Q: I saw an advertisement for a mini-LED TV. What is a mini-LED TV, and is it better than OLED or plasma?

A: Mini-LED means there are many thousands (25,000 or more) of LEDs providing the backlight for the television, illuminating an LCD panel from behind to create the image. (A more proper way to refer to these TVs is "LED-LCD" because LEDs do not create the image.)

Most LED-LCD TVs have lighting that comes from the edges or from a few dozen zones directly behind the LCD panel. Mini-LED offers the best possible contrast and overall performance in LED-LCD sets.

With OLED and plasma, each pixel creates its own light, the theoretical ultimate. Image quality comparisons come down to the specific TVs being compared, though OLED is widely considered the best but at a higher cost and with a risk of burn-in not found in LED-LCD sets.

An impressive speaker

With the holidays coming up I will be highlighting gift ideas over the next few weeks, starting with the Tribit StormBox Blast speaker, a very fine portable speaker.

Though Tribit markets this as a "party speaker" with a colorful light show and powerful bass, I found it to be an exceptionally good high-fidelity speaker. I had high expectations, given that Tribit is a company that tends to get it right when it comes to presenting accurate, high-quality sound, but my expectations were dramatically exceeded.

The StormBox Blast just plain sounds good in the way of some of my most popular audio recommendations, playing in the same sonic league as much more-expensive high-end offerings while being portable and battery-powered. The sound is crisp, clear and has the right amount of warmth, with excellent separation of all of the instruments and vocalists.

It also sounds great with all kinds of music, the hallmark of the very best speakers. I listened to everything from Broadway soundtracks to hard rock to country to talk radio, and it sounded absolutely fantastic across the board.

The StormBox Blast plugs directly into the wall with a standard two-prong plug on a removable cord, with no bulky adapters to manage. Battery life is 30 hours, and it can be used to charge portable devices via a USB-C connection. It also is waterproof, and the sound can be tweaked with an available app. While these features undoubtedly add value, the most important thing to remember is the remarkable sound that is the main reason to buy this speaker.

Don't let the "party speaker" moniker scare you off. If you like pulsing multicolored lights, you can leave the light show turned on and enjoy one of the most colorful and dynamic presentations on the market. If not, just turn the feature off and savor the beautiful sound.

The StormBox Blast lists for $259.99, but sales and coupons bring the price down to $169.99 on Amazon and $149.99 on Tribit.com, where a discount is applied at checkout.

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