The iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker is ready to bring quality sound back to an old TV. Or connect it to your iPhone to add a soundtrack to your life. It’s portable and offers a multicolor light show when being used at a party.
Connect via Bluetooth or 3.5mm audio jack, and there are more options, too.
The speaker is only $30, and you’re probably reading this review to see if it’s terrible. Have no fear, I tested it out and you can expect decent quality sound, as long as you manage your expectations.
iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker review
A sound bar is an easy and affordable way to improve the audio quality of an inexpensive TV. Built-in TV speakers are typically small, downward-facing, and lack the power needed to deliver clear dialogue. A sound bar adds larger, properly angled drivers that create a richer, more dynamic sound.
These can get expensive, but you don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to bump up the quality of an older TV. Or a newer budget model. You can get the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker (ISB184B) for just $30.
This portable multimedia masterpiece packs 18" of sound into a fun, mobile design you can take anywhere. When you want music on demand, you can connect via Bluetooth or Aux in. For immersive gaming and a cinematic movie experience, you can connect it to your TV.
- Replaces worn-out speakers in older TVs
- Adds music to parties
- Can't match audio quality of more expensive speakers
Table of contents: iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker review
- A sound bar ready to sit in front of your TV
- Make a connection
- Party time!
- Acceptable audio performance for $30
- iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker review: Final thoughts
- Pricing
A sound bar ready to sit in front of your TV
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
A sound bar needs a low profile because it’s intended to sit in front of your TV. This one from iLive fits well, being just 2.6 inches tall. It’s also only 2.5 inches thick and 17.7 inches wide, so it doesn’t take up too much room.
The iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker is a nice basic black and won’t distract you while you’re enjoying Pluribus or Down Cemetery Road on Apple TV.
Well, it won’t after you make an important change. The speaker is intended to have a life beyond your TV — it can add the music to a party. That’s why iLive built in color-changing LEDs. These are fun while dancing, but exactly what you don’t want while watching a movie. You’ll need to turn them off with a button on the front of the device.
Make a connection
You have two options for connecting the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker to your TV. Obviously, one of them is Bluetooth. A lot depends on whether your TV supports it. Mine does not, but my Roku does, and I had no trouble wirelessly connecting the sound bar.
Alternatively, the speaker can connect to your TV via a 3.5mm audio jack, which you might know as Aux-In. If your TV supports this, it’s absolutely the best way to connect.
Bluetooth has the convenience of wireless, but you’ll need to remember to turn the soundbar on and then disable the LED lights every time you use it.
With a wired connection, you can connect the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker to your TV and to a power source, and then just leave it on. It’ll stay active, ready for you to watch a show or movie. The LEDs stay off.
Party time!
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
I easily connected the Bluetooth speaker to my iPhone 17 to play music. Anything you can play on your handset can stream to the speaker.
But that’s not the only option. Load up a bunch of MP3s on a USB thumb drive or a microSD card, plug it into the back of the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker, and let it be your DJ. It randomly plays the tracks, and buttons let you set the volume level.
Of course, now is when you’ll appreciate the colorful, blinking LED light show. The ends of the speaker and the middle can cycle through blue, red, green, etc. Or set the speaker so it glows just one color.
Acceptable audio performance for $30
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Before I say anything more about the quality of the audio coming from the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker, let me remind you that it retails for $30. That puts it near the low end of the market, and with speakers, quality definitely scales upward with price. That said, low-end models don’t have to be terrible. They just can’t match what comes out of speakers that cost 10X as much.
I find this iLive product to be quite good… for a $30 speaker. That’s especially true for listening to people talk, which is the primary use for a sound bar. Music is more demanding, so don’t expect especially rich tones, and bass is always weak from low-cost speakers.
I connected the sound bar to an aging TV whose internal speakers are shot. They crackle irritatingly whenever trying to reproduce bass sounds. iLive’s sound bar brought a notable improvement in audio. I used it when watching hours of TV and enjoyed the audio upgrade.
Music is more questionable. The Bluetooth speaker is absolutely better and louder than listening to songs played via an iPhone’s built-in speakers, but everything sounds thin, and there’s a fairly minimal amount of bass.
Inside the device are two speakers capable of putting out 20-watts. Max volume is about what I expected. In my test with a sound level meter, the speaker got up over 90 decibels. That said, above 85 decibels, the audio quality really dropped.
Battery life for me was about 4 hours. Juice up the audio accessory by connecting its USB-C port to a charger, like the one for your iPhone or MacBook.
iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker review: Final thoughts
The world is full of aging TVs. Don’t toss yours out just because the speakers are worn out. If the screen is still good, add an inexpensive sound bar, and you’ll get years more use. This one made by iLive fills that role well.
As far as acting as a Bluetooth speaker for parties, well… it’s better than just using your iPhone or MacBook.
★★★★☆
If you want a speaker that’ll make your music sound great at an affordable price, consider a HomePod mini.
Pricing
The iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker costs $30.
This portable multimedia masterpiece packs 18" of sound into a fun, mobile design you can take anywhere. When you want music on demand, you can connect via Bluetooth or Aux in. For immersive gaming and a cinematic movie experience, you can connect it to your TV.
- Replaces worn-out speakers in older TVs
- Adds music to parties
- Can't match audio quality of more expensive speakers
iLive provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out more in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
