Rating: 5/5
Review:
Phenomenal sound and excellent build quality
The Pulse V4 is outstandingly good. I have had a Pulse V2 for year or so; I have used it pretty well every day and I think it is fantastic. I was delighted when ADX sent me the V4 for review: it is if anything even better. The style and functions have been improved and the sound is superb
The Pulse is far and away the best compact unit I have tried. It is beautifully packaged and very well made, with a very robust aluminium casing and a solid, durable feel - it will last you for years. In the box you also get very good quality AUX and micro-USB leads, a nice velvet carry-bag and a decent manual. The speaker itself is attractively designed and quite small at 19cm(L) x 7.5cm(H) x 8cm(D) (7.5" x 3" x 3.5"). It is fairly weighty at 750g but still readily transportable. The controls are easy to access and use: on the front are capacitative touch buttons with the usual skip forward and back, volume up and down and pause/play which is also used to accept and terminate phone call. On the back are the on/off switch, USB charging input and AUX socket to connect to non-Bluetooth devices.
It all works very well, with Bluetooth pairing being simple both conventionally and via NFC and the signal is very solid up to well over 10 metres. Battery life is excellent; I haven't run it to exhaustion but the advertised 20 hours sounds quite reasonable to me.
What really makes this speaker really stand out is the sound quality, which is quite exceptional. (Placing the Pulse in a corner gives best results.) The top and middles are very crisp and well-articulated, and the bass resonators at each end give an amazing depth and richness to the sound. I said of the Pulse V2 that it genuinely sounds better than some full-sized stereo systems I have owned, and that's even more true of the V4. The articulation is crystal clear, tops are very bright but not piercing, middles are full and the bass is astonishing from such a small unit, thanks to the bass radiators on the ends. Classical music sounds rich and incredibly full, with cellos ringing beautifully and even orchestral music articulated with an amazing crispness. Rock is fantastic, and even the deep sub-bass in London Grammar's Hey Now comes rolling out 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 manual says that the Pulse requires 50 hours of use to reach optimum performance, by the way. I don't know about 50 hours, but the sound certainly improves markedly with a few hours playing so make sure you break it in thoroughly. It's worth the wait. I don't mean to gush, but it really is very good indeed.
As with its predecessor, for its size and price this unit is simply brilliant. If you want a high-quality, compact portable speaker and really care about sound, don't hesitate. All the five-star reviews here are completely justified; this is quite outstanding.
(I didn't believe that the sound could improve still further, but after using this continually for a month or so with great pleasure. but it did. The richness of the overall sound, the clarity of the treble and above all the sheer depth and firmness of the bass is quite outstanding I think. Even my wife, who is very discerning when it comes to sound quality, said the other day, "That's very good sound from such a tiny thing." Believe me, that is very high praise indeed.
ADX's statement that it requires 50 hours playing to reach optimum performance looks as though it's right, in spite of my initial scepticism. It's a brilliant speaker. Absolutely brilliant.)
Amazon page HERE
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