- In terms of practicality: it is true that there is no microphone for taking the call. Is this a disadvantage? Yes and no. I understand perfectly well the Soundlink my interlocutor and I use the microphone close to my phone which in fact is advantageously away from soundlink. In practice, perfect for me and my interlocutor.
- In terms of sound: Bluetooth, sound is significantly degraded, serious are drafts, high-sounding (if we want to resolve the matter with a very poor equalizer from Google play, we détimbre food source and dynamics), the Highs are imprecise and synthetic, distortion is heard quickly. This is not the soundlink is at issue but the transmission encoding technology and it is valid for all portable speakers I tried.
In connection with the quality of the cable to the phone, everything is in order. The bass is clear and normal. Acute spectrum loses its metallic side and becomes particularly natural, soft and precise. Finally, the distortion is down sharply. The difference is important for me.
Ditto connection on a laptop computer with an integrated sound card rotten: sounding bass, treble back. With a quality external USB soundcard (found at 25 euros as a basic Behringer UCA222) and everything changes again, to another world, that of a certain rediscovered audio linearity.
The problem of an audio system that covers a large part of the spectrum as soundlinkmini is that it highlights the shortcomings of the audio source.
Of course, this is not a high-fidelity system, even less audiophile, it does not claim it.
I had a big negative prejudice with Bose. As a musician and being accustomed Listens studio quality, very linear, Bose sound with its ultra dug medium which is his signature sound, was for me the antimusic.
Listening and trying to put my assumptions aside (I almost listened to everything that is currently selling in France), it is clear that with this product, Bose began a cultural revolution and sound. It is the medium that impressed me at first, making me think of the footprint of a pregnant studio deemed the Genelec 8040, relatively speaking. A dense medium, full, accurate.
The acute, if it can not pretend to compete with quality hi-fi system (in expanded and the fineness) it is however very present in 16-18kh; it still reacts to these frequencies with a pro equalizer. This stuff goes so surprisingly high in the treble, although this spectrum is certainly reduced. This is an acute enough chased and never tiring, putting air into voice and giving a lot of precision in the audio message.
The grave, the famous grave: how Bose has he done to make this level in such a small thing. After the surprise, impressed, we find that in most cases, with a source and a quality audio link, the grave is in its place, but with a little bump to 300Hz.
If the source is of poor quality, it hums a little or a lot and an equalizer mitigates course the phenomenon. It is also easier to remove serious, than adding, when the broadcasting system does not know reproduce.
Finally, lay it flat on a table can bring it into resonance at low frequencies. Place it on its base using insulation waves and provides a more precise. For my part, I put on the sloping edge of the base to reduce vibration and direct broadcasting to me.
The stereo image however is very poor. But given the size of the thing and the distance between the two HP, one would have suspected (you can not have everything and its opposite).
The system is directive, no doubt, but not as much as I feared. By dislocating up to 45 °, it is still precision.
To watch a movie on a laptop, it is very convincing with a nice sound card. It's precise and full, always relative to the size of the ridiculous thing. The voices are, again, particularly intelligible and music stands well in the soundtrack.
The Bluetooth attachment is very reliable.
In conclusion, given the size of the thing, the audio performance is unexpected. For me it is more neutral than 3 soundlink that the more the sound of a good radio improved.
The finish is top, the quality of materials unrivaled in this range. See reliability over time.
It is a bit expensive, and there better audio for 3.5 or 10 times larger. You must type in the voluminous Onyx Harman Kardon 500 boulles (superb) to permanently crush the beast ... but this contraption is for me no competition in terms of audio / size value.
