Portable Bluetooth Speaker, 200W RMS, Deep Bass Subwoofer

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.

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 Speakers As 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: 9/10 2. 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: 8/10 3. 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: 7.5/10 I 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 Speakers 1. 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: 9.5/10 2. 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: 8/10 3. 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: 7/10 4. 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: 4/10 I 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!

Cliché time. I've never written a review on here before but I've read and benefited from so many reviews through the years that I felt I should step up. I may have a portable speaker fetish based on the picture I've posted but in my defense it spans 8 years and there are so many different portables out there all with different strengths/weaknesses and niches from size, sound, 360 sound, battery life, type of battery, waterproof, durability, etc. I use an Oontz Angle for the shower that's splashproof. It fits on the ledge in the shower next to my ear. It's $30.00 and is perfect for that with surprisingly decent sound. Update: I now have a UE Roll 2 for the shower and I love it. In fact I'm getting another one to link for true 360 stereo in my shower. I use my waterproof FUGOO XL for when I take magnesium soak baths right on the edge of the bathtub or just me and gf out on the patio. The sound is excellent and it's easily portable, durable and of course waterproof. I love it. For my outdoor parties or basement gym I've used my Harmon Kardon Go+play with 360 sound and it's excellent with great bass. It takes D batteries as well as plug in. It's no longer being manufactured and It goes on eBay for around $350.00. A few years later I acquired a Dr. Dre Monster Beatbox. It has great sound too with colorful bass but no battery so it needs to be plugged in. I now have a Bluetooth adapter for it that works well. I also have an Ion block rocker. It's durable but with very average sound, especially for its size. After a year it stopped holding a charge so I had to replace the battery which was simple and only $13.00.. I also love my very first Bluetooth waterproof Braven that I use at the breakfast table. Again, decent sound for its size and after 2 years it still holds a charge. Now, on to the main event... My first stereo was an Aiwa compact stereo way back in the late 70's as a teen and I loved it. Move up 25 years and I bought an Aiwa cassette/cd player with remote for my kid that we still have although we don't use because it's outdated. I'm now two for two on the Aiwa brand. On Amazon I kept seeing the "you may also like" adds and then all the glowing reviews for the Exos 9. I think I read most of the 800 plus reviews on Amazon and knew I had to get one even though I didn't "need" it. I also swore I'd never buy a speaker with a rechargeable battery as when they stop taking a charge you're kind of limited on the portability factor. Both my Logitechs and Ion Rock Blocker did that. That being said I saw you can buy replacement cartridge batteries for these (or to have fresh batteries to interchange after 8-10 hours of play) if that happens so after some investigation I went for it. I can now say it's easily my favorite speaker sound wise. The best feature for most of us is sound on a big portable like this. It's why we buy these big boys. The Pros; The bass is rich, powerful and clear, never muddy. The middle and highs are present, crisp and never shrill. The music separation is fantastic. I don't use any lossy music formats so I can't comment on the sound of mp3's but I hope most of you aren't using that outdated format any more. I use lossless ALAC (Apple) & FLAC files and this speaker simply-sounds-great. I listen to classic rock, classic country, old and new pop from Motown to Taylor Swift, new country, film music like Ennio Morricone & progressive rock like Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, ELO, Pink Floyd & the Moody Blues. The new 2017 Sgt. Pepper stereo remix sounds absolutely wonderful on here as does the latest by Keith Urban. I have old & new test songs that I use to try out new speakers like Fever by Peggy Lee and it bounced off like it was recorded yesterday. The bass was isolated with those crisp finger snaps above that and her vocal riding over it all. Same with kd Lang's beautiful nuanced phrasing on songs like Western Stars & Pullin' back the reins. It picked up beautifully Suzanne Vega's inhale/exhale nine seconds in on her song Headshots like I was sitting in the front row. I played the entire album Fragile by YES and was blown away by Chris Squire's rubbery bass and Steve Howe's delicate classical guitar picking and strumming. George Jones' voice is warm and nuanced as ever on his 70's output as is Waylon Jennings bass heavy sound on his stellar album Honky Tonk Heroes. Zeppelin's sparse to dense production sounds intimate & then urgent when they rock out. Same with the multi-layered production of The Moody Blues on To our Children's Children's Children. It handles the explosion on Higher and Higher that segued into the gentle and quiet Eyes of a child effortlessly. The Beach Boy's Mono version of Pet Sounds needs to be heard from this speaker. The atmospheric instrumentals are lonely and eerie as are the sound effects at the end of Caroline,No. I use ABBA GOLD to test speakers as well as they are impeccably produced with thumpy bass on the bottom and countered with stellar layered female vocals on top and again, this speaker handled all their frequencies with natural ease. An opera singer named Hayley Westenra has a disc out called Paradiso of Ennio Morricone songs with lots of vocal only passages interspersed with orchestration and to hear that outside on my deck felt like I was at an outdoor venue. It passed every music test I threw at it with flying colors even with high expectations from all the positive reviews. I don't listen to Hip-Hop/Rap or disco so I don't want speakers that "color" my music. That means giving a song extra bass as it can muddy up the mids and highs of older recordings. Beats and to some extent Bose headphones and speakers do that. I was concerned this speaker might sound that way a little too much but here's the thing, if you are using a portable speaker outside or for loud gatherings indoors you'll need a bit of extra boom to carry the sound even on those older, non rap recordings. This speaker manages to balance that perfectly. The reason this all works is each of the 6 internal speakers have their own drivers which balance the sound and keeps the mids and highs present and no bleed from the thumping bass. When I do play a very thumping song like Maroon 5's One More Night it jumps right out of the speaker like it's busting out of jail. 200 watts people. That's huge. All my initial testing was done with only one speaker and Bluetooth only. The auxiliary port is better audio quality than Bluetooth. After about an hour of testing my EXOS 9 I knew I was ordering a second one and five days later I splurged and bought another one to link them (I was also afraid that a product this good would go up in price very soon) and I even used them for the music portion on a trivia night and it worked Wonderfully in a very noisy environment. There's also no distortion at high volume. The cons or negatives; It's not as rugged or stylish like my Harmon Kardon Go+Play with it's stainless steel handle but no other speaker is. It may be a little heavy or awkward for some to carry with one arm/hand grip but you can now buy a carrying case for it on the Aiwa website as of July 3rd 2017. The cases are perfect and designed specifically for this speaker. A speaker needs to have some weight and a good size footprint to carry a powerful bass sound anyway so I can't fault it for being 13 pounds especially since it sounds this good. It isn't waterproof like my smaller but cherished FUGOO XL or my UE Roll 2 but that isn't the niche this speaker was designed for so I can't fault it for that either. Waterproof sacrifices the sound somewhat and again, I bought this for it's sound. With Aiwa I'm now 4 for 4. I just splurged on their wireless ARC -1 headphones 🎧 and absolutely love them too. This company is making wonderful affordable high end sound products. Buy with confidence. Life is short, treat your ears with great music and sound. ...and stop listening to your favorite songs in lossy mp3 format. 😉 Moondoggy61 Update: the back casing that houses the aux port and usb port has come loose and is bouncing around inside the speaker. I've hardly used that portion of the speaker so I'm disappointed that it came loose. The sound is still fantastic for bluetooth but if was using the aux port I'd be out of luck I'm afraid.

When I was looking at opening a retail location, I looked into ceiling and wall mount speakers. The problem was, for the price that I wanted to pay, I would never get the bass response I wanted or the quality. I decided to go to a big box store and see what they had. That is when I came across the Soundtouch series from Bose. As with all things Bose, the prices were a little painful but the in-store demo was impressive, especially with the Soundtouch 30 Series III. Plenty of bass, clean at loud volumes, all in something I could put on a shelf. I went to Amazon to look at reviews and see if there were any comparable products. That is when I was introduced to the Aiwa Exos-9. At the time it had 150ish reviews and was sticking at 5 stars. If you frequently shop for consumer electronics, you'll know that there are always a few bad reviews on ANY product based on unrealistic expectations, user error, a rare slip in quality control, etc. But the Aiwa had virtually none of that. And it was coming in at $200 cheaper than the Bose. So I did what any sane person would do in this situation. I bought both and decided to test them head to head. Now, to be fair, the Soundtouch 30 has more built in features. It can launch media apps on its own without being connected to a computer or phone over wifi. It can also be linked to multiple Soundtouch units where the Aiwa can only link to one other speaker. The ability to play independently on wifi might be reason enough for some people to choose it over the Aiwa. It also includes a remote (a feature I'd appreciate for the Exos-9) and has an app to allow control from your phone. Since I have an old phone that produces high quality audio from its headphone jack (a trait I didn't realize was different in each phone) that I use as my "controller", I wasn't worried about the missing wifi features of the speakers. The ability to charge my phone through the Aiwa is a very welcome feature that reduces cable clutter. I also could ignore playing over bluetooth because no matter the speaker, the quality isn't the same as a direct wire. The thing I wanted to know was, which sounded better. I tried both at various heights and at different distances from the wall to see how much the bass relied on wall reflection to project. I messed with EQ settings on my phone, apps and on the Aiwa and tried every genre of music I could. In store, the Bose had almost an overwhelming amount of base and crystal clarity. It didn't have the EQ settings the Aiwa did, but I wasn't sure it would matter. I was in for a surprise. With rap and bass heavy music, both sounded good though the Aiwa was capable of producing a decent amount more kick. With the EQ on the Aiwa, I could get pretty identical sounds on both. Once I switched to rock music, however, the Aiwa pulled very far ahead. That crystal clarity of the Bose turned harsh and brittle. The mids of the guitars got lost in the mix and tight, punchy rock bass tended to be very subdued. If I didn't have the Aiwa to compare to, I am sure the Soundtouch would have been good enough. But even when cranking the bass via phone EQ and trying everything I could, rock bass never sounded the way I wanted. On the other hand, one the Aiwa, I actually turned the bass down from maximum levels because it had a tendancy to be a little overwhelming and boomy. On metal, it was no contest. Again the mix sounded overly bright and without enough punch on the Bose. With acoustic style music, both worked very well and maybe the Bose was a little better in this regard since that high end sparkle was a boon for this kind of music. After a few hours of these test, I knew I had a winner and returned the Soundtouch 30. Having used the Aiwa for a few weeks now, I am just as impressed as I was at first. I put it on top of a bookshelf against a wall, so I had to dial the bass back a bit since the reflection against a corner and wall was a bit much. I'd compare it to a guitar amp in that you have to play with the settings a bit, between your audio source and the on-board EQ to find the sweet spot for your music and the space you will be listening to it in. Everyone that hears it can't believe I get that quality sound out of something I spent $300 for. Heck, I spent $200 on the tiny Soundlink Mini for traveling and for only $100 more I have something that can fill an entire retail space with a dance party. Consider me impressed and now a loyal customer. I will definitely be grabbing another one of these down the road to link!

This is an extraordinarily large and nice-sounding speaker, and I'm especially pleased that it's designed with a swappable battery. Two things keep me from giving it five stars. The first is that my bluetooth connection keeps having to be reset-- if a podcast ends while I'm listening and there's not another qued up after it-- this is on an iPhone 6S+-- then I have to reset the bluetooth connection before listening again by turning the speaker off and on. The same thing happens at least sometimes when making/receiving phone calls. I have another, much-cheaper speaker that doesn't do this, so I suspect it's the speaker rather than the phone. The bluetooth's range is excellent, but the cutting-out can be quite annoying. The second issue is that, while the Aiwa is indeed remarkably loud, it's not quite loud enough that I can play it my normal-sized bedroom and listen to a podcast in the shower in the tiny adjacent bathroom and still make out the words clearly, even with the speaker just outside the bathroom door (to avoid steam-damage) and turned to face the opening. This was my purpose for purchasing the speaker to begin with, so it's a bit disappointing after all the reviews claiming it's capable of so much volume. Most people in fact probably will be satisfied-- and more!-- with the sheer amount of sound produced. If I was listening to music, even, it'd probably be good enough. But I can make out only about half the spoken words of podcasts with the water running and me under it, and that's mostly what I listen to. So, as much as I'd like to based on sound quality (for a portable speaker) and other factors like fantastic overall build quality and the wonderful physical volume knob, between this and the bluetooth issue I just can't quite go five stars. Don't get me wrong. It's a very nice speaker that I don't in the least regret buying-- I now use it all over my house for every purpose _except_ what I originally bought it for, and never even for a moment considered sending it back. In most regards it's far more than merely satisfactory. But it's not quite the Voice of God, as some other reviewers would have you believe. And apparently that's what I require for my application. To the manufacturer-- A "spoken word enhancement" mode, like that offered with many TV/sound bar style systems, might be a cheap and worthwhile addition to this model. I bet that if this speaker had one, I could make out every word even with the water on full. Just a thought, mind you... Again, overall I really like it. Just not quite five stars worth. If 4.5 was an option, I'd definitely go there.

I will start this review off with a quick Pro/Con for those in a hurry and then get more into the details. Pros: + Great Sound + Good Battery Life + Great Price + Good Bluetooth Range Cons: - Terrible Aesthetic Design - Mostly Plastic Parts - feels cheaply made (isn't though) - Huge size (compared to other BT speakers) First off all shout out to AIWA and welcome back from your nearly 20-year hiatus! I remember the boom-boxes of the 80s and 90s and they were dope! I personally had an AIWA mini-system and it was the bomb! The first thing to notice about the new AIWA Exos-9 is that it isn't necessarily a Bluetooth speaker per se but a whole "speaker-system", why they short-changed themselves by calling it "a Bluetooth speaker" on the box it comes with and in literally every ad, I am not entirely sure. The Exos-9 is made up of 2 mid-range speakers, 2 high-range tweeters and a 6.5-inch sub-woofer in one package - hence it's "impressive" size when compared to other Bluetooth speakers on the market. Yes - this is a big "Bluetooth speaker" but you need some size to make the physics of good sound work properly. Unfortunately, if you want good sound, a large cabinet size is the only way to get there reliably. Yes, there are systems out there that promise BIG sound from a small package but they lack reliability and even $3000 speaker systems from the likes of Devialet in France, have major reliability issues. If great sound is what you are after, the AIWA Exos-9 delivers. Notice - I said "great" sound and extreme audiophiles (you know how you are) are not going to be satisfied with just "great" sound but for the majority of "normal people" out there who just want to listen to some music while occasionally hitting some bass heavy music, this speaker system is more than enough. I was also pleasantly surprised with the Bluetooth range and I can easily play music from my iPhone from literally 2 rooms away and it will play without any issues. Another surprise was battery life. I can go on days without recharging the battery while playing music or listening to audiobooks for hours every day. Obviously, playing bass heavy music for long periods of time will drain the battery quicker and that is to be expected. In terms of price, I'd pay up to $399 for such a system but that is just me, the fact that it was available for $299 at one point is a steal. Now to the negative things, the Ex-9 is huge and its aesthetic design seems to be from the 80s. What happened AIWA, you had to keep some of those engineers from the 80s and 90s on the team? This thing looks like shit. I am sorry to say. There is nothing about the Ex-9 that says "sleek, elegant, stylish". The materials used scream "cheap plastic" even though the craftsmanship is acceptable and the built-in handle is a functional touch for what the product is intended to be. I guess a positive feature about its aesthetic design is that it looks somewhat like an old-fashioned AIWA boom-box with updated internal tech but the design isn't "retro" per se. The speaker covers DO NOT COME OFF. I guess someone in AIWA decided for the users what kind of look they want to display. Everybody I know who doesn't have children prefers for the speakers to be visible. In terms of its huge size, yes you will need a dedicated stand, cabinet space of some sort of space because this thing is going to need it but AIWA doesn't offer a stand as an accessory purchase (hope you are reading this AIWA team). In the photo that I took of the unit, it is chilling on my window sill - yes - that's the permanent place for it and as you can see the body of the unit extends beyond the window sill by about 2-3 inches. If you are looking for a stealth install (minimalists will know what I am talking about) you are out of luck. This thing is a tank and there is no way to hide it. In conclusion, the AIWA Ex-9 is all sound and function packaged in what can be described as a boom-box from the 80s. It will provide you with hours-long loud music if you don't mind its big size and not being able to match it with literally anything you currently own. I will still give this unit 5 stars mainly because I am a big AIWA fan and because I believe products are never finished, they can always be improved upon. I will leave you with the vision the AIWA team came up with while designing the EX-9 which is "to be the first device to deliver home stereo-class performance in a portable device" and certainly when looking at the unit from that angle, I believe they hit the nail on its head.

I have owned a ridiculous amount of Bluetooth speakers. After several months since my last Bluetooth speaker purchase (RIVA turbo X) I began getting that nagging itch to continue my seemingly endless search for a product offering me complete satisfaction. I had been impressed with several of my previous speaker purchases, but now the AIWA Exos-9 has significantly elevated my standards. DESIGN: This speaker is clearly designed with the emphasis of maximizing sound, rather than style. This is evident by sharing a similar platform as the highly regarded ac powered Peachtree DEEPBLUE2. As shown by a previous reviewer’s photo of the AIWA next to the Soundlink 3, this is a big speaker. It is roughly 2.5x the size and 2x the weight of the JBL Xtreme, but can easily be moved around one handed using its handle. The build quality is solid and although won’t win any style awards, it has a contemporary design that will flow well with the décor of practically any environment. The chassis is mostly a textured plastic similar to many home speakers with exception of a glossy top strip that also houses the LED display. This may offer some sort of resonance benefit as the body of my Martin guitar is made from a similar material. The handle is rubber adding friction for easier carrying. It would have been nice for the corners to have been protected with a similar material as the size of this speaker will make it prone to knocking obstacles when being moved around. The large old school style volume dial is metal along with the speaker grill. The grill is not removable which may be a bummer to some people, but I prefer to keep the drivers protected. On back is an easily removable battery and on/off power toggle switch common on subwoofers. I would prefer the power control be more accessible being placed on the top or front, but that’s getting a bit nitpicky. On top is the touch capacitive LED control panel. The panel provides a 4-band EQ, play/pause and Link controls. The Link control is to pair with a 2nd Exos-9 for people better off than I who can afford 2 units. Absent are fwd/back track and Bluetooth pairing controls. The absence of the Bluetooth pairing button is actually a benefit I’ll discuss later. The speaker does not have a proximity sensor, only being activated by touch that has a bit of response lag. Once activated, the controls provide easy navigation and response lag is barely noticeable. The Blue LED displays will only remain lit for a few seconds which is good or bad pending your preference. I personally like it as it extends battery life and prevents a bright distraction when listening to while falling asleep. FEATURES: This speaker reasonably lacks features commonly found on the smaller Bluetooth speakers such as speakerphone functionality and water resistance. However, it offers some uncommon features I find more valuable. The inclusion of an on board EQ is something I had truly missed from the boombox days. Sure most music player apps provide an EQ, but if you’re like me and use your phone or tablet to watch video you will be glad to have to ability to tune the audio to your preference. This was a downfall of my previous favorite portable speaker. Unlike most portable speakers, the RIVA Turbo X comes to life at higher volumes sounding fuller as you crank it up, but lacks luster when listening at mid-level or below without offering a means to adjust the frequencies (low-end) that our ears are less sensitive to at low volumes. In contrast, the Soundlinks (including the mini) provide ample sound fullness at low volumes but washes out the mids making it hard to hear dialect during movies. The large knob volume control is a welcome uncommon feature. Adjusting the volume via your media player one tick can make a pronounced volume change, whereas, the knob allows infinite volume control precision. Another notable feature is the swappable battery. Not only does it allow you to keep music playing during extended outings, but AIWA is planning to release an extended battery pack. If you plan on keeping your speaker for a couple years, keep in mind other speakers will increasingly need to be tethered to a wall as charge capacity diminishes and offer no simple way to swap out for a new battery. I have yet to test out the battery life, but coming anywhere near the 8 hours listed will be phenomenal with how loud this thing is and how hard it hits even at mid-level volume. The Bluetooth reception is outstanding with a range notably better than any other speaker I’ve owned. Additionally, pairing is the simplest experience I’ve had. There is no need to enter the speaker in pairing mode as it continuously sends its signal out for other devices to discover. If it’s already paired with a device you can still connect it to a different device without having to disconnect first from the previous device. Sure this can backfire as pranksters or an angry neighbor can hi-jack your speaker, but in reality it is quite convenient if you have multiple devices you connect it to. SOUND: Granted, louder and bigger sound is expected given its size relative to other portable speakers. However, the sound difference seems greater than the proportional size differences. Next to the overall loudness the Exos-9 puts out, the largest improvement over its competitors in the $300.00 range is the bass. Even after experiencing it, I still find it unbelievable a battery operated speaker is able to vibrate the floor on the main level of my home while playing in the basement. The sound level remains steady whether on battery or AC mode. I’m not audiophile by any means, but can describe the bass as “tight” or “clean” not spilling over into the mid frequency range leaving clear mids and highs while simultaneously thumping out lows you can feel. Even with the EQ setting turned off, the bass output is remarkable. The minority out there who don’t care for, or are sensitive to, bass will likely have to dial it back on the EQ, but the rest will be thrilled with it right out of the box. The speaker does not incorporate the digital signal processing as so heavily relied upon by all others (excluding Turbo X), therefore you can encounter distortion if you crank the bass setting all the way up. BONUS: Despite the AIWA name and some styling characteristics true to the original brand, this is made by a startup company that bought the naming rights. Being a startup company, customer service appears to be a priority. Included in my speaker package was a personally signed letter from the CEO thanking for its purchase and offering a full refund or return to include prepaid postage if unsatisfied with the purchase. Very few retailers (Amazon being an exemption) even fewer manufacturers pay postage for the return of a non-defective product. OVERALL: There is no louder or better sounding portable speaker within its price range. Honestly, I have not personally heard a portable speaker in any price range that can come close to matching the performance of the Exos-9. I must admit this is not the ideal speaker for everyone. If you only can afford or desire to limit yourself to one all around Bluetooth speaker to listen around the house and serve as a frequent travel companion or beach buddy take a look at the RIVA Turbo X, Soundlink 3, Megaboom, or the recently released JBL Xtreme and Fugoo XL pending your feature and sound preference. All are far easier travel companions being much smaller, more durable, and have better battery life. If you are just looking for a speaker to sit in one place in your home, then buy a surround system or add a Bluetooth connector to your existing one. If you want the uncontested best performing speaker that can easily be moved room to room, outside and to occasional events then the Exos-9 is the obvious choice. Having a Soundlink Mini, or one of the bigger but still excellent travel companion speaker mentioned above, is ideal to optimally meet all your portable speaker needs. Personally, out of all my Bluetooth speakers, this is the one I would absolutely not part ways with. For the record, I am not affiliated with AIWA in anyway. Feel free to take a look at my other reviews, but keep in mind my overall impression will likely be knocked down a notch after the new standard the AIWA Exos-9 just set. VIDEO NOTES: The RIVA Turbo X was the only speaker I've owned that could even come close to holding together at top volume during the bass notes of this song. The audio recording quality of my iPod Touch does neither justice, particularly the bass of the Aiwa is much cleaner in person, but still gives you an idea of how fuller the sound of the Exos-9 is and how its louder at 3/5th the volume level as the Turbo X maxed out. You will need to play through a decent speaker or ideally headphones to distinguish the differences

**Edited 2 years later.... I've had the Exos 9 for about two years now and felt a followup was due. Whenever you buy something nice you tend to always be a bit biased about it, often that shine fades over time but not in this case.. I don't use it every day but I do use it a lot, I've taken it to construction sites, the beach, BBQs and it's been a blessing. It delivers day in and out, working outside in the dirt, sun, summer heat and humidity and gets it's fair share of abuse. It hasn't let me down at all, battery is the original and still lasts all day. Best of all it still sounds just as good as it did on day one. I'm a rock guitarist and I like my jams loud and this unit cranks it and is so clean. I've yet to hear the sub distorting and the mids and trebles are spot on with a touch of EQ depending on the room. After two years of regular use, this is still one of my better purchases. Don't believe the marketing of these little portable blue-tooth speakers, just because they have Marshall or JBL stamped on them, these systems crank! *Updated 10/04/20* 8-19-23 Update: The speakers still sound great and it's over 5 years old. I crank my tunes loud and still the tone is holding, no flapping bass or grainy trebles. It plays and sounds as good as day one. I have a wireless charger connected to the USB port on back of the Aiwa to keep my iphone battery happy. Speaking of batteries, the main battery died on mine about 6 months ago.. I'm surprised it lasted bout 5 years and would still play all day until close to the end. I've not been about to find a replacement battery since! No excuse for this..... For a good while the EX0S 9 wasn't even in stock, then some time later I noticed a few in stock here and there. I assumed they had restarted production (post covid maybe) and I'd soon be able to buy a new battery but haven't found one. Granted I don't look all the time but I should be able to get maybe a decent aftermarket battery?? I mean there should be plenty of people needing a new one or just an extra one for those long road trips I'll keep the unit at 5 stars because it still plays, it just has to be plugged into the wall. If I continue to have trouble I'll drop the rating to 3 because access to a spare or needed replacement battery is pretty high on the list of mandatory accessories. Original Review: I can't tell you how many times I looked at this speaker on Amazon and elsewhere.. I finally pulled the trigger on it and have no regrets whatsoever. The sound it clear, well defined with excellent bass and crystal clear mids and highs. I'm a musician, been playing guitar for 45 years and have had the pleasure to play classic rock through the finest amps made. I know what tone is all about. Being a musician all my adult life I really pay attention to how music sounds. I was not impressed with those other sub three hundred dollar solutions. I wanted a premium Bluetooth powered speaker for my iTunes playlist as well as using this for my guitar modeling pedal boards. I have a Digitech RP500 board and I really like running it to the Aiwa. Granted, it's not as loud as my 400w PA with 12" three ways or my Marshall 50w tube amp with two 12" Greenbacks but it certainly does what I need it to. It is loud, clear, plenty of bass, midrange and high frequencies are spot on. Best part is the portability and light weight. My brother and I were building a metal storage building and he was playing his new iPhone playlist to the Aiwa, he went inside the house with the phone and the signal didn't drop and that was 50-60 feet away and through a brick wall. My buddies love it as well, they're musicians like me and we tend to be more critical when it comes to sound volume, tone and distortion or the lack thereof. I see a second unit in my future, can only imagine what that will sound like. The battery is amazing, plenty of juice for playing music pretty much all day. I've had Bose, JBL, Onkyo, Cerwin Vega and Altec Lansing speakers and sound systems in the past and it is as good as they are. Take a look at the star ratings for this unit! Not often do you see anything with 5 stars and thousands of ratings. Aiwa has something special here. If I had any gripe about the unit would be the volume control, as long as you check your device volume before playing your music it's ok, however I did fail to do that once inside and the volume was cranked and it started playing a song nearly wide open. Having said that, it's pretty standard procedure to do this with any powerful amp, speaker combo so I couldn't dock even a half star off my rating. Life is short, so get this unit and add some awesome sounds to yours, you won't regret the purchase.

Very load and clear sound. Blue tooth connectivity good and quite sensitive.

It was a present..I am advised...Good sound...Compact & Fun !

Very easy to set up. Basically turn on, find the Aiwa Exos -9 on your phone and bluetooth...its that easy. I use my speaker indoors and the crystal clear sound produced from the speakers won't disappoint. The sound is well balanced. If you want an outdoor "boombox" the JBL Partybox 100 has a deeper bass response, and may suite younger music listeners that desire the bass to "boom." You can play the Exos -9 on full volume distortion free, and fills any room with crystal clear tones. Very happy with my purchase.

Love it, this thing is huge!... but still portable. Only thing is I would rather song info on front instead of equaliser, and a skip button.

When I first bought this speakerI was so impressed,I bought a second one .They pair up really easily and sound incredible! The power is staggering,and I am not game to wind them right out.What would the neighbours think?