The Scosche boomSTREAM Bluetooth Wireless Media Speaker is an extremely convenient compromise between sound quality, portability and utility. The unit is tiny, measuring only 6.7-in long, 2.5-in. high and 2.13-inches deep, and it’s quite light to carry around. (Scosche doesn’t specify the weight.)
The Scosche boomSTREAM Media Speaker
What It Does:
With built in Bluetooth 2.1, you can stream any Bluetooth source directly to it, or for older devices such as most iPods, a supplied 3.5 mm cable can be used between it and the boomSTREAM. There is a built-in 1200 mAh lithium polymer rechargeable battery that Scosche reports can play for 6 to 8 hours depending upon volume, and I have no reason to doubt those numbers.
On the left side is a standard USB input, so the battery can charge your iPhone for awhile. I found that from a full charge my iPhone 4S depleted the battery in an hour and forty minutes while playing, so I guess it’s okay in a pinch. But don’t count on it to replace an iPhone battery case. Also, don’t count on it to do much for an iPad since its output is 2.5 Watts at 500 mA. (An iPad requires 10 watts.) As I expected, it can’t charge an iPad at all. It doesn’t come with a power supply, which is sold separately, but uses a supplied USB to mini-plug cable. This is one of my pet peeves. There has, to date, been no standard mini USB plug. I have a drawerful of cables that are only compatible with the thing it came with. Fortuitously, I found that the boomSTREAM uses the same cable as my Etymotic EtyBLU2 Headset, but that was just coincidence.
The boomSTREAM Can Charge Your iPhone, for Awhile At Least
The boomSTREAM claims to be able to be used as a speakerphone, but in my testing, the results were atrocious. Using the internal mic to send makes it sound like you’re underwater on the other side of the call and there are odd audio artifacts that also come with the signal. I used my iPhone 4S to test this and the voice coming out of the speakers was muffled and, to my ears, unacceptable.
Charging the unit was pretty quick. Scosche says it takes three and a half hours to charge, but I it took just under an hour less than that for the charging light to turn from red to green. Two hours and forty minutes is a quite respectable charge time.