[Nook Color Accessories] woot1524:
For a couple months now I've been looking for a pair of external speakers for my nook color and cell phone. I saw an Engadget blurb about these BoomCans and decided to roll the dice. I picked up two of them, black and blue, and have had several hours to mess with 'em today.

Here is a link to the specs and details on Scosche's website.

I'll stick to the basic categories: Sound-quality, Build-quality, and Utility.

Sound-quality

I'm pleasantly surprised with the sound quality, though the controlling factor is the volume. The on/off button acts as a simple volume control configured as such: [off/low/high].

With mid-range volume the speakers sound awesome. The speaker is just big enough for the low's to get across while not drowning-out the high's, and a sufficient db and signal-to-noise ratio to project fairly crisp highs. Compared to cell-phone/tablet/laptop speakers of course.

On low volume they sound even better, and when I say 'low volume' I mean speaking level.

When you want to blast the tunes is when you'll get into some trouble. The speakers just can't handle how loud they're able to be pushed. It is possible to max out the speakers with them in the low mode which is a bit disconcerting, because I'd hate to blow one by accidentally having the media volume turned to max. Which is quite the design flaw.

You are able to daisy-chain the BoomCans together, but with one flaw. No left/right, just mono feeding mono. To be honest though, mono is good enough for any application they're suited for. I personally got them for camping/fires and the like.

Build-quality

The speaker enclosure is the best built part of this product. Which is a really good thing, and annoying at the same time. The enclosure is solid feeling metal, possibly aluminium, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be pot steal. It's capped on top and bottom with plastic caps. The bottom having the mini-usb in (for input and charging) and a 3.5mm out for daisy-chaining. This brings us to the aspect I dislike most about this product, the cordage. As you can see in the image below the mini-usb to split usd/3.5mm input is both far to short and poorly made. They had to cut some corners i guess to get it to the $25 price point.

/edit

The battery seems to be as good as marketed. I've got a little over six hours of playtime so far on the initial charge. Time will reveal the quality of the battery, and it's ability to sustain the max charge.

There's also nothing proprietary about the cable. Seems to be charging just fine with a standard mini-USB to USB cable connected to my ipod classic charger. Any USB charger with an out of 500mA or above should be quite safe to use.

edit\

Utility

Being only 2.5'' tall and 2.0'' wide, these are quite portable. You are also given a pouch for scratch-free carrying. The technically unlimited times you are able to daisy-chain these is dumb at best, but I believe a very nice feature for only two or three of 'em.

If you're looking for some external speakers for a phone/tablet/laptop I would cautiously recommend these.

The good

-Quality feeling speaker enclosure

-Low-mid volume sound quality is great

-Advertised 4-7hr battery life

-Relatively low price point: $24.99/ea

-Designed to Daisy-chain

The bad

-Feedback audible while charging

-Able to be pushed past DB limit on low volume switch setting

-Mono only with daisy-chaining

-no A/C charger included

The ugly

-Very cheap cables (cable is a male mini-usb ---> split male-usb/3.5mm audio)

Edit: Added some battery info