Being on a roadtrip with no music is like being at a party with no beers, chicks and smokes.
So when we blew the speakers on my buddy’s van halfway down the west coast of France, we thought we were done for. Luckily, we were rolling with a portable speaker, a Turtle Shell 2.0 from Outdoor Tech, that became the official stereo of Callum’s Volkswagen T4 Touring van.
“Down on the West coast, they got a saying.” -Lana Del Rey Photo: Callum Jelley
From her position on the dashboard, she actually outperformed the original stereo in its pre-blown state. She did way more justice to our bass-heavy tracks and had a way crispier resonation throughout the space of the van.
“I met a man who lost his mind in some lost place I had to find.” – Leonard Cohen Photo: Callum Jelley
Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t exactly blowing panties off every time we drove down main street. But the Turtle Shell really helped those kilometres click by in style.
“Non, je ne regrette rien.” Edith Piaf Photo: Mikey Nixon
She’s got a 16 hour (ish) run time from a USB rechargeable lithium-ion battery and I can’t recall a single time over the course of our month-long road trip that she ran out of batteries. You could take her to the beach, to the top of a mountain or just listen to her in the van, man. What a girl. She was like the girlfriend that neither of us had.
And, on the off chance that some open-minded ladies would ever wanna hang out on the beach with us, we could have had a dance party.
“Quick, grab the stereo and let’s go talk to those babes.” -Mikey Nixon Photo: Callum Jelley
Of course they never did. So we just watched the waves, smoked cigarettes and listened to Leonard Cohen.
It was terrible.
We ran the Bluetooth set-up off our phones the whole time, which worked great. But whenever we tried to do that with our computers, the music would cut in and out a little. It wasn’t horrible, but that’s the only real complaint I have from this beast of a portable speaker.
She really got the job done.
Here’s a shot of the Turtle Shell with her little friend, the Kodiak Ruggedized Portable Charger. Photo: Callum Jelley
For more info on The Turtle Shell 2.0 and everything else Outdoor Tech does, check out their website.