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 - Maybe Not for Everyone, But Perfect for MeLike most careful shoppers, I read all of the B-Flex reviews on Amazon and other sites before purchasing this product. I travel frequently with a small laptop and the built-in sound is just terrible. I sometimes make business presentations from the laptop and my clients can barely hear them. I also like to watch DVDs and listen to music in hotel rooms. I definitely had a need for a portable USB speaker. so, I decided to give this little guy a try. Here's my take on the B-Flex: PROS: - incredibly compact and portable - the sound is impressively loud and the quality is surprisingly good. I have been using it with DVDs, MP3s, YouTube, and my flash presentations. when you're watching a DVD and the THX intro comes on, it's actually pretty sharp and amazing. I feel like I have a mini home theater in my hotel room bed. no complaints on the sound. - looks cool. everyone complements me on it and asks about it. - plug-and-play. it is automatically recognized by my Windows Vista and plays without a problem. I adjust the volume on Windows or the application I'm using. - USB fit is good and you can bend the flex cable to any position to really direct the sound right toward you. CONS: - you have to adjust the volume of your application to optimize the sound. you may have to lower the volume slightly for maximum clarity, but that is pretty much the same on all speakers. Conclusion: obviously it would be great if this little speaker was as loud and bass heavy as my big desktop speakers, but in all fairness, that's not the point of this product. it's an ultra compact speaker that does its job amazingly well. if you need a portable speaker and don't want to fuss with wires, batteries, or a power adapter, this little gadget is a steal at $40 and the sound is really great. UPDATE 11/10/08: I recommended this product to my company and the IT department bought 500 of them! now the B-Flex is everywhere and has kind of become part of the company culture. people use them in their cubicles, for presentations, even office parties. it's pretty funny. not one complaint so far. great little product! Rating:  - Don't Buy Without Listening FirstI bought the JLAB USB Speaker because I received my first laptop as a gift and wanted the portability of going out on the deck with my wireless connection to hear without having to plug in AC. When it arrived I was excited until I hooked it up...It does give the laptop more of a volume boost...but that's where it stops. The sound quality is weak. I saw a pair of USB speakers at Walmart and bought them today to see the difference in sound. OH MY!! The DURABRAND 2.0 USB Powered Speaker System for $10 is so much better. (The only downside is they are 2 of them and you need to plug in the USB for power and the stereo mini plug (both permanently attached to speakers)for audio...they are 8 inches high and 3.5 inches wide , but you have STEREO SEPARATION now and for the price you can't go wrong. Check out the inexpensive DURABRAND and save some of the green. Rating: - Good SpeakerI have a Sony laptop and the speakers are very weak. I bought this external speaker to increase the volume. Also it's easy to carry in the laptop bag. The speaker gives much more volume than the speakers in the laptop and a good sound. It's not super quality sound but it's not supposed to be. It does the job I wanted it to so I'm happy. Rating: - Great SpeakersThese speakers are great. We used them to hear the navagational system we loaded on our laptop. They gave us plenty of volumn. The only thing I would like better would be to have an external volumn control knob on the speakers. Rating: - Very pleasedI love my Macbook except for the profoundly lousy internal speakers. Based on reading these reviews, I bought these and am very pleased. I use Soundsticks when I'm deskbound, and they provide superior audio quality but aren't portable. For traveling this will now make my music accessible, which it wasn't before without headphones. Excellent product (providing it holds up!)
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