Revolution in Portable Speakers!
The revolution in portable high fidelity sound was marked with the
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| Bose SoundLink Mini |
Then were the portable compact disc players like the Sony Dicman which could play both WAV as well as MP3 audio files. And finally, now in the digital age, the iPod of Apple Inc - capable of playing both audio and video files, has been ruling the global market what Sony Walkman was once upon a time. Today the market is flooded with several genres of iPod-type players rolled out by various brands.
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| The Mini Connected to a MacBook Air via Bluetooth |
Using the headphones at times can be quite tiring and one would prefer to have a similar quality belting out from speakers which can be carried easily on-the-go.
Portable speaker technology has advanced dramatically in recent years as evidenced by the ready availability of features like Bluetooth connectivity and amazing audio output.
Over the past couple of months I had visited several retail outlets, shopping malls and tested various portable speakers of many brands. I had loaded few good as well as low quality audio tracks in my cell phone to make an honest comparison.
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| Bose SoundLink Mini docked in its charging cradle |
I tried the Bose SoundLink Mini at Croma - an electronics mega store. For the size, the sound quality is incredible. There were a number of other speakers including JBL Flip, JBL Charge, Jambox mini, Jambox Party, Logitech Boom Box, Jabra Solemate, even Bose SoundLink Bluetooth mobile II.
Seriously, the Mini blew them all away! I think it is a revolution in
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| Cradle and charging adapter |
At 0.6 kg, it is small enough to fit in your palm or tuck it inside your bag. The speaker has a range of about 30 feet which pairs easily with smartphones, iPad or any Bluetooth devices without wires.
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| The retractable prongs charging adapter |
Bose seems to have done a thorough market research before deciding to do away with the hands-free speaker phone option, an add-on facility, which comes with most Bluetooth speakers. In reality, I have found that several people who owned such speakers with the hands-free option rarely used it, but the psyche of an average buyer would naturally like to have all such options loaded since the price they would be paying for the device.
An interesting point to note - Earlier Bose used to make its gadgets solely compatible to Apple devices, but now it seems to cater to a wider market like Android, Windows phone and all kinds of Bluetooth products.
The SoundLink Mini strives to reproduce the musical sounds as closely as possible to those of the original performance. And Bose strive to avoid flashy sounds such as those associated with accentuated bass and / or treble frequencies. While those sounds may be attractive to the novice, but they are not enduring.
Its single-piece aluminum casing is both attractive, durable and some critics have commented that if the big 'Bose' logo was not mentioned in front of its grill, people would have thought it may have been another product rolled out from Apple Inc!
The Mini comes along with a charging cradle where the unit can be docked on top of it when indoors. However, the charger adapter can be also directly connected to the unit while on travel. A full charge would give seven hours playback time. The one I tested was for five hours and still had enough juice. It has also an aux input for devices which are not Bluetooth enabled.
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| Universal conversion plugs |
Additionally, leather covers in black and magenta and soft covers in blue, green and orange are available separately. A trendy travel bag too is available at some of the stores.
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| Dr. Amar Gopal Bose |
The final verdict: you might not expect sound this rich from a speaker this small and don't have to sacrifice performance for portability! After all it is a premium product from Bose Corporation - a company founded by India-born US citizen, Late Dr. Amar Gopal Bose who was also a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was an electrical and sound engineer who devoted his life to investigating our psychological and physiological responses to sound.
Bose charges a premium for quality and workmanship. They are worth every penny to me over all the plastic speakers flooded in the market these days. It comes at Rs 16,200/- which is pricy indeed!
