Wireless Speaker Review: HMDX Rave Bluetooth Speaker

Before the holiidays, I picked up an interesting bit of audio gear from Walmart. It's an HMDX Rave wireless bluetooth speaker.

The HMDX Rave Wireless Speaker

For about $20, the Rave is a pretty cool little unit. It has two speakers inside a colorful box with curved ends. It charges up via a USB cable to you laptop. Then you can connect it to your phone, tablet, or computer via Bluetooth. It will play for up to four hours wirelessly. Some Amazon reviewers say that it will play much longer when played from a male-to-male wired connection. The bluetooth wireless connection has a range of about 30 feet.

The sound is actually pretty good. But, volumes do not get super loud and the bass won't rattle your windows. It's similar to the sound you might get from a pair of external PC speakers. We should note that even the much better sounding $200 JBL bluetooth speakers are less than 10 watts.

For me, the HMDX Rave really showed the convenience of Bluetooth speakers when paired with a smartphone and internet radio. It made it easier to share internet radio stations and listen to broadcasts on a PC. If you understand the limitations of this inexpensive speaker, the HMDX Rave Speaker is a good value for for the money.