emulous74
Well-known member
Let's face it, the majority of us enjoy listening to some tunes when we are out of our vehicles and parked at camp or taking a break.
I've been through many of bluetooth speaker used for camping and have heard many other's speakers and while most get loud enough, the majority of them fail on sound quality. The introduction of the Sonos Roam peaked my interest, (I do have a full Sonos set up in my living room), it didn't seam like something I would want to take on a trip as it would have to be charged daily and didn't look like it could take the abuse it would most likely see. I read an article about B&O's latest offering and thought I'd give it a try.
Here's my initial review of the B&O Beosound Explore:
The new B&O Beosound Explore outdoor bluetooth speaker is very promising in my initial listening to it. At $199.00 US it is expensive for a bluetooth speaker, with the closest competitor being the Sonos Roam. But to me the Sonos Roam was designed and intended for back patio listening or a day at the beach, not for extended camping trips. I say this as the Roam has maximum 10 hours of listening (reports are it's much less than that when you have Alexa or the like enabled) and the Explore has 27 hours. I personally don't want to be able to order something from Amazon when I'm out in the woods and an 8 hour drive to my home, I guess you could turn the lights off w/Alexa in your tent, but I digress.
At 1.39 pounds (the roam is a little under a lb) it's a bit heavy to attach to your backpack, but the included carabiner and specific heavy duty carabiner attachment, says that it's up to the task, and the build quality of the Explore has been designed and implemented to take the abuse of being knocked around, dropped in the mud or the sand. It has IP67 water/dust proof certification, so won't last a day at the bottom of the ocean, but should be fine if dropped out of boat and retrieved quickly. You definitely can feel the heft in your hand and the anodized casing feels high quality and the included color matched carabiner is a nice touch. The webbing on the hand strap feels very stout. The design is typical B&O gorgeous, but it strays drastically in that you won't be worried if you drop this thing, let's just hope that the anti-scratch Type 2 anodization/coloring lives up to it's promise. Another nice touch the buttons on the top are designed to be used while wearing gloves. The heft also means it won't get blown over by the wind when sitting on a table. It's 4.8" tall and 3.1" diameter it does fit nicely in the hand.
I'm writing this because I have very picky ears and throughout my life I have invested in both expensive and inexpensive speakers, but have always strived for quality. I can hear the difference in compressed and loss-less music and connecting to the Explore the first time and playing loss-less music from imported from a CD into my phones itunes player, I was blown away at the clarity and the clean bass just with it sitting on my patio's coffee table. B&O says it's designed with 360 degree sound up to 300ft away, can play 59db SPL bass (which blows away any other portable bluetooth speaker) has 2 x 30 watt Class D amplifiers, and 2 x 1.8" drivers. Frequency range is an impressive 56-22.700 Hz. What was impressive was it sounding really good no matter what type of music I played from Bob Mould's guitar to Michael Nyman's piano work, being able to hear nuisance and fidelity through a bluetooth speaker I haven't experienced before. I wish I had a Sonos Roam to compare, but when I read the reviews and looked at the specs, I thought it would only be worth while as a patio speaker, and I'd much rather have permanent speakers on my patio as recharging a speaker doesn't seem appealing for a constant setup.
B&O's app is a bit underwhelming and it took me a few tries to get it connected to the speaker, but once it connected there haven't been any problems, you can adjust the bass, volume, and choose from preset eq settings. The only downside is it doesn't connect over wi-fi like Sonos Roam does, you can connect it to one other B&O speaker for stereo sound, but with the way this thing initial sounds outside, I don't think that would be necessary. It truly is designed as an outdoor speaker, because it doesn't sound as good when I brought it indoors. So I'm really impressed with my initial listen to this speaker, the real test will be taking it out on a camping trip, if it really can last 27 hours at 77db, it will be worth it alone, but if the sound quality holds up in the true outdoors, it might just end up being a great companion.
What bluetooth speakers do you prefer to take on camping trips and why?
I've been through many of bluetooth speaker used for camping and have heard many other's speakers and while most get loud enough, the majority of them fail on sound quality. The introduction of the Sonos Roam peaked my interest, (I do have a full Sonos set up in my living room), it didn't seam like something I would want to take on a trip as it would have to be charged daily and didn't look like it could take the abuse it would most likely see. I read an article about B&O's latest offering and thought I'd give it a try.
Here's my initial review of the B&O Beosound Explore:
The new B&O Beosound Explore outdoor bluetooth speaker is very promising in my initial listening to it. At $199.00 US it is expensive for a bluetooth speaker, with the closest competitor being the Sonos Roam. But to me the Sonos Roam was designed and intended for back patio listening or a day at the beach, not for extended camping trips. I say this as the Roam has maximum 10 hours of listening (reports are it's much less than that when you have Alexa or the like enabled) and the Explore has 27 hours. I personally don't want to be able to order something from Amazon when I'm out in the woods and an 8 hour drive to my home, I guess you could turn the lights off w/Alexa in your tent, but I digress.
At 1.39 pounds (the roam is a little under a lb) it's a bit heavy to attach to your backpack, but the included carabiner and specific heavy duty carabiner attachment, says that it's up to the task, and the build quality of the Explore has been designed and implemented to take the abuse of being knocked around, dropped in the mud or the sand. It has IP67 water/dust proof certification, so won't last a day at the bottom of the ocean, but should be fine if dropped out of boat and retrieved quickly. You definitely can feel the heft in your hand and the anodized casing feels high quality and the included color matched carabiner is a nice touch. The webbing on the hand strap feels very stout. The design is typical B&O gorgeous, but it strays drastically in that you won't be worried if you drop this thing, let's just hope that the anti-scratch Type 2 anodization/coloring lives up to it's promise. Another nice touch the buttons on the top are designed to be used while wearing gloves. The heft also means it won't get blown over by the wind when sitting on a table. It's 4.8" tall and 3.1" diameter it does fit nicely in the hand.
I'm writing this because I have very picky ears and throughout my life I have invested in both expensive and inexpensive speakers, but have always strived for quality. I can hear the difference in compressed and loss-less music and connecting to the Explore the first time and playing loss-less music from imported from a CD into my phones itunes player, I was blown away at the clarity and the clean bass just with it sitting on my patio's coffee table. B&O says it's designed with 360 degree sound up to 300ft away, can play 59db SPL bass (which blows away any other portable bluetooth speaker) has 2 x 30 watt Class D amplifiers, and 2 x 1.8" drivers. Frequency range is an impressive 56-22.700 Hz. What was impressive was it sounding really good no matter what type of music I played from Bob Mould's guitar to Michael Nyman's piano work, being able to hear nuisance and fidelity through a bluetooth speaker I haven't experienced before. I wish I had a Sonos Roam to compare, but when I read the reviews and looked at the specs, I thought it would only be worth while as a patio speaker, and I'd much rather have permanent speakers on my patio as recharging a speaker doesn't seem appealing for a constant setup.
B&O's app is a bit underwhelming and it took me a few tries to get it connected to the speaker, but once it connected there haven't been any problems, you can adjust the bass, volume, and choose from preset eq settings. The only downside is it doesn't connect over wi-fi like Sonos Roam does, you can connect it to one other B&O speaker for stereo sound, but with the way this thing initial sounds outside, I don't think that would be necessary. It truly is designed as an outdoor speaker, because it doesn't sound as good when I brought it indoors. So I'm really impressed with my initial listen to this speaker, the real test will be taking it out on a camping trip, if it really can last 27 hours at 77db, it will be worth it alone, but if the sound quality holds up in the true outdoors, it might just end up being a great companion.
What bluetooth speakers do you prefer to take on camping trips and why?
