Let me start by saying up front that I have a minor hearing issue. I've got about 85% in my left ear and about 15% in my right ear. With that being said, my right ear is really only good for picking up bass. LOL.
I've used a specific bluetooth speaker for the past 5+ years and I still LOVE it. At the time I bought it, it retailed for $200.00 and is still to this day one of the best sounding bluetooth speakers I've ever heard. However, this Lifeproof Aquaphonics, for being their bottom-tiered model is AMAZING! I do what I always do when testing a new bluetooth speaker for the first time. I check vocal tones and treble through my most-used app, Twitch. With the streamers voice, game audio, music and such, it's almost the best of both worlds for testing purposes. While this gets nowhere near as loud as my go-to speaker, I don't expect it to. However, it's current volume is great for how this is designed and for the small size.
It passed the Twitch test great. So, I moved on to listening to music in Spotify. I listen to a lot of electronic style music (Infected Mushroom, Daft Punk, etc) and it sounds great there as well! This gets almost as loud at 3/4 volume as my other one does at 1/4 volume, which is saying a lot. My only nitpick with this, if I had one, is that it could use a little more bass. My wife tested it with some of her music (consisting of mostly current radio hits, lol) and she was really impressed, although she also noted the minor lack of bass as well.
The packaging is really nice and makes you really feel like you got something for your money. However, there was little in the way of instructions. Physically, my main concern with wear/tear on this device is in the charge port cover. Pulling it off of the port, which is attached by a sliver of rubber going to the inside, can be a little tricky. I was worried I was actually going to tear the rubber hinge while getting the charging cable plugged in. Also, the bluetooth button always stays lit and flashing while in use. I've not figured out a way to stop it. Not sure if it's continuously searching/pairing or what is going on - it's not really outlined in the manual that I could find. Outside of this, controls are easy and self explanatory and this thing really feels heavy-duty, like it can take a beating. For the price, I'd definitely give this two thumbs up and would even recommend it to others, especially if you are the outdoors type (pool parties, camping, whatever). It even has a built in hinge that you can use to hang it onto things, maybe even attach to a bike. It's designed to be very mobile and easy to handle.