Gadget Source

Pros: Loud, clear, sound quality is about as good as expected from something this cheap and small.

Cons: A bit top heavy which causes some stress on the USB port. Nothing wrong but I wonder if there will be any long term effects.

Let’s face it, laptop speakers are terrible. We can all agree on that! But is this small USB laptop speaker system really the solution? Yes and no. On the plus side, the USB plug is easy to use – just plug and play! It works on both Mac and PCs. (I have a Mac.) The flexible gooseneck allows for quick directional adjustment and it’s sturdy enough to easily support the speaker unit.

Also on the plus side, the speakers generate a hefty sound level. At the max volume setting on my computer, these little speakers were loud enough to be heard several feet away. If you want to use your laptop to play something for someone else, this is the way to go.

However, on the minus side… the sound quality is harsh and tinny, and there is very little bottom end. There are USB speakers available for the same price that have reasonably smooth high end and decent bottom end response (at least they give you an idea of what’s happening in the bass), however they lack the convenience of this product. My overall assesment: this product is a good idea that hasn’t been realized well. The gooseneck is sturdy enough to support a larger speaker unit that would allow for reasonable sound reproduction. The product feels and sounds more like a toy than an actual speaker. I doubt that I’ll be using it for much.

My laptop speakers are pitiful – sometimes I even had trouble hearing with the headphones. (I do also have a slight hearing problem.) I didn’t know there was a product like this until recently. I read the reviews from the other colors, and really wasn’t expecting much, but they are GREAT!

I used to have to have my speakers turned up to 100 to hear anything (without headphones). Now 20 OR 30 does it, and it’s LOUD. I didn’t buy them for quality of sound, but the quality seems quite good, too. I bought them just to be able to HEAR videos and music. I didn’t want regular speakers – I already have that with my desktop pc, and these are small and easy to store, but they have big, big, sound.

I will be buying them for my two kids as soon as I can afford to, because they both have the same type of laptop I do, and we have all complained to each other about the sound problem. I am just amazed at the sound that comes out of these little speakers.

There is no installation required – I just plugged them into a USB port, my pc recognized them immediately – it was plug and play and HEAR! I highly recommend these to anyone who has the same problem with their laptop or notebook.

I’m a JLab/JBud fan so I thought I’d give these speakers a try. My laptop speakers are horrible and barely audible at best. One thing’s for sure – these speakers are LOUD! Really loud, so I had to keep turning them down to a comfortable level. The quality is about what I expected for the price – better than the original speakers but no Bose system. I keep tweaking my settings, and it gets better, but it will never be true digital stereo quality, and I expect to always hear a slight tinny and scratchy quality.

They truly are a plug and play product, but you need to be patient and wait for your computer to recognize the device and for the drivers to install themselves. It will tell you when it is ready to use. It took mine a couple of minutes. Follow the directions! The flexible cable neck is really sturdy and holds it’s position even though the little speakers are a bit hefty for their size. Heft is good. The sound blares straight out at you, so be careful not to point the speakers right at your ear … lesson learned! )

I had a horrible time getting my iTunes to work with these. Every other program worked great, but iTunes – nope. I spent an hour fiddling around, reading and rereading the instructions, rebooting and rebooting, and then all of a sudden – viola! Sound! With iTunes innate parasitic qualities, I fault Apple over JLab.

So, before you buy, make sure your expectations match the product’s abilities. I’m OK with what it is, as long as I remember what I paid and what I started with.

I ordered one of these in December and it did and still does work great. I ordered another one for a friend a week ago and it arrived defective. I have been unable to contact the company either by phone or by email. I finally just sent it back without talking to anyone since no one responded to my calls or emails. This was by far the worst customer service ever. No one responded at all. Very strange. I think they have an 800 number just to make it look like you can talk with someone. There is a recording but that’s about it. I would never order from them again nor would I recommend them to anyone. If I could give a rating of zero I would.

I rarely write reviews, but I purchased these speakers, plugged them into my 13″ MacBook USB port and got a message that the USB power was overloaded and the USB port no longer works. I took it to Apple and they had the motherboard replaced (thankfully free under Applecare).

My laptop speakers were never very loud. Often I couldn’t hear any type of live broadcast. This has good volume and works fine. No issues, maybe a bit “tinny” sounding but not unusual for something this small. Convenient, easy to use.

I don’t feel I’ve been ripped off. Until I worked on integrating these speakers into my system, I’ve been in love with ubuntu Linux. But now, my enthusiasm is less because this task shouldn’t have been so difficult. I found it extremely hard but bottom line, I do have them working. The volume is great, a million percent better than my pc speakers. Yes, the base could be improved but for the price, I find it better than acceptable.

I’ll document here in case it helps someone else:

Note: not sure this is the right order but the end result of this for my system was successful – may be some reboots necessary between steps..

1. confirm that Pulseaudio volume control and Pulseaudio meter control is installed – (go to pull down menu for Applications, then add/remove, then search for pavumeter and pavucontrol – if not installed, then install)
2. double click on “master applet” (mine looks like a microphone in upper right corner- single click will get you only volume increase or decrease- need to double click)
3. select “c-media usb audio device (alsa mixer) from the list in the pull down at the top of the box
FYI – I know that my speaker was “C-Media” by entering following command from a terminal session:
$ cat /proc/asound/cards
returned info below:
—————————————————-
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel – HDA Intel
HDA Intel at 0xf4600000 irq 22
1 [default ]: USB-Audio – C-Media USB Audio Device
C-Media USB Audio Device at usb-0000:00:1d.0-1, full speed
—————————————————-
4. start pulse audio device chooser in pulldown under Applications/sound
5. select preferences in chooser and then check box for “start applet on session login”
6. (this is most important step to do!) modify /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base by commenting out “options usb snd audio index=-2 i.e. insert “#” at beginning of line (this line was preventing the usb speaker from becoming the default)
7. click on system pull down menu, then preferences/sound and click on devices tab, then set or confirm that:
a. “Sound events – sound playback – says “c-media…”
b. “Music and movies – sound playback – says “c-media…”
c. confirm both fields under Audio Conferencing say “pulseaudio server”
d. confirm that “Default Mixer Tracks” says “c-media…”
8. Note: need to reboot (now is good time if not rebooted yet) at some point after the file in modprobe.d directory changed and before you can increase volume on usb speakers in next steps
9. click on pulseaudio applet (mine is in a tray at the top of my screen)
10. select volume control
11. select playback
12. then adjust volume by sliding bar – this was point that my speaker(s) began working properly