Price watch (74)

This is a portable Marshall speaker, it's called the Willen. It operates on bluetooth connectivity (among others) & can easily fulfil your need for audio amplification for a small room. Yours for $179.

The JBL Go & Philip TAS2505B fulfil similar needs for less money. The price differences here are rather huge. Inevitable reality check - why should you buy a Marshall for this need when you can buy something else? Marshall has its standards when it comes to guitar amplification but does it specialize in general audio amplification as well? We fall for this too often - we cascade a certain inclination unto other applications just because the brand name bears a certain benchmark for a particular performance. In this instance, names like JBL, Audio Technica & B&O (among others) are clear audio specialists. Marshall is riding on its guitar amp reputation to propel something similar. $179? No thanks.

Pics: Times OI / JBL / Forbes

Beat it

 This had been my pre-occupation for a couple of weeks. 

• Teenage Engineering: PO-33. This is one heck of a beat-making device. It's the size of a pocket calculator which many of the younger gear geeks would not have seen before (let alone knew it existed). This thing fits into the palm of your hand & requires fingertips to operate. It needs some getting used to as well but the learning curve is not as steep as expected. In fact, I managed to fully understand the workflow in about 4 days. It runs on a pair of AAA batteries which are now in 30+/- % power since I started using it. Considering they are not alkaline batteries, I must say the PO-33 is rather battery-friendly. I will share further insights in time to come.
• JBL: GO 2. I'm connecting the PO-33 into this portable speaker. It has impressive projection considering its size but the overall tone is just too bass excessive. Also, the internal rechargeable battery lasts for about 5hrs but require more than this amount of time to be fully charged. I'm still hunting for a good replacement. Wish there's some form of EQ control on board.

Beats - coming from drums or otherwise - will always trigger guitar ideas for me. This is why I am currently investing some time & energy for beat-making. After much reading up, I avoided buying the Roland SP-404 due to its excessive features but would look forward to something more extensive than the PO-33 in time to come. Initially, I had the OP-1 Field in mind but the price is a deal-breaker. Yamaha's Seqtrak is next on my list.