Portable electrostatic? I'm intrigued by this: https://www.benq.eu/en-uk/speaker/electrostatic-bluetooth-speaker/trevolo-2.html
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What do you suggest for portable speaker
- Thread starter ehabheikal
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it's adorbs!Portable electrostatic? I'm intrigued by this: https://www.benq.eu/en-uk/speaker/electrostatic-bluetooth-speaker/trevolo-2.html
Interestingly (and not that this has anything to do with the current thread), electrostatic tweeters were surprisingly common in table radios and small consoles in the late-50s/early-60s, both US and European-made.
Zenith and Motorola (at the least) both had electrostatic tweeters in some models in those days, as did some (maybe many) of the German 'big names', FWIW.
tecnogadget
Addicted to Fun and Learning
If you want to go on a budget, this are certainly worth a try:
-Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II: Amazing for only 40€/50€. Powerfully with nice bass for the small footprint. Pleasant tonal balance with emphasis on mids and treble does not fatigue. 10 hours of battery life, resists 1meter high drops and water resistent. Very omni directional sound. I like to place on any kind of table or surface against the wall for bass reinforcement.
-Anker SoundCore 2: Amazing for only 40€. Very powerful and clean. Bigger footprint than Wonderboom. 24 hours battery life. More directional sound like traditional speakers. You feel the sound coming in front of you if you face the speaker. Much correct-real midrange & voices than Wonderboom.
Wonderboom: more party centric speaker.
Anker SoundCore: more purist audiophile approach.
-Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II: Amazing for only 40€/50€. Powerfully with nice bass for the small footprint. Pleasant tonal balance with emphasis on mids and treble does not fatigue. 10 hours of battery life, resists 1meter high drops and water resistent. Very omni directional sound. I like to place on any kind of table or surface against the wall for bass reinforcement.
-Anker SoundCore 2: Amazing for only 40€. Very powerful and clean. Bigger footprint than Wonderboom. 24 hours battery life. More directional sound like traditional speakers. You feel the sound coming in front of you if you face the speaker. Much correct-real midrange & voices than Wonderboom.
Wonderboom: more party centric speaker.
Anker SoundCore: more purist audiophile approach.
abm0
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Looks way better than it sounds (and costs).
And those wings have that open-baffle kind of "shotgun" polar pattern where they're firing the treble in a specific direction and nowhere else. You're not sitting right in front of it, no treble for you.
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I own a KEF Muo and when I bought it it was between that and a Dali Katch. Both have Bluetooth and both can take a 3.5mm aux in.
D
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I have one of these,can be found online for much cheaper.
Great sound albeit the highs are slightly rolled off but it's a very pleasing sound signature they've tuned for.Good taut bass not boomy and over emphasized like a lot of these boxes are.Plus the carrying case(An extra 30 bones) is the best I've seen.Strangest feature is the built in phono preamp,never used it but hell I guess you could!The Android app works well.Can charge a phone as well.I've had mine for over 5 years and it has travelled a lot and I've had zero problems ever with it.https://rivaaudio.com/riva-turbo-x/
Great sound albeit the highs are slightly rolled off but it's a very pleasing sound signature they've tuned for.Good taut bass not boomy and over emphasized like a lot of these boxes are.Plus the carrying case(An extra 30 bones) is the best I've seen.Strangest feature is the built in phono preamp,never used it but hell I guess you could!The Android app works well.Can charge a phone as well.I've had mine for over 5 years and it has travelled a lot and I've had zero problems ever with it.https://rivaaudio.com/riva-turbo-x/
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Is that sort of the evil twin of the tautology?
Well these BT speakers are all compromises. The BOSE mini is impressive for ”what it is” but compared to the Eneby 30 it is a toy. The Eneby 20 is somewhere between.
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Well -- I guess there are things that are impressive for what they're not.
But I don't know where there are things that aren't impressive for what they're not. Or maybe that's most things.
I'm not sure.
But I don't know where there are things that aren't impressive for what they're not. Or maybe that's most things.
I'm not sure.
Everybody listening to my Bose Soundlink is usually quite impressed. The sound, in particular the bass, depends a lot on the placement, like the distance to a wall or even a corner. I guess that applies to a lot of these boxes.
abm0
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Yeah, the Riva Turbo X that was just mentioned even came with placement suggestions in the leaflet, for getting the benefits of this so-called "corner loading": https://www.ertea.cz/picture/fotografie-k-produktum/riva/placement-graphic.png
The idea is that by placing it near a large flat solid surface you're reducing the volume of air it has to radiate into (whatever starts out toward the surface is immediately reflected and comes together with the main wavefront, adding to its loudness), so in the middle of the floor or a large table you halve the space and therefore add 3 dB (case 3 in the picture), in a 90 degree corner between a wall and a table you reduce the space to 1/4, meaning +6 dB (case 2), and in a wall-wall-table corner it's 1/8 the space, +9 dB (case 1). And since high frequencies are very directive and usually don't radiate much behind the speaker, you mostly get this amplification in the bass, which is nearly omnidirectional the lower you go in frequency (or the larger the wavelength vs. the speaker enclosure).
With this trick even the grandfather of "good-sounding" pocketable/portable Bluetooth speakers, the Jawbone Jambox, can be made to sound surprisingly "full" for its size.
The 7 Best Bluetooth Speakers - Winter 2025
The best Bluetooth speaker we've tested is the JBL Boombox 3. This large and powerful speaker packs a punch and lasts for 30 hours off a single charge.
www.rtings.com
JBL and UE seems interesting!
The trick here is to prioritize. Durability? Portability? Water resistance? Sound Quality? Price? Looks? You get the idea. My preferred brands in this space are UE, Sony, JBL, and B & O. Sony and JBL release new models every year, for better and worse, so that can be tricky. B & O is the most overpriced, but I really like the sound they put out. UE might be the best deal, as they are a little less known, so maybe price accordingly to beat the bigger companies. The website Wirecutter does really thorough reviews, fyi. Also I think Turtlebox makes a very loud, durable model.
abm0
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IMO the best for fidelity/price and also fidelity/size in their respective size classes are the rectangular Xiaomi Mi (the one with metal front and back, not the older model), the Denon Envaya Mini (half litre size, sadly has battery issues in most units, mine turned out manageable), and the Denon Envaya DSB-250 (0.8 litre size). Anything larger goes over into "transportable" rather than portable, so I've never considered the larger models.
Re: UE Boom-this and Boom-that, everything I've heard from their collection sounds muffled, like it's always with its back toward me, probably because of the way they tried to make it "omnidirectional". In fact all "omnidirectionals" have this problem, because you can't make highs omnidirectional, because physics. Rather have a good speaker that accepts it's going to be directional, and use it pointed at me or at the center of the crowd. When you think about it, why would you ever want a speaker to be omnidirectional, who ever puts the speaker in the middle of a crowd where everyone would rather have food, drink, games etc.? It's always going to be on the side somewhere so it's fine for it to be directional.
Re: UE Boom-this and Boom-that, everything I've heard from their collection sounds muffled, like it's always with its back toward me, probably because of the way they tried to make it "omnidirectional". In fact all "omnidirectionals" have this problem, because you can't make highs omnidirectional, because physics. Rather have a good speaker that accepts it's going to be directional, and use it pointed at me or at the center of the crowd. When you think about it, why would you ever want a speaker to be omnidirectional, who ever puts the speaker in the middle of a crowd where everyone would rather have food, drink, games etc.? It's always going to be on the side somewhere so it's fine for it to be directional.
bit of a late reply but i love my soundlink mini 2. for what it is, its pretty amazing.
Sgt. Ear Ache
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I own a bunch of Bluetooth speakers and the one I find myself using the most is the Tribit Xsound Mega. It's not a stereo speaker, but it's got nice tonality, oodles of power (30% is too loud for my bedroom), it's cheap and often on sale, battery lasts for ages, and it has the added benefit of not adjusting the frequency balance at different volumes very much. The tonality is the same at low or higher volumes...unlike many BT speakers which incorporate DSP at different volumes.
I think my bose thing must use some basic dsp, but it sounds pretty consistent in lots of positions and volumes. Don't think amir's ever measure it though
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