We’ve caught you checking out our promo Bluetooth speakers, and we think we know what you’re wondering: Can they actually be any good?
Ye of little faith, although, we understand. We also like our music to sound pure of note and free of tinniness. So we decided to find out for everyone involved whether our speakers sound as good as they look once we’ve added your logo. Admittedly, a high bar.
Methodologies
That’s right, we’ve got methods plural this time. We wanted to test three aspects of our speakers, which required four (yes, four) tests. For all our tests, we used “Summer” from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” – specifically, this version. Unless I say otherwise, whenever I say “the music,” I mean this. Alongside our promo speakers, we also tested a brand-name speaker, the JBL Flip 3.
Battery Life
We charged each speaker fully, then played the music on each one in turn at full volume until the speaker ran out of power. (Higher volumes require slightly more power than lower volumes, so we decided this would be the toughest test of battery power.)
Sound Quality
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1
We played the music in a soundproof* room, first at three clicks below full volume and then at full volume. We recorded the resulting frequency waves on a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analyzer. (I’ll explain that in a minute.)
*As soundproof as possible. -
2
We had three people do a blind test. (I was one of the testers: I’ll tell you which one at the end.) We sat together in a quiet but not soundproof room and listened to each speaker play the music, first at three clicks below full volume and then at full volume. We rated each speaker out of 10. The speakers were hidden so we couldn’t tell which one we were listening to – and no conferring allowed!
Loudness
At the same time as we recorded the speaker for the FFT analyzer, we used an app to test the average, maximum, and minimum decibels each speaker could hit at full volume.
What’s an FFT Analyzer?
The short version is that an FFT analyzer uses a formula (the Fast Fourier Transform) to represent a specific sound as a wave that shows all the frequencies that make up that sound, and how loud they each are.
(For a longer explanation, ask your friendly neighborhood mathematician, because mathematicians absolutely frickin’ L-O-V-E the Fast Fourier Transform. Or, if you don’t have one of those, you can watch this helpful video.)
Those of us who aren’t physicists usually think of frequencies as pitch. Higher pitched noises have higher frequencies. If you think about music specifically, different notes have different frequencies – again, the higher the frequency, the higher the pitch. In a piece of music, there’s not usually just one note (one frequency) playing at a time: the bassline is usually playing lower notes (lower frequencies) than the guitar and the singer, for example.
Bass notes have frequenciesare around 20Hz to 200Hz, mid-range notes frequencies (the kind humans tend to hear best) have frequenciesare from 200Hz to 4KHz, and high-pitched notes (trebles) everything above that is the trebles have frequencies above 4KHz. (Up to 20KHz, the upper limit of human hearing – although it’s pretty hard for most people to hear above 15KHz. In comparison, cats can hear from 48Hz to 85KHz. We should have got cats to test the speakers.)
When you listen to a song, you want to be able to hear what all the different instruments are doing. When we play the music for the FFT analyzer, it gives us a real-time snapshot of how loud or quiet each speaker plays those different frequencies. From this, we can see discrepancies: maybe the mid-range is smooth but the bass is too loud, for example. Since this is a bit nerdy and open to interpretation, we paired it with real reviews from humans too, to see if the FFT analyzer results would correlate with what humans hear.
Videos
Battery Life Test
FFT analyzer Test and Loudness Test
Key Takeaways
Our Testers Were All About That Bass
The general rule of FFT waves is the smoother the wave the higher the quality of the speaker, since this means you’re hearing every frequency at the same volume. However, in reality, our testers preferred speakers with loud bass and mid-range frequencies.
The top three promo speakers had some of the loudest bass and trebles, but not as loud as the mid-range notes. Promo speakers like the Hockey Puck Bluetooth Speaker (Q68677), which had a bass that was almost as loud as its mid-range frequencies, received lower ratings – although not as low as the speakers that were quiet at every frequency. The top-rated promo speakers also had relatively smooth waves in the bass frequencies, indicating that we tend to like our bass at an even volume over different frequencies. (We don’t want the very low notes to be louder or quieter than the slightly higher low notes, for example.)
However, the JBL Flip 3 broke most of those rules. Its bass wasn’t just loud, it was often louder than the mid-range. And unlike the top three promo speakers, the section of the FFT wave in the bass notes wasn’t smooth: it kept spiking around 100Hz. However, it did have a noticeably smoother wave across mid-range tones, which again are the ones we hear the best.
Despite that smooth mid-range, Tester A wasn’t a big fan, ranking it joint third while the other two Testers ranked it first, with Tester C even giving it a 10 out 10. Which just proves that the most important test of a speaker is whether you like the sound it makes.
Our Testers Didn’t Care As Much About Trebles
At the other end of the frequency range, our testers were much less picky about trebles. As long as it was loud (but not louder than the bass or mid-range) we didn’t care about how smooth or spiky it sounded. Our number one-rated promo speaker, the Whammo 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker (Q89993), consistently spiked in the treble range, around the 7.5KHz frequencies. Given its overall rating, that didn’t seem to bother the testers, probably because it’s hard to hear those frequencies unless you’re a cat.
We Agreed… More or Less
If you’ve ever tried to get three people to agree on what to eat for dinner, you might be surprised to learn that our scores were quite close overall. See, here they are:
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Wireless Mini Cylinder Speaker (Q64195)
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Cylinder Bluetooth Speaker (Q65461)
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Budget Wireless Speaker (Q68323)
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Woodgrain Wireless Charging Pad and Speaker (Q68344)
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Hockey Puck Bluetooth Speaker (Q68677)
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Blackwater Outdoor Bluetooth Speaker (Q73253)
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Whammo 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker (Q89993)
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Tumbler with Bluetooth Speaker (Q91931)
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Clip Clap 2 Bluetooth Speaker (Q92111)
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Stark 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker (Q94798)
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JBL Flip 3
Testers B and C both had average ratings of 5 out of 10, while slightly more generous Tester A had an average rating of 5.36 out of 10, making our collective average 5.12 out of 10.
We ranked almost every speaker within three points of each other, although two speakers had a four-point difference. We even managed to agree completely on one speaker (Cylinder Bluetooth Speaker (Q65461)) which we all rated at 6. This will become less surprising in about 15 seconds.
We Couldn’t Hear Much Difference Between Most of the Speakers
Despite being given 10 whole points to play with for every speaker, we repeated ratings a noticeable amount.
Tester A rated four speakers 6 out of 10 and three speakers 4 out of 10. Tester B also gave four speakers a 6, as well as two speakers 4, and two speakers 5. Tester C gave three 6 out of 10s and two 2 out of 10s.
- Tester A
- Tester B
- Tester C
From this, you may have already deduced that our absolute favorite rating was 6. Exactly one third of all our ratings was 6. That’s like if one of us had rated every speaker 6. All of which implies that we thought that most of the speakers sounded the same, i.e. better than average (since 6 out of 10 is higher than 5.12) but not excellent.
Your Bluetooth Speaker Buying Guide
Top Rated Promo Speakers
Worst Rated Promo Speakers
In the name of full transparency, we rated the JBL Flip 3 speaker highest, with an average of 8.33 out of 10. Our highest-rated promo speaker, the Whammo 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker (Q89993), had an average rating of 6.67 out of 10. It came top with Tester A (even above the brand-name speaker), joint second with Tester B, and joint fourth with Tester C. The worst performing speaker, Clip Clap 2 Bluetooth Speaker (Q92111), was rated on average just 2.33 out of 10. Testers A and B ranked it joint second-to-last and Tester C ranked it last.
The Loudest Promo Speaker
Whammo 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker (Q89993)
Our two loudest promo speakers both showed maximum decibel levels of nearly 85db. The Whammo 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker (Q89993) hit 84.7db, with an average of 76.3db, while the Blackwater Outdoor Bluetooth Speaker (Q73253) hit 83.1db, with an average of 72.9db. For reference, 85db is considered so loud that you need to limit how long you’re exposed to it. Police sirens are around 80db, power tools are around 90db, and the speaker someone is using to blast their music at the beach is 390db
The average, er, average decibel level our promo speakers achieved was 66.74db, and the average maximum level was 75.81db. Normal conversation is around 60db, so this is loud enough to drown out anyone asking you to please turn the music off. However, if you really want to send a message, brand is best. The JBL 3 Flip had an average decibel level of 92.9db and a frankly absurd maximum decibel level of 105.3db. That’s about as loud as a helicopter, so perfect for torturing anyone daring to relax within 900ft of you.
Anyone keeping score will have noticed that the three loudest speakers in our test (including the JBL Flip 3) were also the top highest-rated speakers. Our three lowest-rated speakers also had the quietest average and maximum decibel levels. The Clip Clap 2 Bluetooth Speaker (Q92111) hit a maximum of 71.5db – lower even than the top two speakers’ averages, let alone their maximums. So if in doubt, choose the loudest speakers!
The Best Battery
Stark 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker (Q94798)
The average battery life of our promo Bluetooth speakers was a frankly impressive 6 hours 34 minutes and 36 seconds. (That doesn’t include the JBL Flip 3 or the speaker that plugs into the mains, the Woodgrain Wireless Charging Pad and Speaker (Q68344).) That’s significantly longer than the JBL Flip 3, which lasted 5 hours 45 minutes. It’s about the length of seven albums – and the speaker with the best battery life well exceeded that.
The Stark 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker (Q94798) lasted 16 hours 14 minutes. That’s almost enough time to drive from Chicago to Colorado. It also received a close-to-average rating (it scored 5.33 out of 10, our average rating was 5.12) so you’re not compromising a lot on quality. And it managed that time while maintaining a maximum volume of 79.1db, our third-loudest in the test! The second longest battery life was around 10 hours, which is impressive, but would only get you to the middle of Nebraska.
The Bottom Line
Our promo speakers impressed us with their battery life and maximum decibel levels, although we weren’t as taken with their sound quality.
On average, our promo speakers can last on max volume for just over 6.5 hours – longer than the branded speaker. They can also get pretty loud, around 75dB, as you already know if you’ve dared to go outside in public in the last five years. The branded speaker got even louder than that, however, breaking 105db.
The quality of the sound is harder to pin down, but while our testers noted some differences in quality, we rated a lot of them kinda sorta the same – although the ones that got loud got higher ratings.
P.S. I was loud-bass-hating Tester A!
| Q# | Name | Image | Battery Life + Clip | Average & Maximum Loudness (dB) + Clip | Average Rating Out of 10 | View Product |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q65461 | Cylinder Bluetooth Speaker |
|
1:53:18 | Av: 67.2 Max: 74.8 | 6.00 | View Product |
| Q68323 | Budget Wireless Speaker |
|
1:40:05 | Av: 67.1 Max: 74.8 | 6.00 | View Product |
| Q68344 | Woodgrain Wireless Charging Pad and Speaker |
|
Plugs into mains | Av: 60.9 Max: 69.8 | 2.67 | View Product |
| Q68677 | Hockey Puck Bluetooth Speaker |
|
5:22:16 | Av: 65.1 Max: 74.3 | 4.00 | View Product |
| Q73253 | Blackwater Outdoor Bluetooth Speaker |
|
7:49:14 | Av: 72.9 Max: 83.1 | 6.33 | View Product |
| Q89993 | Whammo 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker |
|
7:28:00 | Av: 76.3 Max: 84.7 | 6.67 | View Product |
| Q91931 | Tumbler with Bluetooth Speaker |
|
7:28:25 | Av: 59.6 Max: 70.4 | 3.33 | View Product |
| Q92111 | Clip Clap 2 Bluetooth Speaker |
|
10:09:42 | Av: 60.3 Max: 71.5 | 2.33 | View Product |
| Q94798 | Stark 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker |
|
16:14:00 | Av: 71.2 Max: 79.1 | 5.33 | View Product |
| JBL Flip 3 |
|
5:06:12 | Av: 92.9 Max: 105.3 | 8.33 |
Natasha Lavender
Natasha is an experienced writer and editor who has covered topics including technology, health and safety, business, and pop culture. Her work has been published by Good Housekeeping magazine, Forbes, Success, and more.
