DOSS Traveler: A highly affordable and solid all-around wireless speaker (review)

Wireless speakers are one of the most purchased accessories for mobile devices outside of cases and screen protectors. We love our music and multimedia and as a result, we are bombarded with thousands of different options to listen wirelessly. If you’re a savvy tech shopper and don’t want to pay for a big box store brand name, we have an alternative wireless speaker that will fulfill all your needs. The DOSS Traveler Bluetooth Wireless Speaker is a product of two years of research and development, and its superb ratings on Amazon show that a name brand doesn’t define quality.

DOSS is a third-party accessory maker that has been focused on audio products for 18 years. If you’ve shopped budget speakers on Amazon before, there’s a good chance you’ve come across the #1 Best Selling DOSS Touch wireless speaker. It costs $33.99 and delivers a punch in a small package. 5,000+ reviewers back up the expertise DOSS puts into its products. If you look across the entire DOSS Amazon store, almost all of its products are highly rated.

I’ve been using the Traveler for the past several weeks and think it’s a solid buy for what it offers.

Let’s check it out.

Build and Specs

• Dimensions: 2.4 x 6.5 x 4.4 in
• Dual 10W drivers
• Dual passive subwoofers
• IPX6 Water and dust resistance
• 12 hour playback time
• Dual flashlights
• Five light modes: low, medium, high, strobe and SOS
• Bluetooth 4.0
• 3.5mm AUX input
• Micro USB port for charging
• Dual strap options: short handle and long carrying strap for over shoulder use

The DOSS Traveler is as its names suggests: a portable speaker that can go anywhere your heart desires. It has an extremely tough build with hard plastic and metal grilles to protect it from whatever you throw at it. Dual LED flashlights sit in the front of the speaker that can provide solid lighting in dark settings or it can also be a party speaker with strobe lighting. There’s even a cute fox face drawn on the front to accentuate the lights. Controls sit on top of the speaker: power, Bluetooth, light functions, pause/play and +/- for volume and track control. The Traveler is built so well that it can even float in water so you can even bring it on a boat or set it by the pool without fear of destroying it.

Powering the music portion of the Traveler are dual 10W drivers that are flanked by passive dual subwoofers. It gets loud enough to fill a large room with music, and it’s easily loud enough to entertain a group sitting poolside, at a picnic or at a campsite.

DOSS provides two options for carrying the Traveler: a short strap with a rubber handle, or a long strap that can be used over your shoulder to make carrying it easier. I opted for the short strap since I never carry speakers like a purse. However, I can see swapping out the shorter strap in favor of the longer one when I bring it on my next camping trip so I can hang it on a hook or branch.

There are even two mounting slots on the bottom of the Traveler so you can mount it to a tripod or Gorillapod too. It comes in Olive Green in addition to the Black one I have been using and retails at $59.99 with free Prime shipping at Amazon.com.

Design wise, I’m more than impressed with the build-quality of the DOSS Traveler as it’s a complete package as a wireless speaker. There aren’t any other features I could think of that I would want with it and appreciate the addition of the lights with the cute fox on the front. This speaker is clearly a unique design that DOSS built on its own and isn’t a rebrand of a generic product.

Sound and Performance

Usually, when you think of a budget category speaker, you tend to make compromises when it comes to sound. The old adage “you get what you pay for” is what you fall back on when you think of saving money, especially on a category filled with premium devices from big brands like Beats Audio and Bose. With the DOSS Traveler, I got very little sense of “you get what you pay for.” Instead, I got the feeling of, “wow, I’m getting a great value out of my dollar” with this purchase.

If you’ve listened to an Ultimate Ears Boom, Boom 2, or Wonderboom you know what the Traveler sounds like. Its sound is not bass heavy or imbalanced. The sound is neutral and detailed and that’s what you want in an outdoor style speaker. Outdoor speakers with too much focus on bass don’t sound as good outdoors as the bass tends to muddle out the details in the music. Highs and mids are quite present with the Traveler, and the bass rounds out the sound to offer a neutral tone.

Performance wise the Traveler exceeded my expectations on playback time. I frequently averaged slightly over 12 hours of mixed usage before it needed a full recharge. That’s a solid amount of time for a wireless speaker and gets me through a week of listening to music on a nightly basis. It even worked well as a multimedia speaker that enhanced the sound out of my iPad Pro and brought movies and TV shows to life.

The light feature proved to be useful on my nightly walks with my dog. Here in San Diego, especially in the late summer months, there are huge spiders that make webs along the sidewalk. Walking into their webs sucks badly, but the Traveler helped me avoid encounters with those spiders. Instead, it left them to feast on bugs without me destroying their webs.

Water and dust resistance are very important features on wireless products these days. The Traveler has an IPX6 rating meaning it’s able to withstand getting wet and dirty without causing it to break. It’s a nice feature to have because I don’t have to worry about it when I bring it outdoors by the pool.

Great build quality and sound performance make the Traveler a complete package well worthy of its $59.99 price tag.

Overall: Recommended

The DOSS Traveler is a great option for a wireless speaker. It’s rugged and offers water and dust resistance. It also has great sound quality and lasts long enough to get through intense party weekends. Most importantly, the Traveler is easy on the wallet and will DOSS’s impressive history, it should last several years without issue.

I highly recommend you check out the DOSS Traveler if you’re a savvy shopper who demands the most from their gadgets.

You can get your own Traveler at Amazon.com.