While unpacking the Jawbone Big Jambox, I thought, “yeah, this thing is cute, so what’s all the hype about?” Well, the hype is about the sound. When you crank this thing up, it fills the whole space you’re in, and it sounds great. Also, it looks fresh as all get-out. The one we reviewed was the red dotted version. Jawbone has a few default versions, but you can customize the colors and styles. If we were getting another one for STACK, we might argue about which local sport team would get the custom treatment.

Testing the Jawbone in a myriad of environments—a one-family house, a CrossFit gym, outside at a park while playing bike polo—I was constantly surprised by how such a small package could produce such a warm, full sound. It’s as portable as it gets, fitting in my book bag pretty easily and weighing less than 3 pounds. Although I can’t claim to be an audiophile, some of my friends who have tinkered with making custom boom boxes were similarly impressed with this device—especially since the ones they built needed to be 4 times bigger to produce a similar sound quality.

It’s easy to pair the Jawbone with any close Bluetooth device, and I needed no instructions on how to get it working right out of the box. Its large buttons make it easy to control, and they add a nice design touch as well. Besides the conventional use of listening to music anywhere, I had some fun hiding the Jambox on some of my unsuspecting co-workers and blasting the likes of Europe’s The Final Countdown, as well as some creepy music for our Halloween party.

Big sound in a portable package: the Jawbone Big Jambox can be found at jawbone.com for $299.99.