I found out about the Comiso Bluetooth speaker too late for it to make my list of holiday gift recommendation. But it’s an excellent speaker, and at less than $30, it gets 2025 off to a fine start!
I was drawn to the Comiso waterproof speaker by the attractive price and excellent reputation, racking up a 4.5 star rating with over 24,000 reviews on Amazon. It’s a cylinder-shaped speaker that resembles a tall soda can, sized so it can fit in the water bottle holder of a bicycle. It is well-balanced and lightweight, with simple controls on the top.
At the regular price of $39.99, it sells for about half of a similarly sized quality Bluetooth speaker. But discounts reduce the price even more. A checkbox coupon on Amazon and the code COMISO25 bring the total down to $26.91.
This comes with the caveat, of course, that it actually sounds good. So I bought one out of curiosity.
The Comiso delivered the good sound I expected given its reputation. Everything was very clear and transparent, especially voices. In this sense it was one of the best small speakers I have tested, making it an excellent choice for listening to podcasts, the news, talk radio, internet radio or a satellite radio app. Older listeners are sure to appreciate this vocal clarity, and it makes the speaker a great choice for YouTube and streaming video watching, too.
Bass is easily controlled by adjusting the distance between the speaker and the surface behind it. I got the best results about three inches out from the wall. You can pair two of them for stereo sound with wide separation, but I only had one speaker so I could not try this feature. Nonetheless, I was impressed.
Cable has improved
Q. I have not seen you write about cable vs. satellite television in a long time. I do remember that you favored satellite over cable, but I think I read that a long time ago. Do you still have a preference?
A. These days I don’t get many questions about cable and satellite comparisons, which is why you have not seen it discussed in the column. I do get a lot of questions about cutting the cord and ditching cable or satellite, but most of those revolve around antennas and receiving local channels and combining it with streaming services.
