Portable Bluetooth speakers are ten a penny these days.
Great quality portable Bluetooth speakers are harder to find.
Bang & Olufsen has a range of products that purport to fit the description.
But do they reach the high quality mark?
One example is the Beoplay P6 – a compact, powerful and portable speaker capable of pumping out tunes in rich tones.
The Cecille Manz design is simple but elegant - a rectangular shape aluminium case with rounded edges, a grill front and back, with the control buttons on top and a leather strap on the side for carrying.
It also has an integrated microphone so you can take calls and access voice assistant, and the device is IP54 rated making it dust and splash proof for outside use.
It comes in two colours, black and silver.
The pairing process is easy enough. You don’t need to download the Beoplay app to make it work, even though the in-box instructions suggest you should.
Just turn the speaker on, press and hold the Bluetooth button on the speaker for two seconds until the light comes on and you hear a sound, look for it in the list of Bluetooth devices on your phone, select and pair.
That’s enough to get you sound and you can then control the volume from the unit itself.
But if you want to control more you need the app. It enables you to programme the OneTouch button – a button on the device which can be customised to do a number of different jobs.
These include instant play, pause and resume, as well as taking calls and activating Apple Siri or Google Assistant.
You can also use the app to choose and change different sound profiles through the ToneTouch function.
If you have two P6s (you’d want deep pockets) you can position them in different parts of a room and then pair them so that the same music is coming out of both and produces a more surround sound-like effect.
The sound produced by the two 1.5" full range speakers and single 4" woofer is strong, clear and rich, and when fully cranked up it is loud too.
The speaker claims a battery life of up to 16 hours of listening at moderate volume level and to recharge it you plug it into your computer with the USB-C connector.
At €399 the Beoplay P6 is expensive for what it is. You are paying for the name, premium design and slick app.
But you don’t get multi-room functionality for that, even though other cheaper competitors like the Sonos One for example, do offer it.
So if brand and design, coupled with rich sound and great build quality are important to you, and you have the cash, then the Beoplay P6 may be for you.
But if you are looking for greater functionality or a lower price, maybe look elsewhere.
Comments welcome via Twitter to @willgoodbody
