Portable Bluetooth speakers come in all shapes and sizes, from the very small right on up to cooler sized. There’s definitely no shortage of options to choose from, and it can be a daunting task to decide what Bluetooth speaker is for you. Our VAVA Voom review takes a look at a sleek looking portable Bluetooth speaker that also charges your smartphone or tablet when required. Read on to find out what we thought!
Specifications
The VAVA Voom Bluetooth portable speaker has the following specifications and features:
- Elegant oval shaped body and classic aluminum mesh that surrounds the internal speakers.
- 5 Speaker Drivers: 2 x 40mm for soprano + 1 x 70mm for subwoofer + 2 x 65mm passive radiators.
- Bluetooth 4.0 Technology. EDR with APTX lossless CD sound quality. Up to 33′ (10m) operating range.
- A2DP, AVRCP, HSP, HFP, and AAC Bluetooth profiles.
- Natural feel at every buttons’ press.
- Hands-free calling. Built-in omni-directional Mic with CVC 6.0 technology.
- 3 different EQ modes: Standard, Party, Surround Sound.
- AUX Port. Works with any non-Bluetooth devices too!
- Charges your smartphones or tablets while playing.
- 2 Charging ways: DC 15V (3 hours), Micro USB 5V (8 hours).
- NFC Technology for easy pairing.
- 10 Hours working time. Built-in 6700mAh rechargeable battery.
- Weight: 1.76lb (850g).
- Dimensions: 3.9 x 2.1 x 9.4in (10 x 5.4 x 24 cm).
What’s in the Box
The VAVA Voom speaker comes in a flat black box, with the design on the front and back in gloss black and the top button layout on the top of the box — also in gloss black — making the packaging look pretty sleek. Opening the lid, you’ll find the VAVA Voom speaker sitting in a nice padded foam base.
The box contains:
- 1 – VAVA Voom Bluetooth speaker
- 1 – USB to microUSB charging cable
- 1 – 3.5mm audio cable
- 1 – 15V DC power adapter
- 1 – Instruction manual
- 1 – “coupon” indicating that if you leave a review on any channel, VAVA will donate $1 to Music Unites charity
Before we begin, check out the promo video for the VAVA Voom Bluetooth portable speaker to get an idea about some of the features.
Design
The VAVA Voom Bluetooth portable speaker features a sleek and classy design that fits into pretty much any decor. When looking down from the top, the VAVA Voom sports an oval shape. The front and back feature black aluminum mesh which covers the actual speakers with no logo or anything else on the front side. Located centrally on the back near the bottom you’ll find the DC 15V, DC 5V microUSB, USB out, and AUX ports. The top of the speaker is a flat back with subtle glossy black buttons and features which include (from left to right) three light power indicator, power button, VAVA logo, Bluetooth button, call button, equalizer button, NFC logo, play/pause button, and the volume down and up buttons. The bottom of the speaker is rubberized with four rubber feet to elevate it a bit when sitting on a flat surface.
The design of the VAVA Voom is fantastic, and as mentioned before it looked quite nice no matter where I placed it in the house and tied in well with other electronics we have.
Ease of Use
The VAVA Voom speaker was very easy to use, and very intuitive. Hold the power button for two seconds to turn it on, one second to turn it off, and press it once to check your battery level. The three LED lights to the left of the power button indicate remaining power in 33% increments (0-33%, 34-66%, 67-100%) and are easily visible even though they are quite small. Bluetooth pairing was simple, just turn on the speaker and initiate the Bluetooth pairing from your device. In addition, you can pair two devices and switch between the two to stream music to the speaker. You can also remove paired devices by holding the Bluetooth button down for about 10 seconds until you hear a double beeping sound. You can also pair your phone using NFC by placing your NFC equipped smartphone over the NFC logo on the top of the speaker. For those devices without Bluetooth or NFC, you can use the included 3.5mm cable to enjoy your music from legacy devices.
The other buttons work as expected, allowing you to raise and lower the volume of the speaker, play/pause the current track, and answer, end, or reject incoming phone calls. The one thing the speaker is missing is the ability to go to the next or previous track. It’s not the end of the world but I personally find it nice to have this option on the speaker as well. This speaker also includes an equalizer with three modes (more on that in the next section), and toggling between them was easy enough with the EQ button.
I also mentioned a USB out port on the back of the speaker. This is a great feature as it allows you to charge your smartphone or tablet from the speaker, even while you’re streaming music. Although it only supplies 1A out, it is enough to keep your phone charged while you are streaming music, and is a handy feature to have.
Overall, the VAVA Voom is an easy speaker to use and, aside from the lack of being able to change tracks, worked flawlessly.
Sound
Out of the box, the VAVA Voom sounds pretty decent. The speaker uses Texas Instrument’s power amplifier chip, which is also used by JBL, Bose and Creative. The built-in DSP audio chipset by Nuvoton (also used by JBL) and the optimized circuit design tackles the poor audio performance issue coming with other small speakers, allowing VAVA to present a superior and stronger audio experience. In addition, the woofer uses special high-intensity PP cones, producing intact dynamic audio for strong and powerful bass.
After some minor adjustments to the equalizer settings on my phone in Google Play music, the sound quality and range in the VAVA Voom was really good and enjoyable across a wide range of genres. I found the best sound quality was achieved at about 75% volume or lower, anything higher was quite loud but was still still clear and crisp sounding.
As previously mentioned, the VAVA Voom features a built in equalizer with three modes: Standard, Party, and Surround. Standard is as it sounds, Party adds more emphasis on bass and higher volume, while Surround gives you a more full surround sound effect. With my phone equalizer turned off, I cycled through the on-board speaker equalizer settings, and definitely noticed a difference. Standard sounded o.k., while Party definitely got louder and more bass heavy — and it felt like it was pushing the speaker a bit, especially in the lower tonal ranges. Surround mode definitely applied more of a surround sound effect to what I was listening to, but to be honest I still found the best quality was achieved with Standard mode and the equalizer in Google Play Music. None of the modes sounded bad per se, and it’s a nice feature to have on a Bluetooth speaker that no doubt caters to different sound tastes.
Reception/Call Quality
As can be expected with most Bluetooth speakers featuring call functionality, reception and call quality was decent enough although when speaking on a call the closer you are to the speaker the better.
Battery Life
With a 6700mAh battery, VAVA claims up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. Our results varied greatly from 6 hours all the way up to about 10 and a half depending on our usage scenarios. On the low end, I was charging my phone from the speaker while streaming to it, so the lower battery life was of course expected. On the upper end, the speaker will last for a more than ample amount of time when listening to music at about 50% volume, which was plenty loud in the areas I was testing it.
The dual charging option is great as well, while charging with the DC 15V is quicker and takes about 3 hours, having a microUSB charging option is a plus — just be prepared to have to wait for about 8 hours for it to fully recharge over USB.
Price/Value
The VAVA Voom Bluetooth portable speaker has a list price of $299, and VAVA’s goal is to introduce new options to the current market which they say is filled with average sounding quality speakers and over-the-top price tags. I’m not sure I’d purchase the VAVA Voom at the $299 price tag, there are other comparable speakers for less and I feel that around a $200 price point would be a fair price and value for this speaker. On that note, it is currently on sale for $99 on Amazon and at that price it is a fantastic value and a no-brainer given the design, build, and sound quality.
UPDATE: I was informed by VAVA Media Relations that $99USD is going to be the new price for the VAVA Voom, and you definitely can’t pass it up for that.
Wrap-up
If you’re looking for a great looking, great sounding Bluetooth portable speaker, you can’t go wrong with the VAVA Voom speaker — especially given the current sale price point. It’ll be interesting to see what other products VAVA comes out with, and they’re off to a great start with the VAVA Voom.
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