Price is the same but one Bluetooth speaker sounds much richer

Q: I'm in the market for a Bluetooth speaker and was intrigued by your recommendation of the Cambridge Audio Bluetone 100 for $299. I was thinking of buying the Bose SoundLink III for the same price. Have you compared them? And, if so, which do you think is better?

A: When discussing the art of writing, Mark Twain once said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." In this case the Bluetone 100 is the lightning and the SoundLink III is the lightning bug. The Bluetone 100 has deeper bass, plays louder and sounds much, much richer.

That being said, there are a couple of factors that, depending on the user, could play in the SoundLink III's favor. For starters, the Bluetone 100 needs to be plugged in to operate. And although both are portable, you can put the SoundLink III in a computer bag, but the Bluetone 100 is too big for that. See them at www.bose.com and www.cambridgeaudio.com.

Portable phone chargers

Q: You recently wrote a review of a self-contained portable charger for phones so you can charge anywhere. I looked on your website high and low and cannot find it. If you could please tell me the name or the website that I can purchase this from, I would really appreciate it.

A: I've written about two power bank chargers recently, so I don't know which specific one you want. I will tell you about both of them, and then address the issues with my website.

The first one I wrote about is the jHub Elite from Modern Portable. It has 8,000 mAh capacity and two charging ports, including a fast charge 2.1-amp port, and it sells for under $20. You can see it at www.modernportable.com.

The second is the Limefuel L150XR rugged power bank, which is dustproof, crush-proof, waterproof, vibration-proof and shockproof. It has a capacity of 15,000 mAh and two 2.4-amp fast-charge ports for $84.95. You can see it at www.limefuel.com.

Both of these chargers can charge any USB device, from a phone to a tablet to a portable game system to a GoPro camera. Since I started writing about charging in December, I've been deluged with questions about the subject. I was unaware there are so many misconceptions about USB charging, or that people didn't even know that devices like power banks exist.

As for my website, a number of readers have contacted me about it lately, asking for more updates, product reviews or columns to be archived there. I admit that I haven't been keeping up with my website the way I typically do. First, I've had some health problems, which were followed by health problems of a family member that have kept me preoccupied. (They have largely passed and everyone is OK now, I am happy to say.)

In addition, I've been working on a new website that I'm confident will be much better than the current one. However, I am not yet satisfied with the organization and content, so I've been tweaking it. I'm focusing mainly on organization and making everything easy to find. There is a lot of content. My soundadviceblog.com has more than 500 pages, and the new one will be even bigger and better.

In the meantime, I do answer the e-mails that come in, so if you have a question and can't find the answer online or on my site, drop me a line.

Send questions to Don Lindich at donlindich@gmail.com. Get recommendations and read past columns at www.soundadviceblog.com.