By Jim Rossman
The Dallas Morning News
In all my years, I’ve never tried to bring music into the shower.
We’ve all seen cheap shower radios, and they’re fine for what they try to accomplish, but today we’re looking at the BlueFlame Slingshot ($99, blueflamegear.com). It’s a Bluetooth speaker that allows you to stream music from your smartphone or tablet, and it’ll get wet in the shower and happily play on.
The Slingshot is a beefy round speaker that is IPX4 water resistant, which means you can spray water on it but not submerge it.
So it’s OK to sit next to the pool, but if you drop it in, you’re on your own.
According to BlueFlame, “The Slingshot is a convertible speaker system. Pop your Slingshot speaker out of its included Shower Sling, and into another BlueFlame sling.”
The same round speaker fits in several “slings,” which are form-fitting rubber protectors. The Shower Sling has a long rubber hoop to hang from a shower head or hook.
The To-Go Sling looks a bit like a steering wheel.
You can buy both slings with the speaker or get them separately.
Setup
There are two models of Slingshot, one that uses four AA batteries and one that has rechargeable batteries.
I tested the rechargeable version, which charges through a micro USB port on the back that’s behind a waterproof rubber cover.
The Slingshot is a big speaker about the diameter of a compact disc and 3 inches thick. The built-in battery should play for at least 10 hours on a charge.
The speaker is controlled via a group of rubber buttons along the bottom of the front bezel. You turn the power on or off with the button on the far right. You have to hold the power button down for five seconds before you get a response.
On the first power-up, the Slingshot will go into pairing mode. Open the Bluetooth control panel on your device and look for the Slingshot to appear and make the connection.
There are buttons to skip or replay a song as well as for controlling volume. There is also a button to answer phone calls. When the Slingshot is paired with a phone, you can make and receive phone calls using its built-in microphone.
Sound quality
The Slingshot isn’t going to blow you away with fidelity — that’s not its job.
What it will do is play your music in a clear and pleasing manner. It’s more than enough to fill your shower with music, and it’ll keep a pool full of kids entertained.
You wouldn’t want it to be the sole source of music at a house party.
At higher volumes, the music can start to degrade, but if you keep levels at about three-quarters volume or lower, it sounds just fine.
Pros: Splash-proof, good battery life.
Cons: A bit expensive.
Bottom line: A good solution for bringing tunes into your shower.
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