Ion Audio Sound Splash Bluetooth Speaker with FM Radio
- Bluetooth speaker and FM radio in one device, like a nexus in the space-time continuum
- IPX4 waterproof against splashes from any direction
- Six radio presets for easy station-changing while your eyes are full of shampoo
- Mounts with suction cups or a fold-away hook, but if you shower in an open field you’re out of luck
- You can also answer calls in the shower because what’s more fun than talking on the phone in the shower?
- Model: Sound Splash FM (the best model numbers have no numbers)
The radio star is fine.
Or, at least, reports of the radio star’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Some of you, no doubt, are snorting grunts of derision at this shower speaker’s FM radio capability, as if it’s some pointless add-on to the Bluetooth main event.
Yes, now we have other listening choices that offer us greater control, more choice, fewer ads. But 59% of Americans still listen to the regular old radio every day. They can’t all be your grandpa.
For one thing, it’s just easier. You turn it on and you’re listening, period. There’s never a dropped connection, never anything to pair, never a moment spent staring at some little circle spinning around on a screen, and wondering if it’s really loading anything.
With radio, you give up some choice - and you get back freedom from having to choose. You can just listen. There’s still a person involved on the back end somewhere, curating the things you’re hearing, so it’s not a random shuffle. And while a personal streaming station sounds great in theory, the reality is usually a monotonous playlist that makes Top 40 radio’s “heavy rotation” look like a kaleidoscope of surprise and variety.
Does Spotify ever tell you what the weather is like outside? Does Pandora ever warn you that there’s a crash on the southbound tri-county parkway?
So yeah, it’s nice that we have this Bluetooth speaker, which you can suction-cup to the wall or hang from a hook, for such a low price. Stream and 'cast and shuffle to your heart’s content. But the FM radio is what puts it over the top and on our front page. If video hasn’t killed the radio star yet, Bluetooth certainly isn’t going to.
