The solution to few of life’s problems can be found at the bottom of a bottle, except, maybe, the poor sound quality from tiny wireless speakers. The creators of the portable Sodapop speaker promise that by simply attaching an empty soft drink bottle, you can increase its loudness and bass by almost 10 decibels.
They can’t compete with the heavily amplified multi-speaker stereo setup you have at home, but when you’re at the beach or on the road, portable Bluetooth speakers provide a much better listening experience than just relying on your smartphone’s tiny speaker. But the smaller a portable speaker is, the less air it can move, and the quieter sound it will produce.
It’s a balancing act between portability and sound quality. But the Sodapop seems to promise the best of both worlds: A portable speaker that’s only about 15cm long but sounds much larger when you upgrade it with an empty plastic soft drink bottle.
The bottle apparently triples the internal volume of the Sodapop speaker, allowing it to move more air and boost the sound of lower bass frequencies by as much as 10 decibels. The flexible plastic bottle also doubles as a membrane, pushing air back through the Sodapop speaker, which supposedly adds more “warmth” to its overall sound.
Could the Sodapop potentially work as promised? Of course it can, using essentially the same acoustic science as turning a plastic cup into a smartphone amplifier.
But don’t chug a bottle of Coke and then expect the tiny Sodapop to suddenly sound as amazing as Apple’s HomePod. There’s a reason high-quality speakers aren’t made from recycled plastic. You’re still sacrificing sound quality in the long run, but using this clever trick, the Sodapop should sound a lot better than most other portable speakers its size.
If you want to test the speaker’s claims for yourself, you’re going to have to wait until October at the earliest, as the Sodapop is hitting the market via the crowdfunding route.
Its Kickstarter campaign has already surpassed its ~$33,000 funding goal, but as with all crowdfunded products, that’s no guarantee that the speaker will arrive on time, or at all, so buyer beware. If you’re OK with those risks, you can pre-order the Sodapop with a pledge of ~$73 — soft drink bottle not included.