Tech Review

I bought my wife a Vostro 1320, which reproduces audio worse than my son's old crib mobile. Turned all the way up, Youtube is barely audible. DVDs? Forget it. If my wife wanted to maintain her routine of watching El Gordo y la Flaca while cooking for her devoted husband, she needed external speakers. The Logitech USB V-20s I have didn't seem the right solution considering that she uses her laptop all over the house and on different furniture- kitchen, sofa, bed, as well as the desk.

Logitech V20 Notebook Speakers (Black)

Husband to the rescue! (Technology is a plot by men to stay relevant to women)

Criteria: The speakers had to be of one piece and USB or battery powered. Mini-plug (3.5mm), USB, and Bluetooth were all acceptable connections: The miniplug allows one to use the speakers with cell phones and iPods. I didn't want the miniplug and USB combo- too many wires. Bluetooth was cool as it would have allowed my wife to take a call and use the device as a speakerphone. She could also have placed the speakers anywhere and listened to music with the computer in another room.

Fire up Amazon.

Follow up:

The highest-rated pair of Bluetooth speakers on Amazon in my price range were the Miccus BBMS-03 BluBridge. Interesting. Ultimately, however, I think Bluetooth would have added a layer of complication my wife didn't need.

Miccus BBMS-03 BluBridge Mobile Speaker

Then, to the battery powered miniplug units. There are many fine speakers, from very cheap to expensive. I bought some Tweakers at Office Depot. They sounded fine. They were cute and the red matched my wife's cherry red 1320. They charged via USB so I didn't have to keep buying batteries. I didn't like that the speakers connected to each other via mini-USB. First, this necessitated an adapter to charge via computer USB, an item that stood a 1% chance per day of getting lost, cumulative, with a 50% likelihood of getting lost on a trip. Second, I would have liked that the Tweakers could charge while listening. What made the Tweakers completely unacceptable were that they were unshielded, meaning that they wouldn't play next to a laptop, due to the interference.

The iHome mini-speakers look like they're the same thing.

Grandmax Tweakers Mini-Boom Speakers for iPod / MP3 Players & Laptops - Red

The Altec Lansing Orbit iM-237 uses batteries. Nope.

Altec Lansing iM-237 Orbit Ultraportable Speaker for MP3 Players (Silver)

I seriously considered the B-Flex 2 speakers. They came in red and pink, and had good reviews on Amazon, but I didn't like that it stuck out of the computer. I thought that they would eventually damage the USB port. What if something was in the way? (looking back, I could have used a USB extension. Still, not the best).

USB Laptop Speakers - Portable, Compact, Travel Notebook Speaker for PC and Mac - B-Flex Hi-Fi Stereo USB Laptop Speaker (Red Hot)

I decided to try the Tritton Sound Bite (TRI-UA211). Very good. They operate completely off of USB, obviating the need for batteries and a sound card (meaning that if your sound chip doesn't work, like my friend's doesn't, you can still hear sound). The speakers work immediately upon insertion as well. I have to select the Logitech V-20 speakers from the sound control panel and restart whatever program I'm using every time I want to use them, which is an annoyance.

Since the Tritton has three speakers, a right, left, and woofer; the sound is more spacious than it would have been with one big speaker. The volume is OK, certainly better than the speakers on 99% of laptops, but not enough to fill more than a small bedroom. Bass, fine. The biggest complaint I have with the Tritton is a slight hollowness in the music. My wife used the Soundbite for a month and was completely happy.

TRITTON Sound Bite, Portable USB Digital Speaker System

Some people on Amazon complained about the lack of a volume button or miniplug connection. For them:

I started thinking of getting the white Tritton's big, black brother; the Sound Bite Xtreme, to use with my class for presentations. I imagine the sound is similar to the baby Soundbite. The Xtreme trumps the Soundbite "moderate" in that it has a miniplug adapter for Mp3 players, phones, etc. This is a good feature! I can plug it into my Droid or the projector at school while using a USB AC adapter for the power. The Xtreme comes with a pouch and a volume control.

Sound Bite Xtreme Black USB Inc MP3 Input Headphone Jack Sep Volume

All of a sudden I start seeing the Altec Lansing USB Orbit everywhere: Best Buy, Fry's, Walmart. I walked into Staples and got one, just to try out. I like it. It's smaller than the Tritton and comes with a nice bag with a female-friendly purple interior. The Orbit is louder than the Tritton and I'd say that it sounds better, more muscular than the slightly echo-y Tritton. On the other hand, the Orbit has only one (higher quality) speaker and music can sound mashed together, claustrophobic, not as well-articulated as the Tritton. Like the Tritton, the cord warps underneath the unit.

After several side-by-side, my wife chose the Orbit for its stronger sound. The cute bag and greater compactness played into her decision as well.

I think either the Tritton and Altec Lansing would make fine additions to your laptop experience. If you need to hook up your speaker to more than your laptop, however, the Tritton Xtreme seems near-ideal.