Review: Tunebug Vibe stalks flat surfaces for sweet music

Imagine you’re somewhere fairly quiet. Your den on a Sunday afternoon. A cubicle in an empty office*. A hotel room in a strange city. You only have your phone to play music on, and it’s got a sucky built-in speaker. You don’t want to wear headphones. Plug the Tunebug Vibe into its headphone socket and make the music player or phone’s sound output a bazillion times better.

Remembering that this massive, massive number of ‘a bazillion’ is calculated off a low base (phone speakers’ outputs are generally rated at about SFA**) so while the Tunebug is way better, don’t get your hopes up of thumping mids and sweet highs that blow you away.

The sound is useable. I happily listened to the commentary on the video of the first half highlights of the SA vs Wales game from my phone with the Official RWC 2011 app. You can use it to play music in a pinch. But that’s just the start: most of the joy lies in its entertainment value. You can spend precious hours trying all the different resonant cavities that you have lying around to see what sounds better.