Philips BT3500B/37 Wireless Portable Speaker

This is an amazing speaker. I have the NFC stereo speaker model. I originally got one of these at walmart about 3 or 4 years ago for about $50 and accidentally dropped it on cement at work and knocked the charging port inside so had to get a new one. This speaker is LOUD! I work at a Home Depot Store and when I was working overnight freight, I was able to crank this thing up. One of my co workers running the forklift in lumber, on the other side of the store could hear it, and he was wearing headphones to help cut out the noise from the equipment. The fact that this has an audio jack too is great. I've used it for my portable projector which only has either built in speaker or 3.5mm audio out. This is perfect for that. Has decent bass and sounds even better if you have a music player app that has a manual equalizer. I use rocker player from the amazon app store myself. Using an equalizer can even boos the volume a little past maximum. Though the louder you have it the less battery life you will have. At max and using the equalizer my old one lasted about 3 or 4 hours. Whenever you turn it on, it's about 50% volume which without the equalizer, lasted an 8 hour shift without dying. Like I said I got this for about $50 or $60 like 4 years ago, now its listed between $24 and $30 by some sellers on amazon. I've seen a few selling for $80 to $100 plus. Dont go with these sellers. It's a great speaker but not worth more than $40. Go with the lowest price. You wont regret it.I've read a few of the 2 and 1 star reviews on this and some people are saying that the volume cuts in half randomly. This actually happens when the battery is low. It cuts the power to the speaker to preserve battery life. It also has a microphone that senses if there is anything playing so if you have the volume too low it may cut in and out. This is also meant to preserve your battery by cutting off the power if you have your music or other sound paused. There was also another negative review where the instructions were confusing and the speaker was difficult to figure out how to use. Pretty much all bluetooth speakers and headphones work exactly the same. I'm gussi mb g that person hasn't had much experience with bluetooth. The light on it has blue and red. With 3 positions for the switch. Off, bluetooth and audio cable. When you turn the bluetooth on, the blue light will blink rapidly. Attempting to pair with your phone. Once paired it will be solid blue. I believe blinking red is low battery. Solid red is charging and solid blue while off is fully charged. Pairing is pretty simple if you know how to pair things on your phone, whether by bluetooth pairing or nfc. You just have to know how to navigate your phone menus. The instructions obviously cant show you that lol. Another thing was someone said that the instructions mentioned you could only charge with the switch in one mode. They didnt mention which mode and I dont have the instructions on me but this is not true. This can be charged while of and while being used in bluetooth or aux audio modes. I've had this plugged in while watching movies on a projector and using a protable phone charger while listening to music. The light will turn solid red while charging regardless of which mode you have it in.

My primary reason for buying BT3500B/37 was the need for an above average portable Bluetooth speaker that could be used in conjunction with my iPhone or iPad. It had to be battery-operated, rechargeable and stereo sound -capable. I often listen to International radio broadcasts or watch online TV. I also stream music from my home media center.Prior to this purchase, I had tested quite a few mono speakers at a local brick and mortar store ( a well known national chain). Mono units typically produce a smaller, flatter sound, and I could not make myself sacrifice good sound quality for the size. Stereo units looked like the right way to go, but many lacked in quality. Sure, there are a lot of speakers out there that will easily break your bank, and they may be worth the expense and all... Personaly, I needed something on a reasonably priced without sacrificing quality. I need to add that I already own a couple of older non-Bluetooth speakers and iPod docks by Philps and Logitech. They produce much richer, fuller sound compared to BT3500B/37. However, they are stationary and could not be operated without AC power.Regardless of its size or purpose, this Bluetooth speaker puts out a nice, round sound with decent highs and lows. base. You will appreciate the sound quality the most when using the speaker in a smaller room, such as a typical bedroom or a bathroom. It is loud enough when used outside, but you're going to lose some of the lows. The smartest thing about this speaker is that it can adjust its volume automatically when turned up too high to minimize and eliminate sound distortion.Overall, I am very pleased with the purchase.

There are some very good reasons to by this speaker--and some not to buy it.In my opinion this speaker was made for a very different target audience than speakers like the Solemate and the Beats Pill. For one thing the controls seem designed to appeal to an older crowd. I remember when Neil Armstrong took that one small step for mankind on the moon, and I've just never been happy with all these push buttons that serve two or three different purposes. I tried an Oontz speaker and couldn't get it to work. I'm not going to use my speaker for music, so I do not want track forward and track backward buttons, especially if I'm going to confuse them for volume up or volume down, which was the case with the Oontz. On this speaker the volume control is a large silver knob, which works great. Thank you, Philips! Better yet, the other major control is a little slided that has three positions: Off, Bluetooth, and Aux In. Slide it to BT and a little light glows blue. Slide it to Aux In and the light glows red. Turn it off and the light doesn't glow unless the unit is charging, in which case it glows red. The upshot is that it's really easy to know which function you've got. Just look at the light. I love the controls on this speaker. They're absolutely perfect. The only slight hitch is in the button that enables the unit to pair. This button also answers the phone, and it's smaller and not as easy to find as I would like, but after fumbling around with the Oontz and getting everything wrong all the time I can live with that one button serving dual purposes. This unit is slightly larger than I expected, but it's slim and has rounded corners and seems designed to slide into a business case. Nothing will fall off or get broken. I looked at the Solemate, but I thought it would be a lot bulkier than I wanted. It's thick and wouldn't be as easy to set on a nightstand, for example. Now for news that I think will either sell this speaker or cause you to look elsewhere: if you're in a conference room with clients and everybody is wearing their best ties and talking money, if you pull this speaker out of your bag and set it on the table to used as a speakerphone or provide audio for a screen presentation, nobody is going to think you borrowed it from your teenager. It looks very professional. The speakerphone function works find, and it gets loud enough to work in a decent-sized conference room. It also pairs easily, and when it pairs it makes a small audio tone that wouldn't sound out of place in a business setting. I bought this speaker specifically to provide audio for my iPad or iPhone when I travel and I want to stream a movie on Instant Video. So far when I have to make business presentations I've never had to provide the projector--I have one, just in case--and I never have audio. However, if that ever changes I already have the speaker I need.Now for the sound. If you're wanting to provide the jams for your next block party, I would recommend looking elsewhere. This speaker does not have a bass port, and it derives all of its sound from two small drivers. I don't consider myself an audiophile, but when I listen to music I like to hear crystal clear highs and a good low end. I also like a nice sound stage. This speaker does not excel in any of those areas. It's not that it sounds awful, but realistically speaking no speaker this small is going to create the rich, full sound you expect from full-size speakers. Of course I'm also not impressed with the JBL Flip 2, the JBL Charge, the UE Boom, or the Bose Soundlink Mini, all of which I auditioned and rejected, mainly because I didn't like the way any of them sounded. There's no soundstage at all in any of those speakers, and none of them have good highs. Once I lowered my expectations for the sound, I concentrated more on the controls--and this speaker came out on top. For movies and as a speakerphone it will work fine. I also plan to use it paired with my iPhone when I'm using it as a GPS, and I expect it will work out well for that purpose as well. Your mileage may vary, but that's my take on this Philips speaker. I'm giving it four stars because I like it a lot. If it sounded a little nicer and the button to answer the phone were larger and easier to find I'd give it a fifth star.Update 9/7/2014 -- I've been using this speaker quite a bit to provide audio for TV shows and movies, and it performs great. The battery life and sound are both very good. Last night I watched Star Wars--just Star Wars--which of course has a lot of thundering music and good sound effects. The movie sounded fine, and I even noticed that some of the sound effects sounded quite "directional". An enemy fighter would zoom across the screen, and it sounded like it was moving from left to right. From a speaker this small that's more than I could ask, to be honest. This is a good speaker.