When you turn on the StormBox Blast for the first time, it will automatically start looking for a Bluetooth signal. Simply open the Bluetooth menu on your phone, tablet, or laptop and select it from the list of available devices, and it will connect. If you want to connect a different device, prod the Bluetooth button on top, and go through the process again. You can also just connect an AUX cable to the StormBox, as long as whatever you’re playing the music on still supports the port.

The device’s Bluetooth range is 40 meters, which is over 130 feet. Outside, you should be able to walk around a large suburban garden with a connected device in your pocket and be sure of a strong direction. Walls tend to limit a Bluetooth connection somewhat, but when I was testing this in a house going between floors or rooms didn’t seem to cause any issues. The music continued playing flawlessly.

Tribit have certainly made some bold design choices with the StormBox Blast. It has a strip of fairly bright light along each side, and more lights ring the speakers themselves. The flashy additions probably the first thing you’ll notice before you crank it up and get blown away by the obscene amount of sound it can produce.

In a small, dark, room, the lights can actually provide a lot of atmosphere—though they are somewhat more limited in the daytime and outside. If I was using this as a garage, workshop, or office, speaker they would likely get on my nerves after a while —  but thankfully the lights can be switched off with the jab of the button if you’re not too fond of them.

Bloody hell, this thing is loud. Like obnoxiously loud. Outside, the sound carries well and you can probably trust it to handle the musical needs of a fairly large private gathering — like a BBQ hosted at an affluent uncle’s house or something.

Indoors it’s something else entirely. I tested it out in a moderately-sized three bedroomed house and when it was placed in the living room with the volume set to a third of its maximum, you could hear it clearly in every single room. Upstairs, downstairs, it didn’t matter, you were treated to the Bowie playlist I had on. And most of his stuff wasn’t even that loud, to begin with.

As far as Bluetooth speakers blasting through Spotify playlists go, it’s perfectly fine. It’s actually quite good, considering the price point and portability. It’s not the sort of high-fidelity experience true audiophiles will be stroking their beards and joyously going “hmmm” over, but we all know that’s not what this is for.

It’s for bringing to the beach, or a pool party, or a park, and using it to violate the eardrums of everyone in a quarter-mile radius. It does that very well; the tracks are as clear as you want them to be. Tribit knows this too, which explains why the company has put so much effort into the bass.

The bass is certainly the standout tonal range of this Bluetooth boombox. If you stand close enough, you’ll feel every note vibrating through your teeth. So if your playlists are crammed with funk, dubstep, or Jazz you will have a very good time with this. There’s even a special button you can press if you really, really, want to pump the bass even further.

When the StormBox is maxed out, it’s so loud that it’s difficult to actually concentrate. If you do manage to focus, you will notice a bit of distortion, especially when using it indoors. For the best sound, stick to more reasonable volumes.

One of the main selling points of the StormBox Blast is its water resistance. It’s got an IPX7 rating, which is round about what you’ll find on a lot of high-end phones. IPX7 protects devices against water damage at depths of up to one meter (three feet, three inches) for up to thirty minutes. In short, it’ll be fine if you drop it in the shallow end and take your sweet time fishing it out.

Unfortunately, beyond three feet there are no guarantees and the deeper you go the more chance water has of forcing its way past the device’s defenses. But dropping any electrical item in a swimming pool is best avoided, so let’s look at this practically.

If you really want it floating around your pool, securely strapping it to a flotation device will make sure it doesn’t sink too deep even if it does tip. If you use it a bit more sensibly, you can rest assured it won’t be damaged by splashes, spills, or even heavy rain. And if you decide to put it in a bath just to double-check the waterproofing claims as I did, it will also be fine.

The bath test actually inspired me with a bit of hope. Surprisingly, given its weight of roughly 10 pounds, the StormBox Blast seemed to really want to float. It kept trying to tip onto its front instead of just staying pinned to the bottom. I’m not sure I’d throw it into a pool to test if it actually will simply stay near the surface instead of sinking, but this makes me think it wouldn’t drop like a rock at least.

During the test, the StormBox spent over 15 minutes in the water and still functioned just fine afterward. It was effortless to dry off the exterior, and water didn’t seem to get into anything vital as it still worked fine afterward. It’s worth noting that this test didn’t go to the maximum depth or time limit, instead, it was just a way to check basic waterproofing.

Tribit boasts that you can get up to thirty hours of battery life out of the StormBox Blast, and I can only take their word for it. I haven’t actually managed to flatten it, and I must have played at least 20 hours of music on it — not counting the time it spent plugged into a wall in the corner. You can play with it plugged into your heart’s content.

Battery life depends on several factors, not least of all is volume. The higher it’s cranked, the more juice it will use. Equally, a Bluetooth connection will use a bit more energy than a wired one. But none of this matters as this thing has enough power to outlast a 1968 edition of Keith Moon.

As someone who hates anything resembling effort and seems to somehow break a good number of the things I get sent to test, I appreciate the level of moron-shielding Tribit has put into this thing. My one-year-old nephew could probably set it up, there’s so much battery life you barely need to charge it, and if you dunk it in water like an imbecile, it will still probably work.

Best of all, it will sound great to the 99% of people who have no idea what they’re doing when they start fiddling with their car radio’s bass and treble settings. And it costs less than $200. If you need something relatively cheap that can fill your full house with music, or have a lot of outdoor party plans coming up, this is a very solid choice.