Benjamin Levicek Whether you are traveling in a car, relaxing at home, or having a party with your friends, music naturally belongs to these situations. For example, when you travel, you often play your favorite songs in your headphones - we have already covered the selection of the right ones in our magazine in the past they dedicated. In today's article, we will show you how to choose (not only) a wireless speaker.
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On the go or for listening at home?
One of the most important factors is whether you will use the speaker primarily outside and on the go, or in home conditions. The biggest advantage of portable speakers is that they don't take up much space and can be used on almost any occasion. In the vast majority of cases, you can connect them to devices via Bluetooth, and last but not least, they tend to have solid battery life. Of course, portability depends on the volume and the resulting sound quality - so you can't expect that you will get the same quality of performance from a smaller speaker for 5 CZK as from a speaker system for the same price. The home system is especially suitable for listening in one specific place when you do not expect to carry it anywhere. On the other hand, you will notice a significant difference in the quality of the sound. Another category that is important to many users is "party speakers". These are devices that are not as easily portable as small speakers, but at the same time they can be transported relatively easily, and they also have a solid battery. With these speakers, emphasis is often placed on the bass component, which is understandable given the purposes, but for higher amounts you can get a relatively high-quality general performance.
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Power and frequency range
Power is given in watts, with the higher the number, the louder the speaker or system. However, be aware that the resulting sound can be significantly distorted when the volume is increased. When sounding a small room, practically any smaller speaker is usually enough, but if you play music at a smaller party outside with friends, I recommend focusing on a power of 20 W or more. For concerts, larger discotheques or public squares, I would definitely reach for speakers with even higher performance. As for the frequency range, it is given in Hz and kHz, with the higher the number, the higher the indicated band. So if the given product has a range from 50 Hz to 20 kHz, the 50 Hz band is bass, and the 20 kHz band is treble. The bigger the range, the better.
Connectivity
Portable speakers usually use Bluetooth, but sometimes you can also find a 3,5 mm jack here. However, when it comes to the transmission of sound using Bluetooth, sometimes distortion and deterioration of quality unfortunately occur. You usually don't recognize it when listening to recordings from Spotify or Apple Music, but you will hear the difference with the higher quality ones, and it is quite significant. The biggest problem in transmission is caused by the currently used codecs, according to which you have to decide when choosing Bluetooth speakers. However, I wrote about them in detail in the article about headphones. Probably the most reliable connection is via a 3,5 mm jack, but Wi-Fi is also quite used and non-distorting. This is usually not the case with small speakers, but if you want to enjoy listening at home without having to have a device connected by wire, Wi-Fi is the ideal solution. Many speakers that have a Wi-Fi connection can also autonomously play music from streaming services such as Tidal, as well as the aforementioned Spotify.
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Playback location
As we mentioned above, an extremely important factor when choosing speakers is whether you need to sound an indoor or outdoor space, i.e. whether you are listening to music at home, out with friends, or hosting a disco. In the case of listening at home, it is mainly about the sound performance, at larger outdoor events it is mainly about the volume. Of course, this does not mean that the sound performance does not play a role here, quite the contrary. Anyway, for concerts of larger bands, for example, it is of course necessary to purchase a speaker system and a mixing console, on which you can fine-tune the sound of individual instruments. In the case of playing at discos, you often don't need a speaker, but a speaker with an equalizer will come in handy.
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The editor of Jablíčkář should not forget HomePod and its specifics, or devices similar to it. Otherwise, it's just an article that could have been anywhere else.