JBL's budget Bluetooth speaker lineup has offered consistently solid options for the past few years now, and the new $59.95 Clip 2 continues this legacy. Anyone looking for massive bass reponse will need to spend more money on a bigger speaker—the Clip 2 is all about portability, and is expertly designed to accompany you on trips, no matter where you go. A waterproof shell means you can use it poolside, and an included carabiner lets you strap it on your backpack for a hike. There's a built-in audio cable for wired listening, and the speaker gets quite loud for its diminutive size. If you're looking for solid audio performance you can easily take anywhere, the JBL Clip 2 earns our Editors' Choice.

Design
The Clip 2 looks similar to its predecessors, the Clip ($49.95 at Adorama) and the Clip+ ($69.95 at Amazon) , with a circular, 3.7-inch diameter and 1.7-inch deep contour offered in black, blue, gray, red, or teal. A unique triangular carabiner is looped through the top, allowing you to hang the speaker for easy transportation or a listening point better aligned with your ears.

The speaker is rated IPX7 for water resistance. The front panel is covered in waterproof fabric that serves as a speaker grille and features the JBL logo. Beneath the grille, a 40mm, 3-watt driver delivers mono audio. Along the rubberized sides are controls for power, Bluetooth pairing, volume (which work in conjunction with your mobile device's master volume levels), and a multifunction button that controls playback, call managment, and track navigation. The button can be pressed twice to skip forward a track (which is standard), but cannot be pressed three times to navigate backward a track—a strange omission that most competing models don't make.

A snap-shut cover on the right panel protects the micro USB charging connection from the elements when not in use; a short orange USB charging cable is included. Other than the carabiner, which is removable, there are no additional accessories that ship with the speaker. However, a 3.5mm aux input cable is hardwired to the speaker for wired listening, and snaps onto the back panel for easy stowing, which is convenient.

JBL estimates the Clip 2's battery life to be roughly 8 hours, but your results will vary based on wired versus wireless playback, as well as your volume levels. After a long period of inactivity, the Clip 2 will power down automatically, and will re-pair with your device upon powering up. The speaker can also be daisy chained wirelessly with another Clip 2.

Performance
On tracks with powerful sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the Clip 2 delivers a decent sense of bass depth for its size, but can start to teeter on the edge of distortion at top volumes. This isn't surprising, but anyone looking for powerful bass response will need to spend more on a speaker with, at the very least, a substantial passive radiator to boost some of the low end. For a speaker this size and price, however, the Clip 2 does a laudable job of conveying low frequencies.

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Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, is more suited to the Clip 2's strengths. His baritone vocals have a pleasant richness, with enough crisp high-mid edge to give them clarity and definition—the guitar strums benefit from this crispness, as well. The drums, which can sound unnaturally heavy on larger, bass-forward systems, take a backseat in the mix here, while Callahan's vocals sit front-and-center. The Clip 2 can get impressively loud for its size, and on a track like this one, there's no hint of distortion at top volumes.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop's attack gets plenty of high-mid edge, allowing it to slice through the layered mix. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat don't distort, but their lowest frequencies are not really part of the equation here—we hear more of their raspy top notes than anything else. The vocals on this track are delivered cleanly and, again, occupy the spotlight in the mix—the mono output means that vocals will often have a prominent presence.

If you're looking for a bigger bass sound in a portable bluetooth speaker, the more expensive Sony SRS-XB3 ( at Amazon) and EcoXGear EcoCarbon ( at Amazon) are solid, water-resistant options. In this price range, we are also fans of the Ultimate Ears UE Roll ($50.00 at Amazon) and the less expensive Polk Boom Swimmer Jr. ($19.99 at Amazon) . For $60, however, the JBL Clip 2 strikes just the right balance. It gets quite loud, boasts a waterproof design, and there's no need to worry about losing any of its built-in accessories. That makes it our new Editors' Choice for affordable portable Bluetooth speakers.

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