JBL On Stage Micro review (black)

Other than volume, the JBL On Stage Micro doesn't offer any controls on the speaker itself. Playback can be managed via the iPod or the packaged remote, on which you can find a handy array of buttons. There are the usual suspects--Volume, Track Skip, Play/Pause, and Mute--as well as several that allow you to navigate among the iPod's menus: Menu, Back, and Up/Down. The remote worked well from several angles at about 12 feet back, which is as far as you want to go if navigating menus on the iPod's small screen.

Audio performance is quite good, given the compact size of the speaker (it measures just six inches in diameter). The high-end detail gets dropped off a bit, but music sounds clear without any distortion or background hiss. The mids come through warmly. The JBL On Stage Micro has neither the richness you get from high-end audio outputs, nor the tinny sound like some other speakers of its size. However, some songs can sound hollow. Bass is fairly low-key, but not totally absent. You can't really expect a thumping low-end from speakers of this size, though.