CEDIA 2013

The sound that most amazed me during Day 1 of the CEDIA Expo came not from a $50,000 speaker, but from a cardboard box. A cardboard box supporting the Bass Egg Verb, that is. We've seen devices like this before, that turn any box or table or whatever into a speaker. The difference between those and the Bass Egg Verb is that it doesn't suck and it plays loud as hell.

When I heard Bass Egg's demo, I couldn't believe how clear the sound was -- more like what I'd expect from a decent Bluetooth speaker like the Cambridge SoundWorks Oontz XL than what I'd expect from one of these "Turn an old shoebox into a speaker!" things. Bass Egg claims the $99 Verb can play from 50 Hz to 16 kHz and max out at 100 dB. Just playing some ordinary pop music, I got 92 dB at about 1 meter, which is comparable to what I've measured from some of the better mid-sized Bluetooth speakers.

Of course, I'm sure Bass Egg chose the "optimum" box to put it on for the show demo, but still, it kinda blew me away. Part of the sound quality has to come from the Verb's ample 17-oz weight, which helps keep it firmly pressed against whatever it's sitting on.

The Verb has built-in Bluetooth wireless and a 3.5mm analog audio input, so it should connect to just about anything. Might be just the ticket to turn the hood of Geoff Morrison's Porsche into a sound system for our next Sound & Vision tailgate party.