In an age of enormous sound and unprecedented connectivity, leave it to a small mono speaker to be a low-cost leader in audio gear. The Soundfreaq Sound Spot, at just 1.12-pounds, is small and portable. It’s only 5-inches square, but the speaker pumps out more volume than you’d expect. But by far the most impressive specification is the price: For just under $70, it’s a good value in the small-speaker market. Sure, the sound quality is not anywhere near audiophile territory, this is one of the rare cheap Bluetooth speakers that does not suck.
The Sound Spot has a mid-century-inspired design that’s available in either all-black or in a wood case with a white grill. Behind that grill is one mono speaker. Connecting is quick and easy. You press and hold a Pair button on the Spot, then find the speaker in your phone’s list of visible Bluetooth devices. I had no problems pairing with an HTC One smartphone, an iPhone 5, and an iPad. There’s also a 3.5mm input for hard-wiring your sound connection. One unusual feature: There’s a 3.5mm Aux-out so you can connect the Sound Spot to your home stereo. In fact, at the under-$70 price, I could see daisy chaining two or more Sound Spots for portable stereo or surround sound. Soundfreaq only sent us one speaker, so we didn’t get a chance to try this trick, but the company says if you connect first by 3.5mm and then daisy chain, you’ll get stereo sound.
The speaker charges over microUSB, and you get about seven hours of use per charge — not bad, but not the best we’ve seen. Like Soundfreaq’s $100 Sound Kick before it, the Spot has a USB port that provides back-up battery power for your phone.
There are no extra frills here — no Wi-Fi connectivity for whole-house audio or streaming to multiple speakers; no apps to use that let you stream a radio station over the Internet. To change the tone of the speaker, there are tone control settings on the back. Predictably, with a small speaker, the tone changes don’t really improve the sound. But you can pump up the bass a bit if you’d like, or filter out the low end to hear more of the subtle sonic touches in the highs.
As I mentioned, the Sound Spot is designed for portability, so I wasn’t expecting the usual high-quality audio. I started with some HAIM, a three-sister band currently wearing the trendy art-pop crown of coolness. The album sounded pleasant enough, if lacking a bit in oomph. On the first single, “The Wire,” the speaker at least kept all the different parts of the music distinct, from the thudding bass to the intersecting call-and-response vocals.
At the same time, this is a $70 speaker, and there comes a point where you have to temper your expectations. When I played the techno-folk artist John Grant, the synth sounded fine and there was still a warmth to the vocals, but the acoustic guitar on the slower songs lacked a tonal richness you can hear pretty easily on larger, more powerful speakers. Also, it didn’t fare as well outside on a deck. When the wind kicked up, the Sound Spot wasn’t powerful enough to compete and it lost some sonic depth.
Overall, it’s a good value. If you can only fit one small listening device in a laptop bag for a road trip, there are a few products that make the grade — like Jawbone’s $180 Jambox, or the smaller of UE’s speakers, the $100 Mobile Boombox (now called the Mini Boom). Add the Sound Spot to that list. Its sound quality, while good enough, is not going to win any awards. But the $70 price point and the ability to use it as a back-up battery for charging your phone make up for these faults.
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