For a while now I have been wanting to start teaching ballroom at my condo building's health club and also start a ballroom evening on the Summerdance floor at Michigan and Harrison. One of the major impediments has been finding a good boom box.
I wanted something that was light, had rechargeable batteries, would run at least 4 hours, and which I could drive from my phone or my windows compatible mp3 player device via a mini phone plug connection (device dates from around 2003). It would also be nice if I could charge the mp3 player from the boom box via USB. Lastly, it had to be reliable, lightweight, and inexpensive.
The Rukus, manufactured by Eton, was the perfect fit for me. It is lightweight, has a Bluetooth, USB (for charging devices) and AUX input, a solar panel to keep the battery charged and fairly good sound quality. Easy to use - the Bluetooth setup to my phone took less than a minute. While a little pricy with the solar panel option (list for $149, but you can get it for $129 by shopping around), the ability to recharge my phone or mp3 player while out and about made the $50 dollar solar panel premium a good value. It lacks a radio or CD option, but since I don't need those things, it didn't matter.
During my first test, I put Viva la Vida on my cell phone and then walked all over my condo and it never dropped the signal nor quality even through the walls at 40'.
From my experience so far, I have found only one shortcoming. You have to be careful with and play with the AUX cable connection to get a good signal. The problem appears to be with the quality of the jack used for this.
As to the sound quality - pretty good for a small lightweight boombox. It has a bass boost button which is useful for outdoor areas, and the highs are not badly distorted even at max volume. Not high fidelity, but good enough for some backyard or beach music.
