Twelve South BassJump review (original)

A simple Mini-USB connection provides power and audio to the device.

We were impressed with BassJump's software. It gives you a visual representation of the audio currently playing--with analog gauges to boot--and lets you control the overall volume of the BassJump. Most importantly, the software gives you access to the crossover frequency that you'll probably need to tweak, depending on your preference. That said, the BassJump immediately impressed us with its out-of-the-box sound. The system software also contains various preset crossover settings for all types of music genres.

In terms of performance, the BassJump makes a MacBook's speakers sound the best they're probably going to sound without turning to external speakers. After a bit of tweaking, we were able to find an optimal balance between our MacBook Pro speakers and the BassJump and were very satisfied with the results.

With the BassJump, the jazz-inspired mixture of instruments from Koufax sounded heavy and full of bass, whereas the harder rock of Them Crooked Vultures proved to us that the BassJump had enough oomph to handle a wide variety of tunes.

When we pushed the BassJump to its limits, we were glad to hear an absence of distortion. Incredibly enough, the unit can go quite loud--even though it's primarily responsible for adding a low frequency effect to your existing music.

We didn't realize how good of a job the BassJump was doing until we continued to listen to music after disconnecting the device. Without it connected, music from our MacBook just sounds a bit hollow and underpowered to us. The BassJump adds a rich and thick layer of muscle to our MacBook's speakers.

Since the BassJump draws power from your MacBook, we did notice a bit of a battery drain when used for a long time. However, considering the amount of sound it's able to produce, we're happy to sacrifice a few minutes of battery life.

Overall, we were impressed with the BassJump portable subwoofer. For the MacBook owner who doesn't want to splurge on an external stereo system or speakers, we think the BassJump is the best way to go. It costs as little as $60 online, but we don't think you'll find a product that does a better job at improving the sound from your MacBook Pro's internal speakers.