ECHTPower BS-M15 Bluetooth/USB speaker

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Well made but with disappointing sound



I'm afraid I was rather disappointed with this speaker. The Echtpower speakers I have tested previously have been very good but although this is well made I found problems with the sound.

Do be aware that this speaker does not have an AUX input, so you can't connect it to the headphone socket of a non-Bluetooth device, nor does it have any instructions for making hands-free calls (It does have a microphone, so this is presumably possible, but it's not at all clear how hands-free calls are made.) This won't be a problem for many people, but if you want a clear hands-free calls function or rely on a jack-to-jack connection, this won't be for you.

The speaker is smart and solidly made with simple controls at either end and the whole thing has a well-made durable feel to it. Functionally it's excellent: Bluetooth connection is very simple both by NFC and conventional pairing and range is good with a solid signal up to at least 8 metres. The pause/play, skip forward and back and volume controls all work fine. USB connection was also very simple; I just plugged in, it was instantly recognised by Windows 10 and just worked.

However, the sound wasn't nearly as good as I'd hoped. I've played a lot of music through this, including my Test Playlist of music from 16th-century choral music to London Grammar, and although there was an improvement over the first few hours of use, it's still not brilliant. The bass is adequate but a bit weak and there's sometimes a slight hissy rattle on the treble. Volume is a bit limited, too, but the biggest problem was that in classical music there are sometimes very quiet passages or even pauses during which the speaker's volume spontaneously reduces to almost zero, cutting back in again when the music becomes louder which is incredibly annoying. It's never happened to me when listening to rock or other modern music so it may not be a problem for many people, but be aware of the issue.

It's a pity, because it could be a good unit and I hope ECHTPower put things right. For now, although this is a well made speaker from a very reputable maker, the sound problems I have had mean that I can't really recommend this.
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