These days, more often than not, someone in a climbing crew of craggers has a speaker. If you want the biggest and the baddest – you should probably check out the Big Turtle Shell (BTS) Wireless Speaker from Outdoor Tech.
Retail: $229.95
Last spring we reviewed the original Turtle Shell, which is about a fourth the size of the BTS. In short, we loved it. Though these speakers aren’t directly marketed towards climbers, they should be: the Turtles are durable and efficient, and they perform perfectly for the crag.
The BTS is the type of speaker perfect for providing music to the entire crag, it’s loud, up to 110 decibels, with a range of 32 feet. Add some acoustics from a climbing environment, and it’s like a concert at the wall. Seriously. If you’re not friends with everyone at the crag, and don’t want to piss them off, this thing should be kept at a low volume. It gets loud, really loud.
The BTS has some very cool features, as marketed it’s an “everything” speaker. I use thing speaker as much in my house, as I do outside. It is Bluetooth compatible, and also connects with a 3.5mm stereo input. The BTS has a remarkable 16 hours of battery power, and can serve as a power bank to charge your iPod, iPhone, or GoPro. The battery life is so extensive I’ve never had it run out of power yet. With a built in microphone you can also field calls on the BTS.
Bottom line: if you just want a small speaker for the crag the original Turtle Shell 2.0 is just fine, but if you want the biggest and the loudest, the BTS is the speaker for you.
-LM
In the vertical world, quality gear is as important as good weather or the right partner. At the Climbing Zine, we review gear that we put to the test in our personal climbing pursuits, over months of use. If we like it we’ll tell you, and if we don’t we’ll tell you. That’s our policy…If you have gear for us to consider for a review please contact us at luke@climbingzine.com.
About us: The Climbing Zine was started in 2010 by Al Smith III and Luke Mehall. It continues to the day with the mission of representing the true essence of climbing. Our crown jewel is our printed version, but we also do the interweb thing, and Kindle. You can now subscribe to The Climbing Zine as well!
We have also published two books: The Great American Dirtbags and Climbing Out of Bed, both written by publisher, Luke Mehall.
