iLive Tailgate Speaker: in review

Close out summer with a robust little speaker

Like ‘em or leave ‘em, bluetooth speakers for the outdoors are a thing. Now, for me, I find the ones that clip onto a backpack to blast your music out while you’re on a trail or at the park to be a bit annoying. However, if you want to have the tunes going while you’ve got friends over in the back yard, or you’re doing a project? Then I’m all for it. That’s where the iLive Tailgate Speaker comes in.

iLive Tailgate Speaker: what it is

Ok, let’s level-set: we all know what a Bluetooth speaker is, right? They’re usually rechargeable (this one is), connects to your phone wireless or via line in (this one can do both), and can blast out whatever audio you’re looking for (again, this one does it). And yeah, we could argue about specs with the speaker size and whatnot, but most folks don’t care about that. It’s about the use case, and how the device fits that use.

Many speakers are destined for an indoor usage, maybe living on a shelf or getting moved from room to room every so often. Yes, you can use those outdoors, but you might worry about the damage they’d sustain. Not so with the iLive Tailgate Speaker.

This is a speaker meant for outside, with a large metal grille covering the single 6.5” speaker, and an oversized grab handle to make it easy to move the 3.5lb speaker around. It’s even got clips on the side where you could attach a carry strap.

Using the speaker

First thing, of course, is to get it charged up, via the USB-C port on the back. Then, you need to decide how you’re connecting to it. You could plug in a thumb drive in the USB-A port, do a line in with the 3.5mm jack, or you could plug in a microphone in the 1/4” jack to, I guess, deliver a PSA on the street corner.

Or, you could do what we believe most people are going to do, and that’s using Bluetooth to connect your phone to it. To do that, you power it up, hit the Bluetooth button on the side, and it’s in pairing mode. That goes painlessly, and then you’re ready to share the tunes.

Where I really put the iLive Tailgate Speaker to work was when I was doing a variety of outdoors projects. And in this scenario, it worked really quite well. You’ve got a large volume knob on the side which was easily manipulated while wearing work gloves, and even the buttons on the side to control the music were easy to use (no digging the phone out of a pocket, or walking back to where you left it to keep it out of the work site).

Now, we will say, this is not a speaker that is going to blow your audiophile friends away. For me, though? It was great. I felt like the volume was more than what I needed, and the port on the rear helped the speaker get a good bass level without things getting muddied. In other words, it was perfect for what I needed.

Sure, I didn’t need the RGB lightshow while I was doing yardwork, but it’s there for when it’s time to have folks over on the patio at night. One note about that light - it just does it’s own thing. It’s not sound reactive at all, so bear that in mind.

Wrapping things up

We want to note two other things. First off, the iLive Tailgate Speaker doesn’t carry any sort of IPX rating. So, it’ll pick up dust (and that can collect on the speaker element), and it’s not one you’d want to have out when it’s raining.

The second thing we want to note is an unexpected feature - a FM tuner. That’s right, you could have this setup to play whatever terrestrial radio you’ve got local to you. Perhaps not as widely used, but it can be a handy feature to have available, especially in an emergency scenario.

If you’d like to have the iLive Tailgate Speaker accompany your yardwork (or the social gathering that your yardwork was prepping for), then you can get one directly from Amazon for just under $47.

iLive Tailgate Speaker Specs

• Connectivity Technology: Bluetooth

• Compatible Devices: Smartphone

• Mounting Type: Plug Mount

• Power Source: Battery Powered

• Connector Type: Aux

• Output Wattage: 10 Watts

• Number of Channels: 1

• Audio Input: Bluetooth, Digital FM Radio, 3.5mm Audio Input (Aux In), Microphone Input, USB (MP3 file format)

• Measurements

  • Item Dimensions: 11.81 x 7.95 x 10.04 inches

  • Item Weight: 4.8 Pounds