One of the reasons I enjoy going to the Monster Cable press event at CES is to see not only what is new with the products Monster is developing but to also see who they trot out as spokes people. While it is curiously interesting to hear that they are sponsoring all sorts of sports events like the Washington Capitals, Miami Heat, and the VFL in Wolfsburg Germany; but also the odd arrangement of athletes like last year’s out of work basketball guard who turned out to be a brilliant addition to my own Indiana Pacers; Lance Stephenson. This year, the artist du jour was someone I never heard of before…  Iggy Azaler.

Let me leap forward to this spring. After the visit to the Monster Cable booth at CES, they gave me an S100 Superstar speaker and the speaker is just about the size of the image you see of it here. I didn’t bother to open the box right away as my daughter probably has a half dozen Bluetooth speakers around the house that she plays with and because when I usually listen to music on my computer, I have some very nice Altec Lansing speakers with it; so it sat on the shelf.  So, here comes the month of May, and in Indianapolis, you know it is all about the Indianapolis 500 race, so completely unrelated to racing activities, I am looking up on my phone a YouTube clip of an old Jethro Tull song I wanted to hear. From 1971, “Wond’ring Aloud – Again” and I thought, time to open the Monster speaker box.

I was absolutely blown away. A really nice sound for such a tiny box. And what a sound, I gave up at just over 50% volume on my phone. And you know, for a $59 speaker, it sounds so much better than all of the others that she has and I have heard from friends. So, what makes it so special. Well, you can look it up here at Monster’s Website. For one thing, it is not light. A heavy duty cabinet that is waterproof and over six hours of continuous play. They include Echo Noise Cancellation, and a full range driver and bass radiator. I must say, I am impressed with it.

Every year, Monster wraps up CES with a concert and this year the headline was Joe Perry at the Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas.  A pretty cool venu but quickly discovered that it is like attending a concert in an old high school gym. Stage at one end but all you can do is stand and after walking at CES all day, it made for a difficult time for me but I did find a stool to park on and everyone seemed to be enjoying the truly hard rock music.