Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsWonderfully thought out. Durable, aesthetically flexible, functional. Oh...and it sounds very, very good!
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2016
Here's a super brief review for those without patience:
Wonderful sound quality and great but not overwhelming bass. Key word: Balance. Crystal clear high's, natural mid's, natural punchy lows that don't muddy the range. Could be a little louder, but by no means quiet. Sounds great from any point in a space. Truly room filling sound.
Very sturdy construction and protected from wraparound silicon, extremely customizable handle system. Simple and intuitive controls and functionality.
Libratone app is useful. Very glitchy but still usable, hopefully updates coming soon.
FULL REVIEW:
Sound:
PRO's-
The ONE shines in terms of clarity and balance. This is my favorite part and why I recommend it over any other of it's qualities. The separation, distinction, and articulation of the range is impressive. Very easy to hear all the instrument parts of a track without them competing and ruining each other. Vocals also sound quite natural (as does the speakerphone function). Drums sounds crisp. Acoustic guitars sparkle. Lossless classical music is represented well. In a noise free environment the accuracy is similar to a decent set of headphones.
Let's talk bass. In Amazon's description it states "..with deeper bass than other popular portable Bluetooth speakers on the market." I don't think that's true and I wouldn't want it to be.
Here's my observation: It is present and clear without being overwhelming or distracting. The word balance comes to mind again. And it will a lot in this review, because it's my overall impression of the sound quality. For those who want more bass, there are two ways to achieve this. The voicing settings in the Libratone app is one way. There are a variety of voices (EQ presets) to choose from and all serve their purpose. That being said, the speakers natural voicing is great without aid. Facing the rear of the unit a few inches away against a wall or other flat solid object will make make the bass and the entire speaker, really, louder. (From the air ejected by the radiator reflecting and amplifying against the wall). This is a common design in smaller speakers with varying success and in this case, it is successful.
Another excellent reason to consider the ONE is the way is fills a space with sound. Libratone's 360 degree room filling sound claim is true, not just a marketing tactic. Even not against a wall and pointed directly away from a listener, the sound is clear and full. Yes, it sounds the best back against a wall pointed directly at you. Like any other speaker. But the sound stage from any point in a room pretty uniform.
As for the outdoors, it works just fine. Haven't used it outside more than twice. Once in a park and once in a football/soccer field. It sounded really good and clear in a very open environment where sound doesn't reflect of of stuff. It was placed standing up in the grass. The deep feeling of the bass does get lost from 25-30 feet away as you can expect, but you can still hear it defined.
CON's
At it's lowest audible volumes in anything but the quietest of spaces, the bass is lost. Now, I am talking on the very lowest volume settings. Think an extremely quiet conversation but no whispering. If you need it this quiet, you'd likely be using headphones anyways. What I would like to see is a firmware update that increases just the subs output at these quieter volumes. In general, I would like to see a traditional EQ function in the app. A separate volume control for each driver would also be outstanding.
The other thing would have to be maximum volume. It is still a loud speaker, make no mistake. There are portable speakers of a similar size that in decibels, hit higher marks. BUUUT, they often lose a lot of clarity and quality of sound. My guess would be the sound engineers capped the volume at the point before it distorts. I'd like to see another firmware update that raises the maximum volume (so long as it doesn't blow out the speaker)
I did notice that using the Auxilary is louder than BT. This may just be my devices. Not a huge difference, but something to consider if you want the extra volume.
Battery:
Lives up to it's claim of 10-12 hours easily. At the time of writing this review, I haven't had it long, it's hard to say concretely. Playing for 5+ hours at medium volume shed just under 30% of it's charge.
Functions/Interface:
Really intuitive and simple. In a word: Scandinavian.
Press and hold the power button to turn it on. The Nightingale logo servers as the interface. It has a variety of uses like adjusting the volume, play/pause, answer a call when paired with a phone, BT pairing mode switch, etc. Tapping the power button indicates how much battery is left on the logo. The speakerphone function works really well. Very natural sounding conversation.
I haven't joint-paired it with another Libratone speaker because I only have one, but I am excited to try the feature when I run into someone else with one. I guess one of their strengths as a company is multi-room/multi-speaker interfacing.
The clip system is cool, useful, and customizable. It can be removed completely if you just want a speaker and would like to cut down on the footprint a hair. It also serves as protection and stands upright better with it on, so user beware.
Now, let's talk about the app. It is useful but slow and glitchy. You can do a lot with it when it's working and I'm sure it will get better with time. Potential is the key word here. Right now it does stupid stuff like takes at least 10 seconds to turn on. Or, when you enter the voicing menu, it only shows the one you're using but no choices (fix by restarting app).
One thing I really like is the firmware update over BT function. When I first opened the app and paired to the ONE, it asked me if I'd like to update the firmware. No need to hook it up to a computer and update that way. Took less than a minute, and I'm sure that varies by update.
