Focusing on 'me'-time: Searching for the perfect device

A few days ago I published an article talking about packing and the issue of what to bring with you if you're a modern age backpacker, where various electronic items are needed for your work – or simply for play. The struggle is fitting every item you need in a rucksack upon your back, where every ounce, and every inch matters. While traveling the world, I like to balance my work time, and travel time, with some me time. There's nothing worse than traveling alone in a place where you don't speak the language, yet you must spend hours upon hours working – you can lose yourself in your work like this, just as you can in a corporate job. You MUST dedicate time to yourself, or else you will go mad. There was a streak of a couple of weeks while in Ireland that I began wandering less and working more, gearing up for an upcoming Travel Blogger summit, followed by rural and intimate travel through Scotland, England and Iceland – I gave myself less time and my mood and how I felt began to ebb. It took me a week or two to snap out of it, but I suppose you can say that I learned my lesson there.

Part of my me time typically consists of either listening to an enjoyable audiobook, or watching a movie, documentary or a tv show that has nothing to do with learning or my work. I find it necessary to bring a hard drive of media with me for times such as these. Most of the time, throughout my 9-month 2013 European trip, I either read/listened to audiobooks for the Game of Thrones series. I found that it helped to heal my overworked self, often enough.

For my future travels, I have been on a search for the perfect bluetooth speaker that can either hookup to my laptop for video, or my phone for audiobooks/music. It had to be small, yet powerful sounding. I identified that the speaker must also hold a sizable charge, because a lot of my future travels are camping/wilderness focused. I tried out models from SoundMatters, Monster, and a couple of other lesser known brands. While I truly love the options from Monster that I worked with, like the SuperStar Backfloat speaker, as it is water proof, and floats in water (so cool!), but it was bulkier than I needed for upcoming trips, and I found that the SoundMatters foxL Dash7 fit pretty much all of my requirements.

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The Dash7 is small, folds up inside of its own stand, which meant it was ahead of the game already. But then once I tested its features, sound quality, and charge, I found myself carrying it with me everywhere. The design is sleek and tight, and relatively strong – though, if there was one bit of a criticism, the device could be a bit stronger built, or perhaps SoundMatters might consider building another version for travelers who will put a lot of wear and tear on it. I found the Dash7 to be precisely what I was looking for – the sound is big and bold, and dynamic, with solid bass (which actually pushes the limits of the device a bit, because it will fall off the stand and move around and dance if you push the volume). My hats are off to SoundMatters for creating the perfect bluetooth speaker for travelers!

Click here if you're interested in finding out more about the Dash7 bluetooth speaker or for more products by SoundMatters.

(Photo #1, #3 by B.E.S./E&P, Photo #2 via SoundMatters©)


This article was written by Brandon Scott

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