'Tis the season for bad sweaters, egg nog and Christmas parties. Sometimes the best part of the parties, besides cataloging some extortion pics of hammered co-workers, is coming across awesome gadgets that your friends may be using, that you weren't aware of .

Just so happens I came across something like that this weekend called The Foxl V2 by Soundmatters. Soundmatters was founded in 1998 by nuclear engineer and NASA scientist Dr. Godehard Guenther, who unfortunately passed in October of this year. The Foxl is a pocket sized Bluetooth speaker that has a really sophisticated, full sound. Being a musician, (Yes, drummers are musicians.), I'm a bit of a sound geek. While hanging out listening to Bing Crosby, et al, crooning carols, I thought my friends office had a nice sound system. Probably competent, but I didn't give it much thought. However, when buddy picked up the "nice sound system" that was hidden behind a platter of dip and started to put it in his pocket-- admittedly I was a little stunned and had to check it out.

The Foxl system is small 5.6"x2.2"x1.4" and has a nice pop out kickstand for setup. It fits easily in your hand, pocket or whatever. But that doesn't explain the incredible sound from the unit. According to Soundmatters - the secret is The Twooffer.

"The foxLv2 Series is engineered around a pair of proprietary, highly sophisticated acoustic drivers, unique in their ability to reproduce both extreme high (tweeter) and low (woofer) frequencies from a single very small diameter (25mm) dome speaker, dubbed the “Twoofer”. "

They also have a patented design for a "Bassbattery" which, in a nutshell, they encase the battery in rubber and use it as the acoustic bass driver for their moving wall radiator system. Yup. You read that right. Genius. You have to see it to see how awesomely simply and effective it is.

The Twooffer (Wow that would be a good name for a band!), and Bassbattery gives the Foxl a frequency response of 70Hz-20kHz (+/- 6dB, .5m) and an output level up to 97Db. That's a tad louder than a jackhammer at 50 feet.

Another neat thing I noticed was a sub out connection. This means you can attach an external active sub-woofer to the unit for those that want to get down to the 30Hz range. You don't have to look far because Soundmatters makes one called the FoxLO. Or, if you are really into it, you can get a left/right cable splitter and run two Foxl's for complete stereo output.

Soundmatters manufactures another version called Dash7 which has a slightly deeper sound. I like the Foxl better, but that's to taste. Here's a YouTube sample that will give you an idea.



Clearly this is my first look at a Foxl and not a full review of the product. We can leave the for the engineers. I just wanted to pass this along for those looking for a last minute geek-gift. And, from one geek to another, I've purchased a ton of portable sound units that have really left me wanting more. This is the first one I've stumbled on that really impressed but, at $159.00 there's no way I would have pulled the trigger without hearing it first. I'm glad I did and I have one being shipped to me now with a "From Santa" gift wrapping.

Enjoy the Holidays -- and BRING THE NOISE!

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