Marshall Stanmore II Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, Black (Open Box)

Just to start this off, this speaker is not bad. It has good sound quality. But if I had the choice I would have just bought a second Spark, it would not have been very much more. I got this on sale, so it is not nearly as bad if I got it at full price. I have 2 places in my house where I like to have a bluetooth speaker, and I am willing to pay a bit of money because I spend a lot of my time in these two places. The first is my office, where the speaker has to be able to be paired with either my computer or my phone, the second is my garage where I would prefer something with a hard switch so that when I turn on the power strip everything just comes on at once. Just for comparison I will use my Spark by PositiveGrid, I think they are similar in price I got this for 199, and the spark is often at 225. So why do I think the Spark is better or what I do not like about this speaker 1. It is a bit too big for a bookshelf speaker, the type of speaker it is should have a footprint of 6 inches to fit shelves. 2. I hate the way they did the power switch. My spark has a switch in one position it is on and one it is off. If I have this plugged into a power strip and click the power strip on my spark will just turn on, where this thing you have to fiddle with the switch to get it to power on. 3. Lack of instructions. I mean they send you 2 booklets, with 1 line in it, download the app, which btw does not point you to the most important instruction of all which is how to pair it with a device. The app does seems more like a marketing tool for their other products. i mean could you have added a line of press the source button for 5 seconds to put the speaker in pairing mode. In conclusion, if I had the opportunity to buy this again would I? No. I would just buy a second Spark, but the speaker is not bad. It has room for improvement and I would expect better from a company with such reputation for making speakers. And bonus the Spark is not just a bluetooth speaker it is a guitar amp as well, Though I think they would probably say that the other way around, it is a guitar amp that can be used as a speaker.