Who doesn’t like listening to music in the shower? I liked to bring my Jambox into the bathroom with me, but when my Jambox recently stopped working, I needed a replacement.
As I was searching for speakers, I came across several waterproof shower speakers that were more than affordable ($10-25). After some research and digging around, I decided to go with the AquaAudio Cube. I’ve had my AquaAudio Cube for about a week now, so I feel comfortable posting my review of the unit.
Pros:
- Price: I paid ~$22. For a shower speaker to play music, that pricepoint feels right on.
- Sound: I’m happy with the sound. Considering the price and size. It’s not a jambox by any means but it does the job admirably for a $20 bill.
- Connectivity: Connected to my Samsung Galaxy S4 Bluetooth without a problem. Loved that.
- User Interface: Intuitive. You have On/Off, Play/Pause, Go Forward, Go Back. It would have a lot of problems if it wasn’t.
- Easy to Charge: Just connect it via USB cord (included) to your laptop when you’re working. The instructions says that it takes roughly 3 hours to charge.
- Water-Resistant: So far so good. Just don’t submerge it in a tub of water (according to the instructions).
Cons:
- No Auto Off Feature: One thing I dislike about the Aqua Cube is there isn’t an auto-off feature. That means if you leave the thing on, it drains the battery until it’s dead. Having a sound system in your shower/bathroom is all about convenience, and having to turn the cube on and off is annoying when considering convenience.
- Loud Prompt: Speaking of on and off, the thing is loud when you turn it on and connect it to bluetooth. There’s a woman’s voice that prompts you “waiting to be connect” and “connected” at the same decibel (which is loud). And there’s no way to turn the volume down. So it doesn’t matter how softly you are trying to listen to music in the morning shower — the Cube
- Volume Control: I don’t like that you can’t control the volume from the unit itself. The volume is controlled via the phone
- Weird Noises: When you turn the unit off the Cube makes a weird horn honking sound that is unpleasant at best, and jarring at worst. I’m sure whoever chose that sound thought it was cute at the time…. Also, the unit has made an odd screeching/feedback noise a few times that apparently isn’t uncommon.
Inconclusive:
- Battery Life: I need some more time to test this out. I wasn’t pleased with the first or second charges, but those easily could have been because #1 it was out-of-the-box and #2, I left it on. This third charge has now lasted 3 days (about 7-8 songs/30 minutes) [UPDATED] On the fourth day the speaker gave the low battery warning. Not sure whether I had a defective unit, but after a full charge, the battery lasted about 10-11 songs/40 minutes. This is a far cry from the 3 hours it promised on the product description.
Conclusion:
If you care about the small conveniences that I’ve listed above and are annoyed by the scratch-your-head decisions then you’ll probably be annoyed by some of the quirks that this product comes with. That said, it’s been a week and I still have it. If it didn’t do the job, I would have returned it immediately. That says something about the AquaAudio Cube, mostly that it does what it’s supposed to. No more, no less.
The AquaAudio Cube is a speaker for your shower and performs good enough. That’s to say if you’re looking for a small, water-resistant speaker that connects to Bluetooth and sticks to the bathroom tile so you listen to music in the shower — and that’s it, then the AquaAudio Cube will work for you.
It’s no fault of the speaker that I wanted more. It’s not fair for me to judge it negatively because I expected things out of the AquaAudio that it didn’t promise. That said, I’ll end up returning it and instead, pay an extra $12-15 for a unit that has features more aligned to my expectations.
