Ears-on with Sony Ericsson's groovy Bluetooth speaker

I've heard Sony Ericsson's MBS-100 described as a big, black spore, and from the looks of the otherworldly Bluetooth speaker, that's about right. But how does it sound?

Announced last fall and soon to go on sale in the U.S. (you can also snag it from offshore retailers), the MBS-100—ah, heck, let's just call it the spore—is about the size and weight (about 7.8 ounces) of a softball. The groovy, strangely soothing design is certainly an eye-catcher—no cheap-looking plastic here—while the jet-black speaker itself feels pretty sturdy, although I wouldn't recommend hurling it at a brick wall or anything.

A little section of the spore has been sliced off at the bottom, and there you'll find the power port (good for powered playback or charging the built-in battery), an on/off button, and a second button that'll put the speaker into Bluetooth pairing mode.

One you power on the spore and pair it with your phone and/or MP3 player (you'll need a device with the A2DP Bluetooth profile, which supports stereo sound), you're pretty much good to go. Don't want to do the wireless thing? No problem—the speaker also has a standard 3.5mm audio jack.

The MBS-100 lacks a volume control, so you'll need to tweak the volume on your sound source—which is either a convenience or a pain, depending on how you're using the speaker.

So, how's the sound? Well, the first thing to note is that we're just talking mono sound here—or if it is stereo, it was so subtle that I couldn't tell the difference.

The sound itself was...OK, considering the size and weight of the speaker. In my experience, featherweight speakers typically don't deliver the best sound, and the spore is no exception.

Sound detail was fairly good on Ed Rush & Optical's "Rock tha House," if not razor sharp, and the beats were big enough, but not what I'd call thunderous. That said, the sound was pretty much what I'd expect from a softball-sized wireless speaker—good for the beach or the park, but nowhere near room-filling.

Then there's the price tag, which seems to be hovering around the $80-$100 range—a little pricey in my book. Then again, we're talking style here, right? Here's a case where value is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

So, what do you think? Does Sony Ericsson's wireless spore speaker fill you with envy, or dread?

Related:
Sony Ericsson MBS-100 search [Yahoo! Shopping]
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