We at The Manual are always pleased to see people helping people. Otis & Eleanor is a great example. The company is comprised of a bevy of friends located in various cities around the world, who are always looking for products to travel with. They are also committed to finding things that are well built and designed so they collaborate with independent designers to produce some pretty stellar pieces including watches, shades, and now portable speakers.
Bongo is a portable blue tooth speaker encased in 100% bamboo that uses best-in-class APTX audio decompression software, which allows the device to put out some serious sound despite it’s small build. Designed in collaboration with Meghan Sebold, the founder of Alfie, a fashion line that fuses traditional West African textiles with American trends, they used her sensibility to design the speaker and develop the hemp speaker cloth that goes over the heads while spending a year perfecting the technology.
Speaking of which, two 1.5” powered drivers utilize rare Earth magnets to deliver powerful and clean bass and the bamboo frame creates a full natural sound much better than a plastic or metal frame. It keeps getting better folks, the Bluetooth 4.0 allows the user to control Bongo with their phone from up to 25 feet away and Bongo boasts 10 hours of playback on a single charge. That’s one long night in the party tent!
O&E created a Kickstarter to get Bongo going and hit a cord with speaker freaks – they are now 467% funded! So Bongo will be available in December, just in time for the holidays. The price is great too at $125. Another positive aspect of O&E is cutting out the middle man since they design, produce and distribute themselves.
Be sure to check out this video about the Bongo. It gives you more of a sense of the size and versatility of this little crowd pleaser.
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