VAVA Voom 20 Bluetooth speaker

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Outstandingly good

This is a bit of class.  I was sent it for review; I test a lot of speakers and the VAVA Voom 20 is quite outstanding in this price range.

The speaker comes beautifully packaged (see the video), marking it as a product made with real care.  The speaker itself is splash-proof and very well made. It is neat and stylish with elegant push-panel controls on the top and a well sealed input/output panel at the back.  Here you can connect an AUX jack (supplied) to non-Bluetooth devices, a micro-USB lead (also supplied) to charge the speaker, and there's also a USB port which acts as a power bank to charge a phone or similar.

It all works very well.  Bluetooth pairing is simple both conventionally and via NFC and the signal is very solid up to at least 8 metres. You can connect to two Bluetooth devices at once of you want to.  Battery life is good; I haven't run it to exhaustion but the advertised 10 hours sounds quite reasonable to me.

The controls work well for both music and hands-free calls – but unusually, there's no skip forward or back control on the speaker.  This isn’t a problem for me, but some people might like to know.

It's the sound quality which makes the Voom20 really special.  The top and middles are very crisp and well-articulated, and the bass is superb from such a small unit.    Classical music sounds rich and full, with cellos ringing beautifully and orchestral music articulated with real crispness. Rock is fantastic, and even the deep sub-bass in London Grammar's Hey Now comes through beautifully.  I've played a lot of music through this speaker, from 16th century choral music to modern, high-production rocky stuff, and everything sounds great: Nigel North's lute, Eric Clapton's guitar, Rachel Podger's violin, Danny Thompson's bass, full orchestras, Wolf Alice, a string quartet and the voices of Emma Kirkby, Roger Daltrey, Leonard Cohen, Thea Gilmore, The Tallis Scholars…and so on.  I really have put this through its paces and I haven't found a weakness.

The only speaker I know which is in the same class as this is the ADX Pulse V4.  I think I still prefer the Pulse whose bass is quite astonishingly good, but the Voom 20 runs it very close – and is better for outdoor use because it's splashproof.  I've had full sized stereos which haven't sounded as good as this and if you want a classy speaker with excellent sound and very good build quality I can recommend this warmly.