for keeping the speaker inside the water permanently, but rather to keep the speaker protected in case it falls inside or gets some unwanted splashes.

I tested the case with the Soundlink Mini inside and let it float around in the pool for several minutes and the speaker remained completely dry. Later I put a cheap no-name speaker inside that I bought especially for my son and kept it inside for the rest of the day. My son was playing with the case, taking it into his baby-pool, splashing it with the hosepipe etc, finally when I took out the speaker afterwards it was quite humid, so be careful to use the case advisedly.
I think that applying some kind of vaseline and lube the rubber seal might also help making the case tighter. I remember when I was trying an underwater camera-case for the first time, there was a similar oily medium included in order to apply it to the seals.

You can see in the following video how my son already took possession of the speaker. Thanks to the case, I could let him play the whole day with it without fear he might damage something. 

What about sound?
To tell the truth, there is indeed quite a difference in sound depending if the speaker is inside the case or not. Unfortunately the Bose Soundlink Mini doesn't seem to be a good match for the AudioActiv case soundwise. It is already pretty muffled and directional, but when inside the case the sound suffers even more, becoming really dull and mid-pronounced. As there is some additional distance added from the speaker grille to the case-openings, the sound seems to become even more focused and makes the speaker hardly audible from the side, except if some serious treble boost is added.
I tried measuring the sound of the Soundlink Mini inside the case and outside, and as you can see from the frequency response graph, the treble already starts being compromised above 3kHz when played from inside and remains entirely below the original curve with a treble-decrease up to -10dB.

I also prepared a video where you can hopefully hear the change in sound:

I even tried other speakers inside the case that would still fit into the original Soundlink Mini inlays. The Sony SRS-X2 for example sounded considerably more acceptable as it has very clear treble to begin with. It didn't vibrate that much inside the case either, which made the overall sound more pleasant listening to, while the Soundlink Mini sounded too heavy and buzzing when inside.
Also the JBL Flip sounded nice and within the case suddenly didn't give such a tinny impression anymore, probably because the capacity of the case seemed to add a little bit of resonance at lower frequencies.
I would have loved to try the Sony SRS-X3 with the case too, as it is my favorite portable speaker right now, but didn't want to damage the case by cutting the original inlays. I am quite sure the SRS-X3 would sound pretty good. By enabling the additional "sound"-mode it should sound clear enough to make it sound still acceptable from inside.

Apart from the obvious change in sound, I didn't notice any side-effects on Bluetooth reach etc. The speakers still had a similar reception when inside the case. But you have to bear in mind, that when intended to be used with the case, the speaker cannot be operated that easily anymore. You have to turn on the speaker first, do Bluetooth pairing, set the volume on the speaker to a high enough level, so that you can still lower it from your streaming device and then close the case and forget about it. If you want to change some setting on the speaker later, you must open the case each time.

I think AudioActiv made some pretty useful and unique cases if one necessarily needs the protection for his speaker. I am only afraid that the Soundlink Mini might not be the best choice to be used with the case, as the sound will change too much for the worse. But the AudioActiv cases should sound more acceptable with other speakers that have an overall clearer and less bommy sound. I don't like the added bulk and would have preferred a smaller case, better customized to the size of each speaker. But this would probably increase the price even more. I am not sure that many are willing to spend about 60$ (or even more for the larger models) for a simple speaker-case.
I would also welcome additional and exchangeable inlays to be bought separately. One could buy a single case and just add the needed inlays, in order to make the same case usable with different speakers.
Apart from that there is not much to complain about. Let's just hope AudioActiv will extend sale of their cases to the European market as well!


+ easy and hassle-free usage
+ perfect fit for the Soundlink Mini
+ thanks to high quality build the speaker inside becomes shock-resistant to some degree
+ good protection against water, dust, dirt...
+ floats on water
+ no side effects on Bluetooth reach

- makes the speaker quite a bit chunky
- sound is compromised above 3kHz quite much
- speaker cannot be operated when inside the case
- might be too expensive for some

Speaker news and rumors: BoLse, Audio Dynamix and Fugoo

"BOLSE", yeah right, Bose but with an "L" contacted me recently, if I would like to test their newest speaker:

After some research and incidentally reading in a German HiFi-forum about a similar speaker which (according to the owner, who already ordered one from amazon.co.uk) should sound better than the Soundlink Mini while being cheaper, I noticed that the Audio Dynamix Pulse, and the mysterious Bose-speaker but with an L seem both to be exactly the same thing (expect the different branding of course):

There is no single negative review on amazon.co.uk about the Audio Dynamix Pulse and many compare it to the Soundlink Mini prasing it for comparable or even better sound. Even Audio Dynamix introduce the speaker on their site with the following phrase:
"The Pulse is our answer to the Bose Soundlink mini"

If the Bolse speaker is really the same it should be quite a bargain costing just 59$ thus making it probably the best all-around value among portable speakers, provided that the rumors about quality of sound are true at all. The British Audio Dynamix version costs quite a bit more and is listed with 90�, which would make it more than twice as expensive. Maybe Audio Dynamix tuned their version better, or included some more advanced DSP, or better drivers, I cannot say for certain without having heard both in person. 

I already replied to Bolse that I would willingly love to prepare a review of their speaker and do some audio comparisons as well, but I am not sure if they are really about to ship this speaker to Europe. I will keep you updated. 
Meanwhile I also conacted Audio Dynamix, if they would like to provide me a review sample as shipping from Britain should be possible more easily.

Another speaker worth mentioning, although in a higher price-range is the Fugoo Bluetooth speaker. I was already following Fugoo since the beginning as their speaker seemed to include nearly all points of my original wishlist for a perfect portable speaker and I think this is one of the most interesting outdoor speakers on the market right now, have a look at this video, what the guy does to the poor little speaker. My Bose Soundlink Mini already got scratched without even having touched it!

The Fugoo is small, rugged, waterproof, has exchangeable "jackets", an incredible battery life of 40 hours, and thanks to its 6 drivers spread to all sides including 2 passive radiators it should provide a full-bodied omnidirectional 360� sound, something completely missing from most portable speakers, which are extremely directional most of the time.
Initially there seem to have been some problems with maximum volume, but with the latest firmware this should be sorted out according to Fugoo as the speaker has an additional new "loud"-mode now.
Currently Fugoo speakers are only available in the US, but the CEO of Fugoo recently mentioned their speakers should come to the European market within the next 3 months. As I didn't want to wait for that long, I felt free to contact him asking cheekily for a review sample. He actually already responded to think about it first...

As you can probably see from this photo quite well, I think the Fugoo is also one of the most esthetic speakers I have seen so far :

 

Review: Sony SRS-X3 - The Bose Soundlink Mini killer?

Happy Birthday to my Soundlink Mini, as it will be exactly one year ago to the day that it made me 200 bucks poorer, when I carried it out from the Bose store. As much as I had used it over the time and thought it would be my last portable speaker bringing my search for the perfect portable speaker finally to an end, instead everything seems to have started again from the beginning.

Although I still really like the Soundlink Mini even after one year, I was never completely satisfied with it. I liked the deep and pronounced bass of it, but I hated the restrained treble response, which unnecessarily was also very directional at the same time making the Soundlink Mini sound boomy and muffled when not positioned well all the time.
For a portable speaker this is quite a limitation because you cannot put it just beside you on the ground, when outside with friends sitting on the lawn somewhere, as it will sound boomy and dull at the same time. Put it on some elvated position and aim it directly towards you, and it should be fine though, but dare moving around...

During this year I porbably tested more different speakers, than I did before owning the Soundlink Mini. So far nothing really came close in overall performance. Some other speakers might have been even louder like the UE Boom, but the overall sound quality rather resembled that of a kitchen radio, not a fully grown up speaker. I am sure if Bose didn't come up with the Soundlink Mini, all portable speakers would still sound like clock-radios or Jamboxes and companies would still be asking premium prices for their toy-speakers, like Beats is still trying to rip-off customers with their small Pill.

The Klipsch GiG that I reviewed recently, seemed to be one of the few real alternatives to the Soundlink Mini, but it was still far from impressive. Now Sony had announced the SRS-X3 just when I was testing the larger SRS-X5 reviewed here. As the X3 was claimed to keep its full 20 Watts of power from battery as well, my hope was, that it might come close to the X5 performance wise despite missing the extra woofer of the SRS-X5 and being nearly half as small. It took some time to compare the SRS-X3 extensively to the Soundlink Mini and the larger SRS-X5, so here we go:

It seems that Sony finally managed to beat Bose in some aspects, but Bose still seems to have the edge when some other details are considered. If you are in the market for a compact portable speaker which doesn't fall short of delivering a full-range sound despite the small size, I want to show you why and when you should choose the Sony SRS-X3 over the Bose Soundlink Mini and vice versa.



The Sony SRS-X3 is slightly bigger overall than the Soundlink Mini. It has nearly the same length and about the same thickness, but it is slightly higher. The differences are not huge, but you might notice it when trying to put it inside your trousers-pocket, while I managed easily with the Soundlink Mini, it probably won't be possible with the Sony because of its thickness. Nevertheless it seems as if Sony was trying to match the X3 as close to the Soundlink Mini as possible, the Soundlink Mini being the one which has to be beaten.

The Sony design is minimalistic and elegant at the same time. The speaker will look equally good outdoors, when put on a lawn, and it should also look good in your living room on a shelf. What it misses though is the premium feel you get from the Soundlink Mini. The Sony just feels like a portable speaker, while with the Bose you have the impression of holding something expensive in your hand.

Especially the bottom thin plastic base of the Sony leaves a very cheap impression, it feels pretty hollow when knocking against it. Also squeezing the body slightly with your hands, might result in some crackling as it yields slightly under pressure. I also noticed some slight resonance with the enclosure on the Sony when playing deep bass notes which went away after squeezing the speaker a bit. It was nothing serious, but I never experienced that with the Bose as it has a massive aluminium body. Only the grille is quite sensitive on the Bose and scratches pretty easily. Not sure how resistant the Sony is in this regard.

Apart from the plastic base and the metal grille the rest of the body is covered by some rubber-coating, including all the buttons at the top, which is a good thing, because it seems as if the Sony could also be operated with wet hands, without being afraid of moisture entering some slit.
I am only a bit concerned about the rubber coating, because so far I had made rather bad experiences with such kind of coatings. The Tivoli PAL which was also rubber covered nearly lost all of it at the edges, the same was the case with my Panasonic G1 camera where the rubber-skin started to peel off on many spots pretty soon.

The edges on the Sony are rounded, which not only makes the design of the speaker more appealing but according to Sony this should also avoid any diffraction of sound.

The Sony SRS-X3 comes only with an own USB-Charger and a micro USB cable, no other accesories are included. Yes, it can be charged directly from USB, something many were complaining about with the Bose, which needs its proprietary 12V charger. But the Bose has its charging cradle, which I personally find very useful, as I just have to put it into the cradle without any hassle with wires and trying to fit them into the small port.

Charging takes about 3-4 hours, although it says 5 hours in the manual. Unfortunately you cannot listen to music during charging, as the speaker is only charged when off. This is probably because of the low 5V USB-voltage which won't be able to power both the speaker and charge the battery at the same time. I am not sure how much I can trust the charging-electronics, but the Soundlink Mini for example won't charge if it is already charged, while when the SRS-X3 finishes charging and you attach it afterwards, it will again start charging for about 5 mintues. You can try this several times one after the other, and I wonder if the battery will be charged to 150% then? I also doubt the battery can be exchanged as I haven't found any screws, maybe they are underneath the rubber-feet wich are permanently glued to the base. I really hope the battery is of high quality, as the Sony might otherwise become an overpriced paperweight soon.  See update below, with a photo of the battery!

Update: Thanks to Joachim from a German Hifi-Forum who took the risk to remove the glued rubber-feet, there are indeed screws below, if the bottom-plate is removed the battery becomes exposed and looks like this. Each cell is 67mm long with 18mm diameter, which would hint on 2 18650 cells soldered together. If someone knows how to easily replace the battery with a stronger model, please let us know:

Battery life for the SRS-X3 is claimed to be 7 hours. At lower listening levels you should easily be able to reach or even excel this. I only found that when listening at high levels (close to maximum) the battery drain is much faster. At high levels I hardly got longer playing times than 2 hours, but the biggest issue is that the Sony SRS-X3 automatically lowers the maximum volume to about half when battery is starting to get weak. This can become quite annoying, as I was using the speaker for some hours at lower levels and then wanted to crank it for some particular tracks to the max, but after some minutes the speaker automatically lowered the volume on its own, the "charge" light started to flash and I was not able to increase the volume anymore. I think that the battery inside the Sony is rather weak compared to the one Bose uses. I am able to use the Soundlink Mini for more than 4 hours at the highest level. If you need high levels over a longer period, the Sony might be the wrong choice. You could try using an external power-pack, although it won't charge the speaker as long as it is turned on, at least you can continue using it. I have an older power-pack from Anker and it works flawlessly with the Sony. I haven't tried yet, how long the Sony would play when powered merely by the external battery. At least this might be a compromise for some. It is harder to find a suitable power-pack for the Soundlink Mini, providing the necessary 12V.

For transport there is an extra case available. It costs about 20� or $ and is considerably cheaper than that from Bose for the Soundlink Mini. But unlike the Bose case the Sony case doesn't seem to have any additional space for the charger or the charging cable.

When turning the speaker on, it will play some sound, not unpleasant but pretty loud. The larger X5 remained silent, I have no clue why Sony decided that it needs a sound this time. A similar counterpart sound is played when the speaker is turned off. You force Bluetooth pairing with a long press of the Bluetooth button, this will produce a loud beep, then the speaker can be paired with any Bluetooth device. Although many Bluetooth speakers do meanwhile accept multiple connections, the Sony doesn't. You can just be paired with one device at the same time. The Sony is also missing AptX for better streaming quality, or the feature of being able to pair 2 speakers for wireless stereo, but it has NFC and built in hands-free, both of which are missing on the Bose.
It seems the Bluetooth reach of the Sony SRS-X3 is particularly stable. I am not sure if the reach is really that much longer than on the Soundlink Mini, but I had the chance to compare the Sony to the JBL Flip from a friend and the Sony had easily twice the reach without even producing a single drop-out, with the JBL stuttering and interrupting just half way.
The only thing that the Sony won't do is to automatically pair with previously paired devices. Which means that if the last paired device is absent or off, but one of the previously paired devices is present, the Sony won't pair with them on its own. The Bose does usually does this, and it works pretty well. If it cannot find the last paired device it will search for the next to last paired one and then automatically connect on its own. On the Sony you have to force pairing from your streaming device instead each time you want to change the streaming devices.

While the Bose has some kind of power saving mode and will turn off on its own after 15 minutes or so, if there is no music playing and even when attached to mains as well, the Sony will stay powered on as long as a Bluetooth device connected regardless if there is something playing or not. Many always complained about the power saving mode of the Bose because they intended to use it as an alarm, but didn't manage to keep it powered on. This should indeed work with the Sony, regardless if the speaker is running from battery or plugged in.
So feature wise the Sony beats the Bose and is furthermore cheaper. The Bose can only score on material quality and looks.
But now lets take a look (or better listen) at the sound of the Sony SRS-X3. Which one sounds better, which is louder etc.

The first thing you notice when you hear the Sony for the first time is a really serious full-range sound with extremly clear treble and deep bass, that isn't boomy by any means. The Sony doesn't sound like a tin-can speaker as so many similar speakers do, but rather like a fully grown up system, of course only as long as you keep the volume under control. When I played both X3 and X5 side by side, I was surprised to hear the X3 being able to produce a similar amount of bass while sounding much clearer than the bigger model. Directly compared with the Soundlink Mini the latter will sound pretty muffled and boomy at the same time. The bass on the Sony is louder at 60Hz than the Bose and reaches even slightly below that, but it isn't as boosted above 100Hz as on the Bose. The upper bass boost on the Bose can make the bass buzz and drone if you listen to it in small rooms or place it near a corner or near a wall. You can equally push bass on the Sony a little more when putting it near a wall. Both Soundlink Mini and SRS-X3 seem to have exactly the same driver configuration consisting of 2 full-range drivers and 2 opposing passive radiators, one at the front and one at the back, the opposing radiators avoid any stronger vibration or rattling, which you get from many other speakers, that have the passive radiator on one side only. By placing the speaker back near a wall, you will boost the bass that normally would be emitted to the back and might get otherwise lost to some degree. On the Sony this works indeed pretty well, as you make the bass stronger and louder, but not boomier, unlike with the Bose Soundlink Mini which rather profits form a completely free positioning for not to sound too heavy on bass especially in conjunction with the recessed treble, which will give the impression of being boomier than it actually is.
Biggest problem of the Bose is, that treble dispersion is very focused. When you aim the speaker directly at you, it sounds pretty balanced, but turn it away slightly or tilt it up or down and you will lose all the treble. Although the Sony also sounds best when directly aimed at the listener, treble still remains acceptable if you turn the speaker away. It even sounds clearer than the Bose if you turn it around backwards.
The treble of the Sony sounds a bit thin though, it can become even slightly harsh with some recordings. A hi-hat on the Bose has still some presence in the lower frequencies, while it is only fizzling in the upper frequencies on the Sony. While I thought the X5 to sound better with "sound" mode enabled, because it boosted treble at the same time and made the sound clearer. This sound-mode is completely overdone on the X3 as it boosts the already boosted treble even more. I even tried to wrap the X3 in some kind of "sock" to tame the treble a little bit as it is fundamentally too sharp and resonant for my taste, which probably is also the reason why it still sounds acceptable from behind, while on the Bose you won't hear any high frequencies when turned backwards.

Mids seem to have more presence on the Bose. On the Sony vocals are sometimes less clear and instruments like piano or guitar can sound a bit thin, probably because it is missing the basshump above 100Hz. This was not that obvious on the larger X5, which had a more rounded mids-reproduction.

It is hard to definitively decide which one is better, because both have their strenghts and sound is also a matter of personal taste. The Soundlink Mini obviously shines with bright recordings that are a bit light on bass, while the X3 sounds pretty convincing on older more muffled recordings.
While the Sony sounds better indoors most of the time, because you can just put it on some shelf, walk around and still get an acceptable sound, the Bose will sound veiled pretty quickly when you move too far to the side. Both have enough bass power to really create a convincing foundation for the music not to sound lifeless or anemic, but both are tuned differently, in such a way that the Bose might sound slightly more powerful overall at the expense of a duller treble response.

It is different outdoors. The deeper bass of the Sony can get lost more quickly than the Bose. Also the treble continues to sound thin and sizzling on the Sony, while it comes better through on the Bose. I compared both thoroughly outdoors on our patio and most of the time I preferred the rendition the Soundlink Mini gave me. The boomier bass was indeed an advantage outdoors with a noisy enviroment, while the Sony just sounded thinner because the deeper bass couldn't be heard that much outside. The Sony profits quite a bit of a wall or even putting it on the ground will considerably enhance bass outdoors. As treble dispersion is not such a big problem on the Sony, you could even just put it on the ground and listen to it while standing above. The Bose would just sound dull and bassheavy like this. So for a picnic, where you sit around together on the ground with the speaker somewhere placed beside or in the center, the Sony should be the better choice, as it would be able to produce a powerful  bass because of standing on the ground and enough treble, because of its superior clarity.

Volumewise both reach more or less the same loudness, but both do not sound too convincing at their top level anymore. Bass is reduced on both of them, but while Bose tries to keep the frequency spectrum intact with just lowering the bass amplitute, the sound seems to shift on the Sony, making the bass thinner and pushing treble even more. Both are not really perfect for high volumes, they sound best up to medium level or slightly above. From 3/4 upwards the low frequency balance starts to dissolve together with some dynamic compression that kicks in, and everything starts sounding forced. If really high volume is your priority, I think that the Soundlink Mini still sounds more convincing as it sounds fuller up to highest level, while the bass on the Sony becomes too thin from a certain point. Some of its lower bass remains, but the amplitute is reduced that much, that it won't sound full-bodied anymore. The difference between medium volume and high volume is too radical in case of the SRS-X3, while I would still see it acceptable with the Soundlink Mini.
Both speakers can distort at top volume, but while the Bose has problems with keeping its bass-level clean enough thus would start farting, it is rather the mid-tones that can make the Sony start crackling at high levels. I tested both with some pretty heavy mixes from pianoplayer and Smoothjazz artist Brian Culbertson, and while the Bose started to buzz with deeper bass notes but apart from that was still very clean even at top volume, the Sony on the other side kept bass rather distortionfree but also with lower amplitute, instead it had problems with loud piano-notes which started to crack sometimes.
With very bassheavy recordings both can struggle a bit even at medium volume. At levels between 50-60 Bose tries to keep bass as strong as possible which might result in an already dirty reproduction. You will mostly hear it on kick-drums, on deep bassnotes like that from a Hammond Organ etc. At comparable levels the Sony seems to have bass better under control, but you can hear how the bass-notes bleed into the treble. It is mostly noticable with ride or crash cymbals, triangle etc. They start to flutter when there is some lower bass played simultaneously. The Bose does the same, but it is not that obvious because it sounds overall more muffled, as the Sony sounds so clear this effect is quite noticeable. You should also hear it in my videos during some parts.

Both speakers are rather meant for low and medium volumes. The Sony has 30 volume-steps, while the Bose has 100. When the Bose is set to 50, it would play with similar loudness as the Sony when this is set to 10. The volume curve seems to be non linear for both, because they meet loudnesswise again at their top setting. I would say that the Sony sounds quite good up to step 15, the sound starts to deteriorate from there pretty quickly. The Bose sounds good up to 60 and still acceptable at 75, then it starts getting worse very fast too. The only problem with the Bose is the bass distortion that it might show on very heavy mixes within the already mentioned range between 50-60%. This distortion goes away if you turn it either lower or louder, it really seems to be just this range, where bass is boosted slightly too much for the small drivers to handle it.
At lower levels I prefer the Sony. It sounds clearer and bass is still present but not owerpowering. It sounds even good at the very first volume-step, which is impressive. Not sure if anyone would ever listen to music that low, but Sony really seems to have tuned the loudness-curve pretty well including boost of treble at lowest levels as well, which is just the way the human ear reacts to low and high frequencies at lower levels. Bose only seems to boost bass at lower volumes to compensate for the loundess-loss, but it doesn't do enough for treble, at least this is the impression I have, because the sound becomes more and more muffled the lower you turn volume.
Unfortuantely both speakers have their own volume control independent of the volume control from the streaming device. This might lead to strange artefacts, especially regarding loudness-compensation if you start messing around with both settings. If you set the speaker's volume to the maximum, while lower the volume on your player, both Sony and Bose will sound considerably different, than if you have the player set to maximum, and the speaker decreased to a lower value. This is a problem that most speaker seem to struggle with, especially when they apply loudness-compensation depending on the volume level. But the compensation seems not to be dependent on the final output-loudness only, but rather on both the input-level and the level the speaker ist set to. The Sony fights with this problem quite heavily, as the sound changes drastically depending on how both separate volume-controls are set.

Moreover I noticed some strange dynamic compression which I already heard from the larger SRS-X5 as well but didn't pay much attention to it back then. Especially when directly compared to the Denon Envaya or Soundlink Mini on the X5 drums didn't sound that punchy and snares were less snappy compared to the others. I had the impression as if Sony was trying to compress the dynamics on their speakers similar to most radio stations which do the same in order to increase the signal to noise ratio before transmission. This compressed dynamics is even more obvious with the X3. I played around with various volume levels and finally found that the compression mostly occurs if you set the volume on your streaming device to the maximum, which I normally always did until now. But doing so with both Sony speakers you will end up not only with a more compressed sound, but also a different sound overall including sharper treble and more recessed mids. During fooling around and listening closely at various volume settings, I finally discovered that decreasing the volume 4 notches on the iPhone and increasing it 2 notches on the speaker to achieve the same loudness as before would result in a more natural sound with less compression as well as better mids and slightly less resonant treble. You can try finding your own best setting by increasing volume on your player until you notice that the overall volume won't change much anymore during the last notches. Choose that one step below, where a change in volume is starting to become more obvious.
During my measurements of the SRS-X3 I also wanted to see how this input-level reduction would show up in the graph. I measured the speaker with a calibrated MiniDSP UMIK-1 microphone from a 50cm distance in my usual recording room, where I also do all audio recordings now. There is definitely some room-influence that I cannot avoid, but the measurements should be correct relatively to each other. You can see clearly from the blue curve that treble and bass is boosted in relation to the mids, this is what you get when the player is turned up to the maximum. When turning the player down to 75% and raising the volume on the speaker instead to normalize the output to the same level as before, you will get the red curve with a smoother response overall. I also included "sound" as additional factor which is shown in cyan for the maximum volume measurement and orange for the measurement with reduced input-volume to 75%:

 

I am not sure what Sony tried to achieve with this. Apart from the strange frequency shift which I cannot explain, maybe they were afraid of a too high input-level and decided to add some dynamic compression to avoid any distortion and be on the save side, who knows. But I was already about to nearly dismiss the SRS-X3 for these compression and sound-issues until I discovered that lowering the input volume would prevent most problems. But then this dynamic compression might even help at really low volumes to make music sound more constant, as it avoids strong peak-changes, therefore it is not too bad to have an indirect option of either accepting it or avoiding it.

Moreover I wanted to show a direct frequency response comparison at medium level between the Soundlink Mini and the SRS-X3, with the more balanced sound-setting at 75% input-volume as demonstrated above being used for the Sony:

In the following off-axis measurement recorded from 37� above with the same distance of 50cm the Sony measures even more balanced (cyan curve) as opposed to the direct frontal on-axis measurement (black curve), while the Soundlink Mini (see measurement below) suffers considerably when listened like this, losing all its treble above 7.5kHz already. This is one of the worst results I have measured from any speaker so far and nearly unacceptable making the Soundlink Mini sound extremly muffled and boomy, when not positioned exactly at ear-height. The Sony sounds indeed better if not aimed directly at the listener which is quite unique but not a bad thing for a portable speaker which you place just somewhere and walk around. Maybe I should have also performed a measurment with the Sony turned backwards? I guess it would still show better treble extension than the Soundlink Mini positioned optimally.

I also prepared two different videos comparing the SRS-X3 with the Soundlink Mini. The first video tries to demonstrate the difference in sound, when both speakers are heard off-axis. While the Sony will still sound acceptable to some degree, the Bose is hardly audible anymore.
In the second video I tried to demonstrate how the sound changes, if you set the player to the maximum instead of lowering it slightly and how both speakers would sound at different loudness levels.

In the third video you will finally see a comparison between the SRS-X3 and the bigger SRS-X5. You decide which one sounds better.

So which one to get? Soundlink Mini or SRS-X3? To tell the truth there is no clear winner as both have their own benefits, therefore I tried to compile a list which shows where each speaker has an advantage over the other, now you must decide which features have the biggest importance for yourself.

Sony SRS-X3:

+ cheaper
+ clearer and less directional treble
+ less boomy bass
+ less critical with placing
+ more balanced and open sound indoors  
+ better sound at very low levels
+ additional sound mode with enhanced stereo effect
+ built in hands-free
+ charging through micro-USB
+ NFC


Bose Soundlink Mini:

+ smaller and slightly lighter
+ more distinct sound outdoors
+ sound more solid at high levels
+ clearer and fuller sounding mids
+ more precious look and materials
+ probably higher resale value
+ included charging cradle
+ stronger battery
+ battery replaceable

What about me? I was already seriously thinking about selling my Soundlink Mini, as I repeatedly found myself grabbing the Sony more often than the Bose, when I wanted to quickly listen to some music around the house or garden. But meanwhile I think that I will probably keep both and check if there will be something new coming from Bose soon...
I also really hope that the SRS-X3 will become as popular as the Soundlink Mini, because Sony might indeed have the potential to improve things even further. Who knows how good the successor model would sound? I would wish some advanced features like wireless stereo pairing of 2 speakers, or multipoint Bluetooth connections, as this would enable the speaker for serious listening, while many other speakers do offer all those features, they all just sound like beer-cans.
On the other side Bose seems to be sleeping a little bit with only negligible updates, as you could see from the evolution of the Soundlink 1 to the Soundlink 3 which took more than 3 years. In the end the Soundlink 3 doesn't offer any new features or sound that much different and despite some slight improvements is still quite a bit shy of treble. I really have the impression as if Bose as a whole was trebleshy somehow!