As if there weren't enought bluetooth speakers on the market, SoundMatters is yet another one that you should consider if you desire portability, decent sound quality, and usable speakerphone all in one.

foxL pioneered the portable small in your hand quality bluetooth speaker years ago before anybody else had a clue on how to engineer one properly. Jawbone smartly licensed their technology for use in their own Jawbone Jambox and shortly after the entire small portable bluetooth speaker market exploded.

So now, foxL has shrunk their technology into something extra slim, and even more portable than before. The foxL Dash A is their slimmest, and cheapest now in their lineup.

How does it perform?

The interesting thing about this speaker - since its so slim, is that its actually designed to have the speakers firing up. As such, that's how I did my audio sample testing: with speakers firing straight up, but the recorder laying flat pointing towards the edge of the speaker.

Nothing like hearing it for yourself. What you might not hear about it is the interference shielding (the lack of) quality in the speaker which I'm finding incredibly annoying. Your mileage may vary on this point, but I keep my iPhone fairly close to the speaker on my desk during my testing and its enough to annoy.

The sound quality though is otherwise surprisingly good when music is actually being pumped to the speaker. It doesn't quite have the depth of bass and low frequencies of the Bose Soundlink Mini, nor does i thave the highs found in the Big Jambox, but just look how slim this thing is.

The Dash A does have one trick that Bose doesn't have - a speakerphone option. In testing over an hour long conversation the use of it never got in the way. I haven't tried it in loud environments but I typically don't use speakerphones in loud environments anyway.

Dash A vs Dash 7:

One of the things that I wanted to know was - what's the difference? I did some research online to see what I could make out without having to actually acquire a Dash 7.

Dash A is cheaper and exclusive to Amazon.com (probably A for Amazon)
Dash 7 has longer advertised battery life at 12 hours, versus 10 hours
Dash 7 has these additional ports: power port, subwoofer line out to work with the foxL foxLo subwoofer
Dash 7 comes in different color combinations, whereas Dash A only currently comes in black
Dash 7 comes with a case which can also tilt at an angle for presumably better sound angle for personal listening
Dash 7 outputs higher sound volumes than the A with the power port 5v DC plug
Dash A has poor cell, interference shielding. Dash 7 unknow and untested (by me)
Dash A comes with a power adapter, Dash 7 does not

Is it worth the extra money to get the Dash 7 (using retail price comparison)? Yes for me. I'm actually considering the Subwoofer option and would appreciate the extra battery life, case, and loudness with the external 5v power option. Of course, I'd wait for a better deal than the current price right now because its over double the price I got the Dash A for.

More testing to ensue along with speaker comparison / samples.