I’ve been on a personal quest to find the “perfect” Bluetooth speaker. This time, I get to check out one unit that struck me with handsome good looks from The House of Marley called the Get Together. Do sound and function match outward appearances?
According to their website, The House of Marley “is built on the principles of superior quality, earth-friendliness and a commitment to global charitable causes.”
For starters, the Get Together speaker packaging is fairly minimal. No foam inserts. Just two cardboard endcaps, a wrapper, and a smaller box.
Inside that smaller box? A charger and documentation.
This is not a wee speaker. I measured 15-3/4″L x 5-1/8″H x 3-1/4″D.
The Get Together weighs in at 5 lbs, 6oz.
A closeup of the 3.5″ woofer and 1″ tweeter. There’s no grille or other protection for the woofer.
The Marley logo is etched on the front. It’s quite nice looking on the bamboo.
The label the bottom. This is the only place I could find information on the built-in battery. It’s a 1800 mAh Li-Ion battery. I thought this label was a peel-off sticker, but it’s actually some kind of iron-on wizardry. I did not try to remove it.
On top you’ll find volume, Bluetooth and power controls. That’s an LED indicator to the right of the power controls.
The “buttons” have very good tactile feedback. You get a satisfying “click” with each push. There are no forward or back controls. Some Bluetooth speakers allow you to press and hold the volume controls to skip. Not here.
The LED turns solid blue once paired. The bluetooth button also doubles as a pause/play button, which isn’t immediately obvious. Also note the fabric material. It’s called REWIND fabric, made up of reclaimed hemp, organic cotton and recycled plastic bottles.
The back reveals a bass port, USB charging outlet, charger input, LED and aux input.
Closeup of the ports. Here, the charger is plugged in and the battery is charging.
The USB port can be used to charge your gadgets. Here’s the Get Together topping off an iPod Touch. It seems to work even when the Get Together charger isn’t plugged in.
Instead of a cryptic alphanumeric name, the Marley Get Together shows up in your Bluetooth list as… “Marley Get Together”. Thank you, Marley!
How does it sound? I put this alongside the Bose Soundlink III, the only other speaker I own of this size. Actually, the Bose is considerably shorter at 10″ wide (vs. 15.75″ for the Marley). The Bose is also nearly twice the price at an MSRP of $299.
The Bose Soundlink III sounded boomy and muddy compared to the Marley Get Together. If you’re a bass-head, pass on this Marley. You will find no chest-thumping noise here. Actually, I’d describe the Marley as flat-sounding. That’s not a bad thing.
The Marley Get Together actually sounded wider, like you were actually hearing stereo. No surprise, since it’s nearly 16″ across. The Bose Soundlink III sounded like a booming mono speaker in comparison.
I did notice that when the Get Together is powered on and not playing music, you can hear a faint hissing from the speakers. You may not notice this, especially in a noisy environment. However, if this kind of thing bothers you (I have OCD), you’ve been warned.
In the end, the Marley Get Together is a handsome-looking Bluetooth speaker. It’s a little long and heavy to be truly portable. It’s not water-resistant, and you’re not going to win any bass-off competitions with it. If you’re OK with that, the Get Together will reward you with crisp, room-filling sound.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by House of Marley. Please visit their site for more info.
Product Information
| Price: | $179.99 MSRP |
| Manufacturer: | House of Marley |
| Requirements: |
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| Pros: |
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Hi my Lil Marley Get Together booms out “pairing” and “charging” etc when it has made connections. So annoying. Can this be turned off? Otherwise I absolutely love it.
I’m not aware of any way to do that. I’ve noticed quite a few bluetooth speakers do that (the loud feedback, even when turning on and off).
This is by far the best Bluetooth speaker I’ve had and I have gone through a lot of them and this is the best so far
I need to agree with you. On my phone I added an app for bass boost(pro bass boost under 3 bucks) and this does crank bass up, and does not falter! It handles Bass way better than I thought possible for a unit this size and price. Honestly, it handles very well and cranks very loud with clear sound, even outdoors. Best BT speakers I have owned so far sound wise, better than pricey Bose..Do keep it dry tho 😉
No remote
We’ve had ours for about two years, like the sound but I cannot recommend one. Ours is quite flaky when it comes to playback, with certain music, especially classical flacs but sometimes on random mp3s, the music just cuts in an out for seconds at time. This happens even when making a direct connection with the audio cord rather than bluetooth. Tried with different computers and even a scandisk clip player, same problems in same places in music. Infuriating. Whereas my small Sony bluetooth speaker plays everything from all these devices with no problems whatsoever, as do the notebook speakers.
You also cannot turn the bluetooth off, even if plugged into a computer it will overrride and reconnect the bluetooth unless you turn off the computer bluetooth.
Simple design also means little flexibility and has almost no documentation on how to use. Making it switch the device it is streaming from is very hard to figure out, you basically have to turn it off and restart process. There is probably a pattern of pushing the bluetooth button to do it but not at all clear what it is.
My advice, buy something German or Japanese instead.
Turn your Marley volume done to just above mute and use the controls on your device,phone etc and it will not cut out every now and again.
Cheers Kiwivan
My Marley Speaker wont turn on or charge any more. It’s 1 year old an has been working fine. All of a sudden nothing works. How can this be fixed?
Mike.
I have a similar problem. My Marley speaker does not turn on too, apparently it charges, but when I press the ON the red led flashes and nothing else the same with the other controls. How can this be fixed?
My devices connect to marley but there’s no sound coming out, why is this?
Yeah I’m a Bob Marley speaker I don’t have the receipt anymore so I the charger is missing the charge port is missing and I was wondering if I could use a phone charger to solder it to the circuit board would that work
This speaker uses 15VDC input. Your typical USB-based phone charge puts out 5VDC.
The USB port on the back of the speaker does not power it.
The down side is that on good stereo songs( AC/DC) it only plays in mono. Is there a fix for this?
Oh, hells bells. Does it do that on ALL songs?
Hi hay does is the red light ment to stay on when it’s charging. When I plug the charger in the light goes red then flicks off is that normal?
I found this from the instruction manual:
Get Together includes a built-in rechargeable battery that is charged by the included power supply. The LED by the power port will glow RED when the system is charging and turn off once the battery is full.
https://www.thehouseofmarley.com/media/documents/houseofmarley/instructionbooks/updated/Get-Together_EM-JA006_IB.pdf
Andy can you leave the power supply plugged in all the time? Does the power supply operate the unit or is it only to charge the battery?
Thanks,
Tim
I don’t see why not. I don’t have it with me anymore.
This website is no longer available. Do you have another link? I need to know if it can be reset to factory parameters, my speaker charges but does not turn on apparently
I found this link to the instructions. https://www.thehouseofmarley.com/content/pdf/instructionbooks/Get-Together_EM-JA006_IB.pdf
Love the look, sound is great for my small abode….but it does my head in when it shouts out ….powering on/powering off/paired and most annoyingly, charging….right in the middle of music.
Can this be over ridden?
I’m close to getting something else otherwise…
This is the worst thing about this speaker. I love it, except that every hour or so it interupts the music to boom out, “Charging”. Really sloppy. But I love the sound and look.
I wonder if earlier models have that problem
of noisy pairing just got mine 10/21/19 and no issues like that at all just a couple of electronic
bleeps when paired. Really like this speaker
I am a contractor and take this with me on clean jobs. Had to find a suitable carry bag
and I had a padded Kobalt sawzall zippered bag that fits perfectly,has a handle on it so
as not to drop this. Love this thing so far.
This speaker is unusable. There have been other mentions here of the “charging” and “pairing” and “charging” audio messages interrupting whatever you are actually listening to in order to provide a useless piece of information better conveyed silently by a LED. I don’t need a speaker to talk to me. I just need it to do what speakers have done well since we’ve had speakers. This device does not do that.
Any other speakers you would recommend please?
It’s been four years and I seldom use bluetooth speakers anymore. If I do, I still have a small Bose Soundlink II. I’m not sure it’s still available.
Cool, you prefer the wired ones then?
It is battery operated
What does it mean when the battery light flashes while it’s charging ?
I am unsure about the blinking light. It’s been over 4-1/2 years since I’ve played with this speaker.
The charging port is broken. Any way to use the usb port on the back of the speaker to charge it using a usb to usb cable?
The USB port should be for supplying power to things like phones, not the other way around.
How can I get more bass out of the Bob Marley get together?!
There are no controls on the unit itself. Otherwise, you could try an old acoustical trick: Place the speaker up against a corner (countertop and wall) and see if that helps a bit. Otherwise, no adjustments.
The volumne is not loud is this because it still needs to charge?
I’m not sure. Also check the volume from your source (if it’s your phone, via bluetooth).
Can you charge this in the car? Thanks 🙂
I don’t think so. The DC input is listed as 15V at 1.5A. Unless your car supplies that, I would not try it directly.
Best money spent on a sound system, clear and perfectly loud and does everything I needed while driving got an old car with no Bluetooth and this is just A1, and not to mention fits the Consol color of my old Jag. Thank you for quality products.