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Sound and battery: 20 portable Bluetooth speakers
Music on the move
Denon Envaya
If audio fidelity and the widest possible sound stage are key considerations, Denon's Envaya should be high on your list. It performs like the Beoplay A2 and Libratone Zipp, but at a significantly lower cost.
There's NFC pairing, aux input, and 10 hours of battery life, though no speakerphone. In a nod to customisation, Denon includes three additional fabric speaker grille inserts in the box so you can accent that white chassis with different colours.
This isn't a speaker for the great outdoors; its plastic case isn't as robust as some of the others here and there's no weather-proofing. What you do get, however, is a warm, beefy tone with plentiful – some might say too much – bass and good mid and trebles.
Rock track testing was a little shrill at the highest volumes, but that's bordering on being over-critical. And while the soundstage isn't huge, it is noticeably wider than the others on test. A definite contender.
More info Denon
Divoom Voombox
Like the Braven, Divoom's Voombox is designed for the great outdoors. Weather resistant to IPX4, its rubberised chassis and recessed speaker grilles ensure that it's as robust as any speaker on test.
I did, however, find that the rubberised control buttons in top were hard to press, requiring more pressure than is ideal. A speakerphone and NFC support mean its well-served in the features department, and the 12 hour battery life is better than most. Perhaps as you would expect from a speaker whose name is a play on 'boombox,' the Voombox does pretty well with frequencies at the lower end of the spectrum.
Further up, however, mids and trebles sound harsh, rock music was uncomfortable to listen to at anything approaching high volume, and in classical music tests the higher frequencies were over-emphasised. There was plenty of detail in acoustic songs, though guitar strings didn't sound as bright as on other speakers.
More info Divoom