I spent the first 7-8 years camping, having to buy batteries for my radio. 8 C batteries start to add up when you’re buying supplies for your trip and depending on how long you’re staying, having to buy an extra set as backups. I wanted to find a speaker system that was:
- Portable
- Had good bass
- Rechargeable
- Cheap
I started to look into solar powered systems, but the reviews were less than promising. These systems had a lack of sound quality, didn’t charge fast enough to continually keep the music playing, and had a high ticket price. I then found the Go Groove Sonaverse BX which met my initial requirements.
Pros
- $30
- Small and portable
- Runs on rechargeable Li-ion batteries
- Supports up to 16GB SD/SDHC memory cards
- Supports USB flash drives
- Excellent bass
- Extremely loud
Cons
- Some have reported poor soldering quality of components onto the circuit board
The truth is, as long as you don’t jolt or yank at the 3.5mm cord, you won’t have a problem.
The provided Li-ion 3.7v, 600mAh battery boasts a 3-5 hour playback time. You can charge the battery using a USB port or AC outlet with a USB cable and USB AC adapter. (The recent Go Grooves aren’t being sent with a USB AC adapter, but can be purchased online separately.)
When I first purchased this portable speaker system, I bought 15 used (Nokia BL-5C) batteries off of Ebay; which are the same batteries used by the Go Groove Sonaverse BX, but with a higher mAh (i.e., higher MAh = longer battery life). I’ve been using this speaker system with these batteries for almost 2 year now and have gone on multiple car camping trips before needing to charge my batteries.
Since then, I’ve found a couple of other charging options that you should consider for your car camping trips: