INTRODUCTION

   With the Christmas vacations literally just around the corner i think that we're all looking for ways to enrich and improve our time away from home and work and what better way to do that than to pack useful gadgets along with us? Personally i always have a wide selection of gadgets i like to bring along with me when i visit my mountain lodge/cottage during Christmas such as portable battery packs, Bluetooth wireless speakers and Bluetooth headsets. This year however i decided to equip that place with some extra things so I’m also looking to get several LED candles, outdoor LED solar lights and indoor LED motion sensor lights with me. That being said many of you have recently asked us whether there are any new weather resistant Bluetooth portable speaker models in the market that we recommend getting and so today we'll be testing the latest one released by TDK called the A34 TREK MAX.

   TDK Life on Record, a leading global brand with a rich audio legacy, is dedicated to personalizing and enhancing audiophiles’ ever-evolving digital music lifestyles. TDK Life on Record audio products are carefully crafted to focus on performance, marrying a clean, striking design with the precision and flexibility of modern technology. This world-class line of premium audio products delivers a warm, authentic, high-fidelity entertainment experience. The TDK Life on Record logo is a trademark owned by TDK Corporation and is licensed exclusively to Imation Corp., a leading global developer and marketer of brands that empower people to capture, save and enjoy digital information. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

   The brand new TREK MAX A34 is actually a improved version of the highly awarded A33 weatherproof Bluetooth speaker which we had with us last year so if you liked that you will definitely like the A34 even more. So compared to the A33 the A34 also features an IP64 certified weather resistant housing (full protection against dust and splashed water) with two 1.5 inch full-range drivers, one 2.5 inch subwoofer and two 2.5 inch passive radiators (total output remains the same at 15W for all) and supports Bluetooth version 2.1+EDR with A2DP, HFP, HSP and AVRCP. However the A34 comes with 3 very noticeable differences including support for NFC compatible devices (Near Field Communications), play/pause/next/previous media buttons and a larger battery pack that gives it up to 8 hours of playback (compared to the 6 of the A33 that's a 33% increase). Of course it goes without saying that we don't expect any significant difference in the audio quality department since TDK has used the same speaker configuration but that's not really a bad thing since the A33 was very good overall and is still one of the best Bluetooth speakers to have ever passed from our lab.