Before I get into my review, I want to make one thing听clear: Bluetooth speakers have no place in the backcountry. The sounds of nature are amazing and should not be sullied by someone else鈥檚 shitty taste in music. I never carry a speaker if I鈥檓 skiing, climbing, riding, or hiking. If, however, I can access a campsite with my Toyota Camry and park next to some bro with a generator, it鈥檚 game on. Same thing goes for when I鈥檓 cleaning out my garage听or at a cabin with my family. A good speaker can make all these places more enjoyable, and in my opinion, there鈥檚 not better choice than the .
I first got my hands on听the Fugoo in the spring of 2016 when I tested rugged Bluetooth speakers for this column. It placed second in my round-up,听only because it鈥檚 super pricey at $230 and pretty heavy at just over four pounds. But in terms of sound quality, it was lightyears ahead of everything else we used and totally holds its own against newer models like the听. The bass drops on the Fugoo were thunderous and guttural, but the sound was also so clear that you could hear the sound of a guitarist鈥檚 fingers sliding from cord to cord on steel strings. And boy, was it loud. My wife and I took the XL along when visiting her parents last year, and my father-in-law took a liking to it. Every time he used it, I was scared听we were going to piss off the neighbors, even in the middle of the day.
My Fugoo was free since it was a tester, but after a听year鈥檚 worth of use, I鈥檇 gladly throw down the cash because music coming out of any other lower-quality speaker sounds like trash. Listening to everything from Hiss Golden Messenger to my Spotify Trapaholics radio station, I鈥檝e always wondered how Fugoo made it the speaker so good, so I called up Dennis Stone, the company鈥檚 vice president of engineering.
His answer, as you might imagine, was complicated.听But in layman鈥檚 terms, the quality comes from the number of drivers, where those drivers are placed, and a proprietary digital signal-processing algorithm that the speaker uses to create the sound.听
While most speakers in the XL size range have six drivers, the XL packs in eight. There are four tweeters, two mid-woofers, two bass radiators, and each driver handles a specific sound range so that the mid-range woofers aren鈥檛 trying to handle everything (which can be the case in some lower quality speakers).听Then you add in the algorithm, which analyzes every song coming through and decides听which drivers will pump out which sounds听to make the music sound crisp, full, and awesome.
The drivers are distributed across the speaker (they sit on the听front, back, and both sides) so the听sound pours out in a circle instead of a straight, direction line, creating a richer listening experience.听They听are also听tilted eight degrees upwards听so that the music doesn鈥檛 get shot into the table and dulled by that flat surface. 听
The sound is enough of a selling point, but I also like that the XL is tough and waterproof.听My friend borrowed the speaker last year and left it outside for three days in a rainstorm. When the sun finally came back, he turned it on and the thing was no worse for the wear. The XL also floats, so you can grab it if a 听friend accidentally pushes it into the lake. 听I鈥檝e dropped, banged, and abused the speaker during daily use and never been afraid that it was going to break. And with a 35-hour battery life鈥攚hich is best in class for this size speaker鈥攖here will be plenty of jams for your weekend camping trip, that next backyard hoedown, or the parking lot apres dance sessions next winter.