Back in the day, in a galaxy far, far, away, BBQs and picnics meant bringing a boombox to the party. Someone always had to stay vigilant to flip to "Side B" once 45 minutes of the 90 mix was over (kids, let your elders wax poetic about the pre-internet era, a time when we had to endure pressing an actual mechanical "play" button to listen to music, had to wait seconds while rewinding to listen to our favorite songs over again, all inbetween moments when we weren't fighting back dinosaurs with sticks from our horse and buggies).
And even though I have a soft spot for those relics of my childhood past, I distinctly remember portable tape systems sounding hoarse and horrible once pushed beyond "5" on the volume dial. It got a little better once we entered the age of CDs, but even so, systems were just barely portable, sounded marginally acceptable outdoors, and were susceptible to the bump-skip party foul.
Fast forward to today: it's all about wirelessly streaming a 500 song playlist from an iPhone 30 feet away to a portable Bluetooth speaker the size of a block of cheddar, your favorite Flo Rida track easily replayed at the suggestion of a press of a touchscreen, all possible thanks to an explosion of digital audio technology designed specifically for the MP3 generation. Sure beats lugging around an arm-stretching 10 lbs+ ghetto blaster, weighed down by a small fortune in D sized batteries (good for approximately 6 hours before requiring replacement). But this old fella digresses...
Here are my current top picks for best wireless audio speakers to take out onto the picnic blanket, out in the patio, down to the beach, or by the pool this summer (including one for those of you who like to hold it down on wax)…they won't make you younger, but that Journey or Wilson Phillips track will sound better today than when you recorded it off FM radio onto a cassette tape...I promise.
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