Last week I was down in our local JB hi-fi buying a small sound system for my son’s 18th birthday.  I wanted something that would look good, sound good, and last okay into the future. The stand out for me were these Marley Get Together speakers. I first noticed them at a friend’s house.  If you are after a good looking and good sounding small speaker to give someone for Christmas around the $200 mark, I’d recommend these. Also works very nicely with a Macbook or Macbook air.

They have bluetoooth as well as a 3/5mm stereo aux in.  And they were reduced from $279 to $178 which made the decision pretty easy.

Here’s an article on how to connect a bluetooth speaker to your Apple computer.

There is a smaller ‘Get Together Mini’ which sounded OK on it’s own, with deeper bass than the Get Together, but not as clear in it’s overall sound.  I decided to go for the clearer overall sound rather than the deeper bass. Thankfully, when I got the Get Together home it sounded much better than in the shop. There is a port on the back and in the shop the bass simply gets lost. Take it home and sit it in front of a wall and it’s a completely different story.

The mini has stronger bass due to the subwoofer on the back, but the overall sound is not as crisp.

I also tried the Bose Soundlink II. Slightly better sound than the Get Together but not $120 better and it looked ugly. I also had a play round with the Marshall bluetooth speakers, incredible clarity of sound, but at $700, not in my price range.

There’s a fantastic review of the Marley Get Together with some great photos here at the gadgeteer.