Samsung YA-BS300 Bluetooth Speaker Review

The Samsung BS300 Bluetooth speakers are compact, portable, and extremely versatile. If you're looking for a portable speaker that can be used with almost anything producing sound, this is one serious contender.

Source: Amazon.com is where mine came from. Around $130 the BS300 is pricey. It pays to shop around as BHPhotoVideo.com has them for $90. For comparison the Samsung P2 8gb media player can be found for $149. Yet for your money you get portable speakers that will work with any MP3 player, wireless speakers that will work with most cell phones supporting Bluetooth as well as every Bluetooth MP3 player I've tried including the Samsung P2, Samsung T10, Cowon S9, iriver SPINN, and Insignia Pilot. Using it with a cell phone it can serve as a hands-free speakerphone as it includes it's own microphone. It works great with my Samsung Instinct.

Dimensions: Much smaller than it appears in every add I've seen, the actual measurements are 95 x 47 x 13mm. Roughly 3.75" x 1.85" x .51". 62.6g weight. Small enough to fit easily in most pockets. You can see it here next to the Samsung T10 and P2. In the lower photo you can compare it's thickness to the Samsung T10.

Included: In addition to the speaker you get a USB charging cable, a 3.5mm to 3.5mm stereo patch cable, a small folding stand, a multi-language user manual, and a small (1 year) warranty card.

Connections: On the left end you'll find the DC charging port and a small connection point for a lanyard. On the right end you'll find the 3.5mm line-in port.

Controls: Most of the control are along the top edge. There you'll find the Power button, Play/Pause, Next/Prev, Vol+/-, a DNSe button and a small reset hole. On the front you'll see the microphone and above that a Call/End phone button. Above that are a charging status LED and an operation status LED.

Features: Although small, the BS300 packs in the features.

+ It's line-in jack lets you connect any electronic audio source directly.

+ On-board volume controls let you control volume from the speakers themselves.

+ The rechargeable battery lets you take it with you beyond the power grid, and means you'll never have to buy batteries for it.

+ DNSe settings include a 3D sound mode, a Bass Boost mode, and a combined 3D & Bass Boost mode.

+ As a speakerphone the BS300 allows Answering a call, Ending a call, Rejecting a call, Redialing, Voice Dialing, Switching a call between phone and speaker, and 3-way calling. Of course your phone has to support these features too.

+ You can have your phone and an MP3 player connected simultaneously to the BS300 and the music will pause when a call comes in.

Audio Quality: For such a small speaker, the sound is pretty impressive. You won't hear much if any bass from your music even with the DNSe bass boost on. At 1w per speaker (2w total) it's not going to shake the rafters, but is a very good alternative to earbuds when you need something extremely portable but also shareable. Sound is directional out the front, and drops off by nearly 1/2 from the back. The included stand holds the speaker up at an angle so you get the best audio it can produce. I've tested larger portable speakers that were worse, and none that were better. There is no appreciable stereo separation. The DNSe choices didn't seem to make much difference, with the Normal setting producing the best sound anyway. The Bluetooth feature allows volume control from the speakers OR from your player. Sound using the patch cable sounded only a little less tinny than using bluetooth, but will let you use any sound processing options your player has. The Samsung P2, for example, can use one of several DNSe (equalizer) presets over cable that won't work over bluetooth.

Summary: At $90 the YA-BS300 are a great value. More pocketable than any previous portable speakers I've found, they still do a great job of letting you hear the content of your media player without headphones. Don't lose the included charge cable though. The BS300s are rated for about 4 hours playtime, so expect to be charging them periodically. Those 4 hours should last you through a couple of movies. Battery life is my only complaint, as there is no way to swap in new batteries when your 4 hours are up. It'll take 3 hours or so to recharge the BS300. If you need a small hands free speakerphone for your cell phone, this is a fantastic choice. It wouldn't be hard to find a 12vdc to USB adapter so you could keep the BS300 charged in your car. I can't hear my cell phone's speaker very well. Using the BS300 makes call audio more easily understandable.

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MP3 Player Sales Observations.

I've reviewed many players in this blog. I have my favorites. America has it's own. Curious about what people are actually buying I've stumbled across some interesting sites, and here are my observations:

CNET Shopper lists the 100 best selling players as far as it knows. It is not surprising to see the new iPod Nano appear 4 times in the top 8, with positions 1 (Silver 8gb), 5 (Silver 16gb), 6 (pink 16gb), and 8 (orange 8gb). The iPod Touch takes 2nd, 4th, and 10th with it's 8gb, 16gb, and 32gb variations.

A pleasant surprise is that the hard-drive based Zune models take 3rd (120gb), 9th (80gb), and 21st (30gb) position from the top 25 while the new ipod Classic 120gb model is 20th.

The Samsung T10 is 7th, and the top selling 4gb flash based player. The Samsung P2 8gb is 13th, and the second best touchscreen player behind the iPod Touch. It is the only other touchscreen player in the top 25.
For clip-on players, it does not surprise me to see Sansa Clips at 15th (red 2gb) and 24th (black 1gb), with no iPod Shuffle in the top 50.

Amazon.com's best seller list is nearly the same, except that it is updated hourly. In any given hour the new iPods will show up on top, with the new Zunes and Archos being in the runners up as hard drive based models, and the Samsung P2 sneaking in there in various colors and capacities as the runner-up touchscreen flash model.

Rather than compare sales, it is more interesting to compare players by ratings. In almost every case, the new iPods will not appear anywhere near the top of a "ratings" list. I'll agree that this phenomenon may be due to their popularity, with a higher number sold creating a large pool of reviews, and a greater likelihood that dissenting buyers will feel the need to review. Still, with several players getting 5-out-of-five stars, and the iPods always getting less, it points out that buyers don't buy iPods based on the reviews.

For flash memory based Touchscreens there appears to be only two major players. Amazon rates the year-old Samsung P2 second only to the new iPod Touch. Samsung's S3, a sexy little player that only has a touch sensitive control pad, ranks third among bestselling touchscreen players in the same poll.

There is no science expressed here. The lists/polls I've linked to will change over time. What sells and what is "best" are often different things. I am impressed that the rarely-advertised Samsung players appear so high so often. Owning both a P2 and a T10 I can see their value and compare them directly to my iPods and Zunes and other players. I can also understand why the Zune does well, particularly with it's latest 3.0 firmware update. The Zune software is great, and the players are more efficient to get around on than any iPod except the Touch.

What does it all mean? There are great alternatives to the Apple products. Some people get it. Fortunately for Apple most people don't.

What do YOU think? Leave me a comment.

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How to Sell More MP3 Players than Apple.

I'm on a personal search for THE best pocket media player. I keep finding GREAT players made by companies other than Apple. Yet Apple owns more than 70% of the player market, and no one else seems to have a clue how to compete. I know the secret, and I'm sharing it with you.

1. Steve Jobs is the face of Apple. He is the consumer's personal connection to the products. We hang on his every word, as if he is Moses just down from Mount Sinai. He is rock star, preacher, father figure, and mage. Name the face of any other media player company. You can't.

2. Apple products have memorable names; Nano, Touch, iPhone. They are both clever and descriptive. At best the competing products have a short letter/number to remember. It is more likely they have some lengthy cryptic model number as name, and as such are as memorable as 37 digit prime numbers. Take the Samsung YP-P2JCB, the Sony NWZ-S738FBNC, or the Philips SA5245BT for example. All fantastic players, but could you remember that Sony model to tell a friend about it?

That's it. It's that easy.

Appoint someone to be the spokesman for your entire media player line, and put him on TV and the internet. Give him a title of respect, and make sure he knows your products inside-out and is a fan of them. Give him a 20 year contract to let people know you're serious and that he will be the face of your products for a long, long time.

Now find simple, memorable names for your products. Drop anything that isn't a real word. That's right, NO ZUNE! Zune is a limited vision at the moment. Some of you can keep your category names. I like "Walkman", Sony. We trusted it until you went crazy with your model names. Sandisk you're on the right track with Shaker, Clip, View, Connect, etc.. That explains why you're in second place. Samsung you need names not letters for your players.

Of course the products have to be great. The ironic thing is that many are. Samsung and Sandisk, for example, have great products lines. Yet we don't know anyone at Samsung or Sandisk, and so there is no one we really trust at either company.

This blog is about predictions. The 4th Dimension is time, and in time someone will catch on. I predict the next non-apple MP3 player you WANT to buy will have a name you can remember, and that you'll know who speaks for it. Samsung please contact me. I have some advice for you. ;)

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EmoDio! Samsung's NEW Software and Website for Media Players!

At this every moment Samsung is putting the finishing touches on it's new push into the portable media business. EmoDio, as best I can tell, stands for Emotional StuDio. The new software will replace Samsung's Media Studio as the desktop interface for their devices. Some great features should be here any minute now including TTS (Text To Speech), a program that will turn text books or blogs or notes into MP3 files. The Samsung P2 gets a User Created Interface (UCI) design tool to allow users to create and share their own icon and background designs. DNSe (equalizer) settings can be associated with each genre, and also shared on the EmoDio web site.

Check it out HERE!

HDTV

I tend to be an early adopter, and when my classic 27" Sony TV bit the dust a few years ago I took the opportunity to upgrade to an HDTV. At that time the ONLY HDTV I could find in town was a Sanyo 32" CRT from WalMart. I've still got that heavy (150 lb) Sanyo, but it has been demoted to the guest bedroom in my basement. When I got it there were only two channels broadcasting in digital (ATSC) , and they only had a few shows in full high definition during prime time. Cable and Satellite services had no HD offerings.

Things have changed considerably and now I'm up to 3 HDTVs, with 70 or so DirecTV HD and 9 digital over-the-air local HD channels available on all of them. I've got a 46" Sharp LCD and a 40" Samsung LCD, and all of the HDTVs display the full 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution of the best digital programming. The Sharp is wall mounted in the master bedroom and easy to see from the bed. The Samsung is where that original Sony lived in the main living room of the house.

I'll never go back. HDTV is simply superior in every way to older NTSC standard definition television. Much HD programming also has surround sound audio along with it, and so I've added Sony Surround Sound receivers along with at least 5 speakers and a subwoofer to each room.

I can see some room for improvement, though. The added speakers and nightmare of connection cables that come with HDTV create a mess that is hard to manage and needs to "go away". There is Powerline phone and networking technology available now. I'll predict that at some point your new HDTV will only have a power cord. All audio and video, photos and networking will travel through that power cord. There will be ONE box nearby, that also only has one power cable coming from it. That one box will be your satellite or cable receiver, your HD disk player, your PC, audio decoder and amplifier. Even speakers will come with only a simple power cord, and the sound signals will get to them through the power lines.

That power plug might change a little. I suspect we'll get a new AC/Digital wall plate standard which will identify any wall jack as a data port. It will be backward-compatible with all older power applicances, but provide a whole-house data network to connect every digital device you own.

What do you think?