MOpocket.com reviews BluBridge product line

12/15/2009

MOPOCKER REVIEWS: MICCUS BLUBRIDGE LINE
December 16th, 2009 by Morts

I may have a new favorite toy. Miccus has this interesting line of products they call “BluBridge”. The arguable centerpiece of the line is the BluBridge Mobile Speaker. While not exactly pocketable (well, maybe with cargo pants), it lets you pair any A2DB device with it for some stereo audio fun. Sure, it also has a USB and 3.5 line-in, but why bother? This is made for on-the-go sound.

I’m hardly a huge audiophile, and as such my Pre’s sound never bothered me. I’d taken to carrying it from room to room as I worked, with Pandora on, playing whatever popped up. However, the difference between just my Pre and my Pre with the BluBridge is like night and day. There’s the occasional “pop” when nothing is playing, but music streams easily and smoothly, with no stuttering. I was able to walk up the steps and almost made it to the far end of my (albeit small) house before the connection was lost. I was also able to fire up my video player and stream the audio to the BluBridge. Another plus is that it has a separate amp/volume control instead of just boosting the volume on the sending device, like some headsets do. It makes for a nice, clear, loud, portable, stereo alternative.

You know what else is neat? The BluBridge is a speaker phone. So if someone calls in the middle of your music, you can have a nice conversation without taking the phone out of your pocket. It’s an elegant solution that I don’t believe many devices in this class feature.

Like I said, I’m not an audiophile, so I got a second set of ears. My test case was rather impressed- to the point that he wanted to know where to buy one. You’re not going to use it for a dance party any time soon, but if you want to have something in the kitchen or a conference call in your house or just a quick stereo speaker, the BluBridge is a solid choice.

But wait, you ask? What it your audio device doesn’t *have* Bluetooth? Not a problem. Miccus makes a bunch of BluBridge adapters. There’s the almost-expected iPod adapter one, and it’s great. It didn’t work with my 5.5 gen iPod Video but it worked fine with a new model Nano. It also worked great with an iPod Touch. Sure, the Touch/iPhone have their own Bluetooth option, but they’re heavy on the battery. We felt that using the BluBridge instead of the internal Bluetooth option gave us slightly better battery life. Still, this is more for the Nano and the like.

More impressive is the mini-jack, a rechargeable device that hooks to any 3.5 device. That’s right, I said any. Once you plug the BlueBridge in and pair your older device to your speaker of choice… boom, you have Bluetooth. This means your aging laptop just got with the program. This is a great product and might even eclipse the BluBridge speaker in some ways. Why? Because it works with *any* Bluetooth speakers (that accept the passcodes 0000 and 1234). I used it with my aforementioned 5.5 Gen iPod Video, coupled with one of Miccus’ ChargeBlocks.

At just $99 the BluBridge, $59 for the MiniJack or iPodBridge, these are really great stocking stuffers. They’re even better when you check out Buy.com and see that they’re all on sale.

When you visit Buy.com you’ll notice that there’s an additional member of the Miccus family, the auto-talk. I’m still testing this device out and there will be a full review soon. However, you may want to take advantage of Buy’s 50% off price and get this. Main reason? Solar-powered hand-free Bluetooth speakerphone for your car.