I have been looking for a portable Bluetooth speaker for awhile now, something that doesn’t compromise on sound quality and is also portable and has decent battery life.
My requirements for the speaker are in the following order:
- sound close to what a typical set of small bookshelf speakers will sound like. (as close to a flat sound frequency response as possible) that has discreet tweeters, built like a bookshelf speaker but portable.
- decent battery life (8hrs+)
- not too bulky, anything under 30 x 20 x 20 cm is suitable
- water splash proof will be nice
When I started searching for the speakers a few months ago I didn’t think anything existed that fitted my first requirement which is the flat sound signature and discreet tweeters.
From my research I was able to track down the following speaker models that seem to meet my requirements at least on paper:
- jbl xtreme
- marshall killburn
- audiopro addon t3/c3 (stumbled on this upon a recommendation on headfi as this brand does little marketing and prior to this i have never heard of the brand before)
Out of the three speakers above I was able to do a demo listen to the jbl xtreme 2 and the audiopro c3 at david jones. Getting a demo listen of the marshall was near impossible, all the big retailers in Sydney either doesn’t sell the speaker or the stores that sell it does not have it hooked up for a demo.
Initial impressions of the jbl xtreme 2 was quite surprising, I went in with low expectations and expected a big V sound signature, it will be loud and obnoxious and will be only suitable for pop, dance and rnb music. But surprisingly it blew me away with the treble and mid range it can produce. it actually sounded quite decent. Yes its loud and the bass is on the heavy muddy side but the treble and mid range is done quite well for a portable speaker.
Than I went and listened to the audiopro addon c3 and this thing just made my jaw dropped immediately. How could it sound so good from such a small package, highs, mids and bass is all there and well balance, the bass is not trying to saturate the mid, and the treble isn’t trying to outdo the bass. I thought it must have some sort of sub woofer hooked up to it as there is sub bass in these tiny speakers. But after searching around the demo setup I couldn’t see any.
This demo more than convince me that these are the portable speakers I want to get, it ticked all my requirements. The next step is looking for a better price as the retail on the speakers were $449 which is a bit more than what I wanted to spend on portable speakers.
After a few months of waiting around for a sale which never eventuated as only a few retailers sells these speakers. I found a second hand unit but it is not the same model, the one I found was the addon t3. Which is the previous model that only does Bluetooth whilst the c3 has wifi and app streaming support. I am fine with just Bluetooth and it is half the price of the c3. It is also meant to have much better battery life as well. So I went ahead and purchased the audiopro addon t3.
Initial sound impressions (first week)
Dance/electronic/house music sounds good for some tracks, it really depends what type of bass the song has, mid bass seems to be the weak part of these speakers, it sounds like it has been boosted and depending what surface the speakers sit on it can sound decent to horrendous.
The rear speaker port seems way too big for the 3.5 inch driver which I can understand will give the bass more emphasis but will hurt the quality. Also the speakers has these rubber feet on the bottom and the front are much higher than the back, which elevates the speaker on an angle of around 20 degrees up, this does not help the bass at all as this means the rear port now fires towards the surface the speaker sits on. I can understand why they chose the large port as you need that additional bass when outdoors but I think the loss in bass quality is not worth the extra volume when outdoors. I will rather have a smaller port or fully sealed unit that has less bass volume but better quality bass.
I also noticed the sound signature changes dramatically depending on what surface your speaker is placed on, this applies to all speakers but I found with these speakers the surface they sit on effects their sound much more due to the angle and size of the rear speaker port. Initially I had it sitting on an oak dining table and the bass just reverberated off the entire table making it sound muddy and distorted. The bass just overall sounded horrible and artificial. Moving it to a smaller tv unit where there is less surface area for the bass to bounce of greatly improved the bass response and got rid of most of the reverberation. Also placing it near a wall or any object that can act like a reflector for the bass port dramatically improved the bass quality and stopped the reverberation.
The highs can get a bit bright, very noticeable with electronic music. Not sure if it is due to the tweeters or the eq applied. Just wish the highs are not so bright and thin.
The mid range is lacking a bit and I think this may be due to the eq tuning than what the actual tweeter and driver can accomplish.
I found rock music lacks warmth in the upper mids. The mid bass boost is too much. Rock tracks end up sounding too clean and thin, lacks body and texture. Electric guitars sound thin and lacking any realism.
Using the aux in definitely sounds much better than Bluetooth especially when you have a really high quality source. I didn’t really spend much time testing the aux in port as it was purchased for use as a portable Bluetooth speaker and using the aux in your be tethered to the speakers. I may get a chromecast audio and hook it up to the aux in as it has a usb port which you can use to power the chromecast.
Comparisons to other similar size speakers
I don’t really have any other portable Bluetooth speakers to compare with as these are my first set. The closest speakers I have are tangent evo e4 bookshelf speakers https://tangent-audio.com/products/8-speakers/73-tangent-evo-e4-red-high-gloss-pair/ hooked up to a class T digital amp that outputs 25watts rms similar to what the t3 has. The tangents are a sealed book shelf speaker, immediately I noticed the bass sounds different, it is less emphasised and is much better quality, the bass is tighter and more controlled. For fast rock tracks the bass doesn’t get muddy and does not impede into the mid range. It is not exactly apples to apples as the tangents are far from portable and also it has stereo separation due to the fact it is two speakers vs one.
Improvements
- I think the biggest improvement that can be made to these speakers will be to get rid of the bass port at the back and make the enclosure 20% bigger to compensate. I think the amp is plenty powerful to drive the one 3.5 inch driver in a sealed box. With these changes I will think the speakers will be at another level in sound quality.
- I will try testing by dampening the rear port with some acoustic foam to see if I can get the bass a bit tighter and reduce the mid bass
Other things worth mentioning
Bluetooth worked flawlessly, I never experienced any drop outs, pairing it was seamless and quick. It works in a matter of seconds after powering the speakers on.
The speakers only takes a few seconds to power up and if using the aux port it will power on automatically when you send a signal down the aux cable from your source.
Final words
In hindsight looking back now after owning these speakers the initial demo listening session at the store may have clouded my judgement. As the demo station would have been setup perfectly with the best source possible through the aux in and not Bluetooth. The display stand it was sitting on would have been heavily dampen and prevented any bass reverberation. This will also explain why it didn’t exactly sound like this when I bought it home.
What I should have done is bought it new, took it home for a real life test with Bluetooth and in my own listening environment and I would have picked up these issues and would have the option to return them back to the retailer.
It is a good lesson and just shows with audio gear you can’t rely on just doing a demo at the store, you really need to bring the speakers home and listen to it in your own environment with your own music source.
Do I regret buying them? no not really, I got them for a decent price and they sound great for most genres of music I listen to and to be honest these are not designed for critical listening which is what i was doing in this review. I think what audiopro were able to achieve in such a small package is astounding. For background music speakers these sound fantastic and will suite most people’s needs.
Highly recommend these speakers if sound quality and battery life is a top priority.
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