This $30 TV Sound Bar Will Light Up Parties Too (Review)

The iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker is ready to bring quality sound back to your old TV. Or connect it to your iPhone and add a soundtrack to your life. It is portable and offers a multi-color light show when used at a party.

Connect via Bluetooth or 3.5mm audio jack and there are more options.

The speaker costs just $30, and you’re probably reading this review to find out if it’s terrible. Don’t worry, I’ve tested it and you can expect decent sound quality if you manage your expectations.

iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker Review

A soundbar is an easy and affordable way to improve the sound quality of an inexpensive TV. Built-in TV speakers are usually small, point downwards, and lack the power needed to deliver clear dialogue. The soundbar adds larger, properly angled drivers that create a richer, more dynamic sound.

These can be expensive, but you don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to upgrade the quality of an older TV. Or a newer budget model. You can get the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker (ISB184B) for just $30.

Contents: iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker Review

Soundbar ready to sit in front of your TV

The soundbar needs a low profile because it’s meant to sit in front of your TV. This one from iLive fits well, standing just 2.6 inches tall. It’s also only 2.5 inches thick and 17.7 inches wide, so it won’t take up too much space.

The iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker is a nice basic black and won’t distract you while you’re enjoying yourself Pluribus gold Down the cemetery road on Apple TV.

When you make an important change, it won’t. The speaker is meant to live outside your TV – it can add music to the party. That’s why iLive built in color-changing LEDs. These are fun to dance to, but exactly what you don’t want while watching a movie. You will need to turn them off with the button on the front of the device.

Create a connection

You have two options for connecting the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker to your TV. One of them is, of course, Bluetooth. A lot depends on whether your TV supports it. Mine doesn’t, but my Roku does and I’ve had no problem connecting the soundbar wirelessly.

Alternatively, the speaker can be connected to the TV using a 3.5mm audio jack, which you may know as Aux-In. If your TV supports it, this is the absolute best way to connect.

Bluetooth has the advantages of a wireless connection, but you have to remember to turn on the soundbar and then disable the LEDs every time you use it.

With a wired connection, you can connect the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker to your TV and power source, then leave it on. It will stay active, ready to watch a show or movie. The LEDs will remain off.

Time to party!

I easily connected a Bluetooth speaker to my iPhone 17 to play music. Anything you can play on your hand and stream to a speaker.

But that’s not the only option. Load up a bunch of MP3s on a USB flash drive or microSD card, plug them into the back of the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker and let it be your DJ. It plays songs randomly and the buttons allow you to adjust the volume level.

Now of course you will appreciate the colorful, flashing LED light show. The ends of the speaker and the middle can pass through blue, red, green, etc. Or set the speaker to light only one color.

Acceptable audio performance for $30

Before I say anything more about the sound quality coming from the iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker, let me remind you that it retails for $30. This puts it near the low end of the market and for speakers the quality definitely goes up with the price. That said, lower-end models don’t have to be terrible. They just can’t match what comes out of speakers costing 10X as much.

I consider this iLive product to be pretty good… for a $30 speaker. This is especially true for listening to people’s conversations, which is the primary use for a soundbar. The music is more demanding, so don’t expect particularly rich tones, and the bass is always weak from cheap speakers.

I connected the soundbar to an aging TV whose internal speakers are shot. They crackle irritatingly when trying to reproduce bass sounds. The iLive Soundbar has brought a significant improvement in sound. I used it while watching hours of TV and enjoyed the sound upgrade.

Music is more debatable. The Bluetooth speaker is absolutely better and louder than listening to songs played through the iPhone’s built-in speakers, but everything sounds thin and the bass is quite minimal.

Inside the device are two speakers capable of outputting 20 watts. The maximum volume is what I expected. In my sound meter test, the speaker got over 90 decibels. This means that above 85 decibels the sound quality has actually dropped.

Battery life for me was about 4 hours. Bring your audio accessories to life by connecting the USB-C port to a charger like the one for your iPhone or MacBook.

iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker Review: Final Thoughts

The world is full of aging TVs. Don’t throw yours away just because the speakers are worn out. If the screen is still good, add a cheap soundbar and you’ll get years of use. The one from iLive fulfills this role well.

As for it working as a Bluetooth speaker for parties, well… it’s better than just using your iPhone or MacBook.

★★★★☆

If you want a speaker that makes your music sound great at an affordable price, consider the HomePod mini.

Prices

The iLive Portable Bluetooth Multimedia Sound Bar/Speaker costs $30.

iLive secured Cult of Mac with the evaluation unit for this article. See our review policy for more detailed reviews of Apple-related items.