Wireless audio and a six hour battery are great, but sound quality is mixed
Written By
Published on 11 December 2011
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1 / 5
Our rating
Reviewed price £124 inc VAT
Soundfreaq’s speaker dock is designed to be portable, so has a built-in battery and Bluetooth, and is compact and light. With an iPhone in its docking station, we managed roughly six hours of use at half volume. Plugged into the mains, the 2.1 system produced surprisingly loud audio – we only needed to turn up the volume to two thirds of its maximum to fill our test room with sound. Unfortunately, sound quality was quite mixed – the high end was sharp and the mid-range was slightly eclipsed by the bass. The proprietary UQ3 spatial sound enhancer helps create a more enveloping sound, but it also creates overpowered bass that eliminated a lot of the detail in some of our more delicate test tracks. Unfortunately there aren’t any tone controls – you can turn the equaliser off, but this narrows the acoustic environment and removes too much bass from the arrangement. You’ll have to make fine adjustments through your MP3 player to get the best from the system.Although it’s primarily aimed at Apple device owners, the Sound Step Recharge will also play nicely with other smartphones, tablets or MP3 players because it uses the standard A2DP Bluetooth protocol rather than Apple’s proprietary Airplay system. There’s also an auxiliary 3.5mm audio jack for connecting players that don’t have Bluetooth, as well as a powered USB port for charging up any devices that can’t use the Apple docking connector. The system works best with Apple or Android products, however, as they have access to the Soundfreaq remote app, which lets you control speaker volume and change the active input wirelessly.
At £125, you’re paying for the Sound Step Recharge’s wireless functionality and battery pack rather than sound quality – there are better sounding dedicated speaker docks that cost much less, such as the Philips Fidelio DS3020. If you’re after a system that won’t tie you to a mains socket and that you can control wirelessly, the Sound Step Recharge is a decent, if expensive, dock.
Specifications
Rating
****
Speaker configuration
2.1
Power consumption standby
1W
Power consumption on
3W
Analogue inputs
3.5mm stereo
Digital inputs
USB
Dock connector
iPod
Headphone output
none
Satellite cable lengths
none
Cable type
N/A
Controls located
base unit, remote control
Digital processing
stereo enhancer, loudness enhancer
Tone controls
none
Price
£124
Supplier
http://www.amazon.co.uk
Details
www.soundfreaq.com
Written by
Tom Morgan
Tom started writing about technology right after graduating from University, but has been a games and gadget fan for as long as he can remember. Beyond photography, music and home entertainment, he's also the first port of call for all reviews content on Expert Reviews.
