AYL Mini Speaker System, Portable Plug-in Speaker with 3.5mm Aux Input, External Audio for Laptop Computer, MP3 Player, iPhone, iPad, Cell Phone (Black)

I'll cover a fact or two that may not be apparent about the little wired speaker (AYL), but keep in mind that this speaker has been sold for several years, and from other reviews it is clear that it has undergone some design changes over that time - so everything here applies only to the one I happened to receive, in early December 2022. Also, bear in mind that I am not an audiophile, and am using the speaker on a QRP (low power) amateur radio that has a very small and inadequate built-in speaker, not for listening to music.Volume control: Mine has a traditional continuous control, zero to full volume, not the push or flick side-to-side volume control many others have reported. Either will work; I prefer this control.Charging port: USB C. The included short USB C cable is claimed to be only for charging, not data transfer. The speaker charges fine from other USB C charging cables & chargers intended for phones. The USB C port has an intriguing "CHARGE AUDIO" labeling on the device. Surely this doesn't mean it will accept USB audio input? I did not check. It probably is just an artifact of sharing parts with another model that does, or of carelessness in labeling. Perhaps some brave soul will test it and report back in a review or comment.It came with a microscopic instruction manual, written in "stiff" English. Also a greeting card from the USA seller, with phone # and web site.The "Aux" output jack (labeled "AUDIO" on the device), intended for daisy-chaining multiple speakers together to get more sound, appears to be a pass-through (it is active whether the speaker is on or off). Take Note: it can be used as an input as well. It is more handy for me to use a male-to-male (plug to plug) stereo 3.5 mm jumper cable to connect my audio to the speaker than to unfurl the short stereo cable and plug from its position tucked away on the bottom of the speaker (this plug/cable is labeled "AUX IN" on the device). A 3.5mm stereo extension cable (female to male / jack to plug) was included to help get that short plug/cable on the speaker bottom to an audio source more than a couple of inches away (I did not measure its length), but since I don't use that cable input, I simply tested this extension cable (it works fine) and stored it away with other audio cables and connectors.Some people have complained that the speaker will not stay "shut". Mine can be squeezed down to compress the accordion pleats and twisted to lock it into a compact ball. It will stay that way while handled. I did not feel the need for the extra bass the extension "pop-up" is intended to deliver. That might get music "thumbing" the bass rhythm, but for radio communications, it has plenty of bass when "closed". I expect the audio quality is fine for the kind of casual music listening for which it is intended.For any hams reading, the radio is a tr(uSDX), with its tiny, tinny speaker (better than nothing, but still). The AYL speaker gives great audio, with a decent range of volume, with the radio set to volume levels of 10 or so. You can turn up the volume on the radio without triggering feedback (owners will know what I mean), but at some point the little speaker will overload and start to distort. It should be enough volume for working outdoors in all but the very worst conditions. For those times, give up and use a headset.I don't have any experience on ruggedness, longevity, battery life, etc., though the battery seemed to be holding up fine for some extended listening, right out of the box, without charging it at all.The LED on the bottom is blue during operation, red during charging, and blue again when charging is complete. I don't know yet whether the LED somehow signals a low battery. (Hopefully, not with that creepy voice some reviews report!)The only thing I'd change is the top; it is too open for my taste, potentially allowing dirt and debris into the speaker diaphragm area. I'd prefer a fine screen. A very minor design complaint. It did not come with a bag or case, but I'll find something to keep it safe and clean during transport.If it fails early, or there is "news", I'll try to come back to this review and update it.

This a great speaker! We have several old iPods that are full of music. We bought this speaker to listen to our favorite songs on our back porch. This speaker takes up very little space, but it also delivers excellent sound. It works perfectly with all of our iPods. Battery life seems excellent as well. We’re on 3 hours right now. We are delighted with this purchase!

This little speaker worked out perfectly. I have an old mp3 player loaded with music. I lost all of the cables for it. Everything that came with this speaker fit. Now I can listen without earbuds.

This little speaker works great! I use it mostly on Playaways. It's easy to charge and hold a charge for a long time. I had an issue with the on/off button, and the company sent me a new speaker right away.

If you have a personal cd player that is not bluetooth compatible and don't want to walk around with head phones on this is great. It puts out sound that's alot bigger than it is, it fits in a small bag or purse or briefcase. It was just what I was looking for. Taking it to the beach next week. Can't wait

Can't thank this company enough for selling these! I'm old school and still use an old-fashioned DVD player where sometimes the teeny speakers aren't loud enough for me to enjoy my tv shows. Plugged into the headphone jack of the player and viola, perfect. Great to use in the kitchen when cooking. Lightweight and compact enough to carry anywhere. Hopefully these will hold up for the long run!

Sound is fine, recharge last a good amount of time, but the wire connecting from speaker to your device is way too short. Would not purchase again or recommend for this reason.

Out of the box, I thought this device was going to be great: The designer made the correct decision about the value of stereo sound when your dual sound sources are only inches apart. No one can hear the wonderful stereo effects; and no one cares. So save half the production cost, and pass the saving on to the consumer. Good decision. Good choice.But then we find some bad choices: The designer wanted to automatically distinguish between whether this tiny multi-milliwatt device had a microphone plugged into it to use it as a micro-PA system. Hey, Mr. Microphone works better! Anyway, this meant that use of the 3mm socket was dedicated to determining whether an external mic was plugged into the device to use it as a PA system. So the designer was left with the choice of providing a male 3mm audio plug to receive the audio signal from the host phone or computer's AUX audio port. Unfortunately cables integral to a small device like this are unwieldy. So the designer opted for a tiny stub of an audio output cable permanently attached to the bottom of the product, and wound in a circle around the base.This cable looks exactly like many that are spring-loaded, and you simply pull them, and they unwind out of the device to be used. I tried that immediately after removing this product from its box. And, BINGO! I had pulled the wire, and broken its internal electrical connection.So I got another one. I was careful NOT to pull the cable off of this one. Actually, it's lucky I did damage the first one, because I would have never found out that the bass in the first one was severely broken. I thought it was just a junk audio design: The spectrum is anything but flat. The treble is severely attenuated when the "bass resonator" ("slinky in a tent") is unleashed. Unfortunately, in the first instance of this device that I had, any bass signal reproduced at more than half-volume BUZZED.It turns out that in the 2nd instance of this device that I got, the bass DID NOT BUZZ. Great, I thought. This thing had a problem I didn't even know about, and now it works better than I expected. BUT WAIT:It turns out the speaker is often the source of noisy digital audio hash. But not always. The fact that it is sometimes quiet demonstrates that the designers have included some kind of "squelch" circuit which suppresses the digital hash noise when the music is not playing. Unfortunately this almost certainly means the noise is still there distorting the music you are attempting to reproduce and listen to. It's just that you can't easily hear the noise underneath the music when the music is loud. (Great!)Now for the worst part: I suspect this is related to YouTube "breaking the rules," and burrowing down into the detailed nuts & bolts of the audio facilities of its users. Or maybe it happens with other sources, as well, although I have seen this typically only when people try to use YouTube: The audio squelch is defeated by some activity YouTube inserts into audio which should be silence. This causes the device -- this AYL external amplifier in particular -- to remove its squelch, allowing digital hash noise to be amplified up to a loud level while NOTHING ELSE is playing. This is an amateur error. Live & learn, guys. Fix your squelch conditions so they are compatible with YouTube. Or, better yet, design an audio circuit which doesn't insert all that digital hash into the program audio in the first place!!! We've all been there. Done that. Decades ago. But it's kiddyland at Amazon, today!!!Then there's just the inconvenience of trying to find the controls which, with the power cable, audio cable, and PA connector, are spaced all the way around the black 360 degree circular device to confuse your fingers while searching for the audio volume control knob and the on/off switch (usually resulting in your perfectly set audio level blasting your significant other awake in the other room.) It seems obvious to me it would have saved money, a machining operation, and operational complexity iff the designer had used a volume control with a built-in on/off switch at the end of the low volume travel. Again, who knows why they did not? Perhaps they didn't know such a component existed.Later edit: It turns out perhaps the worst problems are caused by this manufacturer's selection of a low quality USB A --> USB C charging cable. Just breathing on (and often when it is just sitting there), the poor USB A connector makes intermittent contact, and inserts transients into EVERYTHING. This appears to be the source of erroneous instructions which causes the speaker to lose its squelch. It's a wonder this thing can work or charge at all. This conclusion is only based on 2 cases, but BOTH of the supplied charging cables are dangerous. Thank god neither inserted sufficient or the right transients into my computer (hosting the charging session) to crash it! Of course, these days, how can I tell if it is actually performing correctly or executing a portion of random instructions???There's nothing wrong with hobbiests attempting to build a product. That's how we all learn. But next time, I recommend you test the actual configuration you are shipping before you sell a ton of them. "The future is a place where nothing works."