A few weeks back I was interested in getting some portable speakers to use when I was doing office work at my job. After some recommendations from the pirates over at Changstar, I settled on the philips SB7220 (pic on top left). Today, my uncle lent me his Beats Pill that was given to him as a gift. How do they compare?

Philips SB7220
I haven't gotten to use them as much as I thought I would, but they're fantastic sounding for the price of just $68 from amazon. They're wonderful when used with Bluetooth (no EQ) but even better when used with a portable source that allows you to EQ. In stock form, the bass can be a little bit loose and some details are lost. The mids are a little bit thin, and the treble was a little bit recessed. These problems are not deal breaking however. With EQ, you can smoothen out bass and up the treble so that everything is in line with each other.

The SB7220 is on the bigger side of portable, but it is quite rugged and has splash protection. The sb7220 also allows the user to use hand swipes to pause/play, rewind, and go forward to the next song. It works pretty well, and is useful for times when your hands aren't clean enough to touch your music player.

Considering the form factor, price, and sound, the sb7220 is a great buy. Highly recommended!

Beats Pill
When I plugged them into my ibasso dx50, I was surprised at just how bass light these were! Beats is known its terrible terrible boomy, muddy, overpowering bass. The Pill was completely different. I moved onto my PC using the cheap little hifimediy dac so that I could apply some EQ to them. Even with a +6dB low shelfing from 250hz, the bass was barely up to "neutral" levels to my ears. Attempts to apply more bass EQ resulted in audible distortion. The mids were surprisingly fine though, no major problems here! The treble unfortunately was quite unrefined and perhaps a little bit harsh at times, especially once the volume is turned up.

BT performance is fine and doesn't sound that much different than when used with the hifimediy dac. However it still suffers from a lack of bass and harsh treble.

Considering that there are many cheaper and better options out there, especially the sb7220, the Beats Pill is NOT recommended!


One thing that I'd like to mention is that both speakers have their drivers facing diagonally upwards towards the ears. This generally improves treble response and helps in reducing the muddiness of the bass. Many portable speakers are not designed to be facing diagonally, which is a problem when listening to the speakers close by. One thing you can try with those portable speakers is lifting the front of the speakers up with your hand. I guarantee you will hear an improvement.