Another push for bass, but this time as a speaker, as Australia’s BlueAnt looks to compact sound to go in the X3i.
Your phone can be quite loud, and you really only need to turn up the volume to see the levels it can reach, but there’s typically a limit. That limit mightn’t be enough if you’re heading out and want a backing track, whether it’s for a picnic or an impromptu party.
While there’s no shortage of speakers that can help in that way, Australians have yet another on the way as a local brand looks to a compact canister to pack in volume and bass.
It’s the latest speaker from Aussie headphone and speaker manufacturer BlueAnt, taking what worked in the X3 launched three years ago and applying some tweaks, including improvements to the sound and a firmer base to stand it up on.
The result is still a can of sound, but one designed to cover more bass, taking advantage of both BlueAnt’s patented psycho-acoustic bass trickery and Grammy award-winning signal processing software from Waves to deliver solid sound in a compact size.
Much of this has been found in various speakers from BlueAnt over the years, with the brain-tricking psychoacoustic sounds also used in its XT100 Atmos soundbar, albeit to trick your brain into hearing several dimensions, not just a heightened bass.
In the X3i, BlueAnt has reportedly tweaked the dynamics of the speaker and improved high frequency sounds, all while keeping the hardware durable and IP67 water resistant. Two 57mm drivers sit inside the unit as does a 9600mAh battery that can be used as a power bank for recharging phones while working as a Bluetooth speaker.
Use it for both purposes — battery and speaker — and the battery life will lower more quickly, but BlueAnt suggests as much as 15 hours of sound are available from its X3i speaker, and it can be used for smart assistant integration with your phone and calls, too, thanks to a built-in mic.
“We’ve made a number of engineering and design tweaks under the hood that simply deliver the best audio experience for a speaker in this form factor and at this price point,” said Taisen Maddern, CEO of BlueAnt.
“What our customers are getting is a speaker which can be the feature speaker in any room or party, one that can be taken anywhere and everywhere, or one that can exist at home without standing out yet deliver the right level of audio for any setting or mood,” he said.
In Australia, that price point is under the $250 mark, with the X3i fetching $249 locally in Telstra shops and from BlueAnt’s website. It will apparently support two speakers paired together for stereo, though only from the same model, making the choice of two around $500 for folks who need two speakers to have a party.
