Aiwa Exos-9 Portable Bluetooth Speaker

I'm a very experienced Bluetooth portable speaker fanatic and music is my passion. I am guilty of literally buying (or borrowing from a friend) every top rated Bluetooth speaker and putting them up against each other to figure out which one has the best sound quality as that is the feature I value the most. Below I review several Bluetooth speakers in 2 different categories, small-form and large form. If you're only interested in the Aiwa Exos-9 Review, please skip the small-form section below and go straight to large form.Also, in the reviews below, I don't mean to infer that higher wattage means louder sound as I know this is not true. But actually in terms of these speakers I tested it did seem to hold true. I just wanted to include the RMS for a key metric point when comparing.Small-Form Portable Bluetooth SpeakersAs far as smaller form factor portable Bluetooth speakers, the JBL Extreme is the best and is the one I kept. The only caveat is that some people wouldn't consider the JBL Extreme as small form factor and might put it in the small-mid category. Here are the top 3 after testing them side-by-side:1. JBL Extreme (I own this so I have not tried the Extreme 2 but I'm sure it's very similar or better.) By far the loudest, best overall sound quality, and best bass. Great sound quality for all genres of music. Produces 40w of power and 56w peak!Rating: 9/102. At #2 is the Marshall Kilburn - This is much larger than the JBL Extreme so less portable. Rock music sounds the best on this unit while other genres aren't as good but still above average good sound quality. The vintage look is pretty cool too. It didn't get as loud as I would expect and produces power in the 25-30w range.Rating: 8/103. Bose Soundlink Mini ii - Ultra portable, very small form factor and produces very good sound quality for how tiny it is. No Bluetooth speaker near this size produces better bass than this (JBL Extreme and Marshall produce much better bass but they are also many times the size of this). However, it doesn't get nearly as loud as I would like and the sound quality quickly distorts at 90%+ volume and sounds like garbage. 12 watts of power but you can't expect much power for how small this is.Rating: 7.5/10I also tried the UE MegaBoom and have to say the sound quality is pretty bad for how highly rated this is. Its only advantages are it does get loud (produces 36w total) and is rugged and waterproof. It doesn't deserve to be ranked at all but worth mentioning.Now, I never thought I would go bigger than the JBL Extreme for "Portable" Bluetooth speakers until I was gifted a Monster Rockin Roller Mini for Christmas. This thing put my JBL Extreme to shame in loudness and battery life and now my JBL is collecting dust. The JBL Extreme will come out only when I travel via an airplane for work/vacations as it can still easily fit in my luggage. The sound quality on the Monster is actually pretty damn good for a unit that is 1/2 the cost of JBL Extreme! That got me intrigued to now find the best portable Bluetooth speaker in the mid-large category. Also, I saw JBL came out with a much larger version of the Extreme called the JBL Boombox and I was extremely interested in it since it had to be much better than my much loved Extreme. However, a YouTube video by Unbox Therapy is what put the Aiwa Exos-9 on my radar as I had never heard of the model before but remember Aiwa boomboxes as a kid in the 90s looking at Christmas magazines from JC Penney. That YouTube reviewer's reaction is what made me instantly go out and purchase the Aiwa. Here are the top large form factor portable Bluetooth speakers in their respective orders after testing them side-by-side against each other:Large-Form Portable Bluetooth Speakers1. Aiwa Exos-9 - $299 - One word. WOW! 4 more words. This is the One. The Quote they put on the box is perfect as you're opening it up for the first time - Goodbye to "Good Enough". I just purchased this at the end of June. There is not another portable Bluetooth speaker (small-large form) that sounds as good as this. The clarity is unbelievable. There is no distortion at max levels like most speakers have issues with. There is not a louder speaker (200w of power!) and I brought this to a Beer Olympics party outside and everyone was blown away and jamming out all day. The bass this speaker produces is unmatched by anything in its price range. The built-in equalizer options are an amazing touch (I like preset 2 the best for most genres) and allow me to not have to mess with my third party Android Equalizer App. I'm in love with this speaker and my wife is super jealous of this new relationship. I'm now looking to buy the extended battery and the carrying case to protect it. I kind of wish there were more case options and colors but that is not a con of this speaker. Thank you Aiwa for ending my search to find the perfect speaker and pleasing my ears with your product! The only thing that could make it better is waterproofing it and making it a bit more rugged (the case will probably help with some of this since its splash proof).Rating: 9.5/102. Monster Rockin Roller Mini - For ~$100-$140 this is the best value speaker out there. It gets very loud (60w of RMS) and has surprisingly good sound quality. The 36 hour battery life is unmatched and I go several weeks before I need a charge and I listen to music several hours a day every single day. To my surprise this sounds 200x better both in sound quality and loudness than the Sony i have listed at #4 which retails for $349. Insane value here. This even is on par with the JBL Boombox sound quality which retails for $449! It's also water resistant and rugged. However, the Awai Exos-9 is much superior in sound quality, clarity, bass, and loudness and it's not close. I'll repeat this is the best value speaker though. You even get a microphone and it has a guitar hookup and FM radio. I will keep this for events where I don't care if it gets banged up or drinks spilled on. Should have used it for the Beer Olympics event i mentioned above but I wanted to show off the Aiwa too much instead 😀Rating: 8/103. JBL Boombox - $449- This is the speaker I was most excited for due to my great experience with the much smaller JBL Extreme that I mention above (#1 small form speaker). I wanted this speaker to be "The One" so bad as it had the rugged/waterproof features plus a more convenient handle that Aiwa Exos-9 lacks. You can literally throw this thing in a pool if you wanted too. What a disappointment though. While the sound quality on the JBL Boombox is pretty good (#2 overall), it was that much further behind the Aiwa! The bass I was most disappointed in as I was expecting it to be on par with Aiwa since it has 2 large 4'' woofers on the sides and 2 passive radiators. The bass this produced wasn't even close to Aiwa's level. Even the loudness was pretty disappointing - it produces 60W RMS power while Aiwa Exos-9 is almost 4x that with 200 watts. The Monster Rockin Roller Mini also produces 60 watts and it even sounds louder than the JBL Boobox! Even more astonishing is the 1/4 sized JBL Extreme produces 40w of power and 56w peak! For a retail price of $449 it's much more expensive for such inferior sound quality and on par with the Monster's sound quality.Rating: 7/104. Sony XB-60 - $349 - The only reason I gave this thing a shot was that it caught my eye in Best Buy due to the flashing lights and the built-in demo. I'm also a huge fan of the Sony MDR-1000X Noise Canceling headphones which are the #1 NC cans with Bose QC35 slightly in 2nd (feel free to send me some Aiwa cans to compare too 😁).The demo built-into the unit actually didn't sound bad at all and got really loud in the store. I brought it home and the sound quality was junk. Also, the volume never got to the demo's level that I heard in the noisy store vs. what I heard in a quiet home. Each speaker only gives 15 watts of power each which explains the lack of power. The sound quality is absolutely horrible. This is also the heaviest of them all at 17.64lbs. The battery life on high volumes was very poor and I maybe got 2 hours with a full charge. The flashing LED lights are maybe the only good thing about this speaker and I liked the option to turn that feature off or customize the colors (although 2 DIFFERENT apps are required for this - WHAT?). Although I'm 31 years old, I think this speaker is marketed and geared towards teens and young adults who don't care about sound quality just as the UE Megaboom is in my opinion.Rating: 4/10I just wanted to give everyone my experiences in case anyone had that "what if" thought of there being a better speaker in the sub $800 level. I can unequivocally tell you there is not a better sounding speaker than the Aiwa Exos-9.Also thank you Aiwa for producing this speaker. I listen to music ~8-10 hours a day, every single day. I love music and this speaker has made this passion of mine even more enjoyable! You have made me a customer for life!

I purposely waited around 6 months before providing an update for this review. This was due to the fact that this is the fourth speaker that I owned of theirs (the other three speakers had issues and were promptly replaced, read initial review to find out more) and I was genuinely concerned, given some time, that this speaker would exhibit some of the same issues I had with the previous speakers they sent me. Now having owned this speaker for around half the year and using it almost daily had high volumes, I must say this a must buy! You will not find a portable Bluetooth speaker with such clarity and contrast between the high - mids - and lows. The base production in this speaker is also top notch, easily filling a fairly large room with supreme sound. I have always been a fan of this product, but what concerned me was the durability. This is the fourth speaker that I owned of their since the other 3 speakers either had the base blown out or started skipping. I was skeptical at first and assumed they were giving me refurbished products, but considering that the other reviews have not had an experience similar to mine, I assume that myself was simply a one of case. What really WOWED me was their customer service. I had originally bought a 4-year protection plan with the speaker in case the speaker gets damaged I could replace it, yet I never needed to use it since whenever a fault would occur with the speaker, customer service would send me a return label and take my faulty speaker and give me a brand new one. There was even a time where I was supposed to return my faulty speaker to them 10 months ago and simply forgot to do so. When I reached out to them to receive a new return label, they were within their right to deny me the service; however, they did not and replaced my speaker free of charge. Not only have they replaced the speaker but they have sent me an upgraded version of the speaker that I originally bought. They have upgraded their Bluetooth so that I can walk anywhere in the house with my phone and it will still stay connected with the speaker. They have sent me an upgraded version of their speaker, not once, but twice, and completely free of charge. They really do go above and beyond to make sure you are satisfied with the product, and I could not be any more satisfied. Customer service works promptly as well so there is minimal waiting time if there is ever an issue with your device. The speaker that is sold now is far superior to the speaker that I bought around 3 years ago, they even increased the volume of the speaker which was my one small complaint that I had with the original speaker that I purchased in 2016. If you were purchasing the speaker that I first purchased in 2016, I would have told you that this is a steal for that price, but now with the upgraded that they implemented on the speaker in the last 3 years (improved Bluetooth, increased battery wattage power, increased volume, and base) you would be a fool to believe you could find a better portable Bluetooth speaker for this price!------------Iowa create some great speakers and typically have some great customer service however I have had two speakers replaced, 3 in total and each one of the speakers have failed on me. The first two speakers they shipped me failed due to the bass blowing out at around half volume and this third speaker (the one that I own now) now skips if you increase the volume more than halfway. I regret to have to make this review due to the fact that they generally have great customer service and replaced my first two speakers no questions asked. However, this speaker is simply not durable and is doomed to fail. I've contacted the company again due to the fact that the speaker failed on me of third time and they have neglected to respond to any of my messages and it's been almost a week now. So while they're typically good with customer service their generosity only goes so far. The music generated from the speakers or crisp and clear (to be honest there a bit quieter than I would like them to be), it is a great speaker. If you are looking to get this speaker I would highly recommend it getting the 4-year protection plan since the speaker WILL fail on you, but honestly, there are better options for cheaper prices such as a Tailgater active and that speaker is durable and will last you the test of time. I'm not sure if they merely gave me refurbished products and that's why my speakers continued failing but I will say that if your first Speaker fails and they replace the product, do yourself a favor and sell the speaker since the replacement will fail on as well.