Great sound quality
I do not understand why Altec Lansing's offerings have been overlooked by media, particularly audio- oriented media. OK, the products I have tried may not be audiophile, but every one of them is competitive in terms of sound, and then some. Their ear buds are the most comfortable of, seriously, 50 sets that I have tried. The sound quality is nothing short of amazing for the price. So, I got one of their little speakers and the sound quality was good, with great build and a surprising price point, half of major competitors....and they are a sound company with loads of experience producing excellent quality products. In fact, the other half of JBL at one point, and yet they get little attention.I have to say that this review is tough for me to write because4 I could not find any meaningful specs on these, beyond what bluetooth range it has, and germ protection, and the light show options. Really? The last Altec lansing speaker I got had all the specs, easy to find, and a policy I just loved "share your music not your data" so what happened? I do not love that Siri and Google assistant are on this, actually dislike, quite a lot...but still, the audio quality is difficult to ignore. I am comparing it to a jbl charge 4 and Sony XB 30. I suspect they are higher powered, but Sony is not revealing their specs either. I am guessing 20-30 watts for the hyradblast and the sony xb 30. The jbl is 30 watts.I would put the sound of the hydrablast between the 2. The JBL is warmer, and the Sony. The JBL Charge has a warmer sound. The Sony is very detailed but almost clinical. The JBL has drivers twice the sixe of Sony's, but has a clipped range 55-20 vs 20-20. The Altec lansing is a black box, literally. Mystery gear. Why? It clearly has decent specs, so why hide them?It is a well balanced neutral/ flat profile. The high end can be a bit sharp and it benefits from EQing to your personal preferences, whereas JBLs sound comes from their tuning. The low end is severely clipped but it does have large drivers. The sound is also very detailed, near par with the Sony {well above this in price}. It also had bluetooth 5.2 I am guessing , due to the 100 foot range. It is a solid connection, does not drop signal. It is also easy on your source, and does let you have options. You do not NEED to use your phone :) That is, there is not a required app. which prevents you from using a free standing, independent, source. But still, Siri and Assistant lurk.If they added aptx it would sweep the category...but Altec Lansing needs to keep sound quality front and center.In this speaker Altec Lansing seems to be focused on superficial things: lights, germocidal? and Qi charging, which is pretty unique, and useful, as is charge out, ...but the bottom line is sound, and despite putting a lot of energy into flash, it still sounds good.BUT I would like it so very much more without Google and Siri on board..I sure hope that the company has not decided that selling data is better than sound...I was enjoying both their products and perspective and now I have no idea what their priorities are or which way the company is headed.I can say that this has darn good sound for the price, which is why I am comparing it to speakers costing 3-4x as much. Not much else compares.