I AM a fairly new convert to taking my sounds with me, as it were.

Podcasts and audiobooks have long been a staple of my listening, but it was mainly confined to the car on the drive to work, or perhaps popping my mobile on the side while doing the washing up or having a shower (nothing wrong with singing in the shower, right?).

I’ve never been a big one for elaborate headsets, or carting a speaker around – the phone speaker itself has always had to do.

However, after road-testing and thoroughly enjoying a set of wireless headphones, I have now gone one step further – and tried out a proper Bluetooth speaker, and boy, has it changed my shower listening experience!

The Tribit Stormbox 2 looks the part – as I took it out of the box, it even looked a bit scary – in a powerful way – with its full barrel-shaped speaker look.

And it can belt out the sounds if needed, with two 12W speakers making it easily drown out the noise of the water hitting the shower screen.

Connection was simple – even for someone like me, who grows further out of touch with technology with each passing software update – as the Stormbox simply appeared in my Bluetooth devices list and away we went! Plain sailing…

To prolong the water theme of this review, I don’t even need to worry about inadvertently dousing the Stormbox with the shower head, as it’s waterproof! So if you’re in the shower, the pool, or on the beach, moisture is not an issue.

Sound-wise, the Stormbox is a solid all-rounder, until you hit the secret button that really lifts your listening to another level.

The XBass Technology of the Stormbox gives the bottom end of the beat a huge lift when you need it – meaning this little package rivalled the sort of sound system you used to find only in the boot of a boy racer’s modified car.

It saps your battery a bit faster than normal, but the Stormbox has a life of around 20 hours on a full charge, so it’s not much of an issue, and I can leave it on the kitchen windowsill for a few days, come back to it when there’s a particularly daunting pile of crockery to clean, and it is still full of beans, waiting for me to connect (which I can from up to 60-odd feet away).

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It also features a standard old-fashioned jack input, which is a great option for when you might want to connect an external device.

However, it does lag a touch (it couldn’t keep up with our electric drumkit, for example), but that really isn’t what the Stormbox is for.

All in all, for those who want a really solid all-round speaker that will take the abuse of normal family life, but still provide better-than-expected sound quality but won’t break the bank (at around £50), the Tribit Stormbox is absolutely ideal.

Go on, grab your shampoo bottle microphone and hit the shower…

PAUL JONES