Anker Soundcore Movement X600
MSRP $200.00
“Good looks and great sound in a waterproof portable speaker.”
Average
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Elegant design
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top quality materials
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waterproof and floating
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expansive soundstage
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Tons of EQ control
Against
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Small battery capacity for its size
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Will not charge devices
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It is not robust enough for impacts.
The good folks at Anker Soundcore would probably like you to point out that the company’s new $200 portable Bluetooth speaker, the Motion X600, which you can buy starting May 6, has a full-range driver built right into the top for give it some kind of surround sound. audio sound, even when listening to normal stereo.
It’s ok, I’ll do it. Later.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
What I want to focus on first though is how good this thing looks. With the exception of the rubber membrane that covers the angular top surface (taking a break from that fancy add-on unit), the entire speaker appears to be made of metal. And some of it is: the handle is made of aluminum and the entire front grill is made of stainless steel. The back panel is plastic, but that doesn’t matter because all parts have the same smooth finish that looks like anodized aluminum with rounded edges that blend seamlessly into each other. If a MacBook Air and a mini ghetto blaster from the ’80s had a glorious night together, the Motion X600 would be its offspring.
And like the MacBook Air, it comes in several colors: Polar Gray (seen here), Aurora Green, and Lunar Blue.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
One downside to such a sleek package is that the X600 won’t be as shock resistant as many of its portable competitors. Metal and aluminum parts will scratch and dent if you are not careful. Fortunately, the grippy rubber feet will protect it from most accidental moves.
Despite being very thin at only 3.25 inches deep, all that metal (and the internal battery) gives the speaker a lot of weight. It weighs 4.2 pounds, which gives it a nice solid, high-quality feel. You might think the combination of its weight and almost all-metal construction would make the X600 a poor candidate for poolside fun, but surprisingly, it’s waterproof to IPX7 and actually floats (although upside down, so don’t expect to hear much of their tunes other than the gurgling bass).
Did I try to drown him? Yes I am. In the sink. Hey, it’s still winter here in Canada, don’t judge.
The X600 played throughout and shrugged it out of the water like a champ. Note that its IPX rating covers immersion in water, but does not offer protection against dust. So, pools yes, beaches no.
All controls are protected by a rubberized membrane, and Soundcore keeps things simple: power, Bluetooth pairing, play/pause (which also allows you to skip tracks), volume up/down, and two sound mode buttons for “BassUp” (bass boost) and surround sound. With a white print against a dark background, they’re easy to see in most lighting conditions, but they’re also backlit when the speaker is on, a really nice touch you don’t see on many portable devices. It takes some pressure to get them to click, though it seems like a reasonable trade-off for a waterproof speaker. There’s a slight lag when using the playback controls: pressing the play/pause button can take up to 2.5 seconds to respond, which is a bit annoying, but not a deal breaker.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
On the back, you’ll find a set of protected ports: one for charging (USB-C) and one for external analog audio sources (3.5mm). The Soundcore includes a USB-A-to-C charging cable, although it’s not an actual charger, and a 3.5mm cable.
Inside that sleek casing is a five-driver array. There’s one you can see (the best full-range “sky” driver, as Soundcore calls it) and four you can’t see: two tweeters and two woofers behind the main grill. They are amplified by three discrete amplifiers. Each stereo channel (tweeter and woofer) powers a 20W amplifier, and a 10W amplifier powers the sky driver, for a total of 50W. That might not be enough to power the big partygoers at the backyard, but it’s still impressively loud for its size. , almost without distortion. Inside, in the kitchen or in the living room, you will not need anything else.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
When it comes to audio, the Motion X600 can be a bit of a rogue beast. Between out-of-the-box tuning, a bass boost feature, surround mode, and plenty of EQ range in the Soundcore app, this Bluetooth speaker can go from a little thin and harsh to satisfyingly resonant and full-range. . It all depends on how you use it.
In standard stereo mode and without Bass Boost enabled (which is how the speaker ships), the X600 can be overwhelming. Apparently, all the emphasis is shifted to the treble, the bass seems empty, and the mids are looking for air. The top-firing driver, which is supposed to be a full-range unit, sounds muffled, without weight. The four EQ presets in the Soundcore app (Signature, Voice, Treble Boost, and Balanced) only allow for slight adjustments, and I’ll admit to being very confused by the shape of the so-called Balanced setting: it doesn’t. It seems very balanced to me.
Perhaps Soundcore did this on purpose to give you a “wow” moment when you turn on bass boost and surround mode. In an instant, the X600 comes to life in spectacular fashion, turning from lamb to lion. Enabling these two features improves almost every aspect, from dynamic range to previously lacking midrange presence, to the soundstage, which is expanded considerably. The previously irritatingly harsh highs are much better balanced, as the top unit is able to reproduce its full frequency range.
Calling it “spacious” might be a bit of an exaggeration. It doesn’t support surround sound formats like Dolby Atmos Music, and it doesn’t sound as truly 3D as a Dolby Atmos-compatible speaker like the Amazon Echo Studio, Apple HomePod, or Sonos Era 300, but it’s more impressive than a standard stereo. laptop.
If you place it a few feet away and sit roughly in the middle, you can hear the effect created by Soundcore’s added processing, with elements of the song actually sounding like they’re coming from well beyond the footprint of the speaker. . After switching back and forth a few times to remind myself of the difference, I left the X600 with both features enabled and never looked back.
If you find these modes overemphasize some frequencies and don’t mind fiddling with custom EQ settings, the app’s highly adjustable nine-point EQ can be adjusted by a whopping ±8dB over a wide range of selectable frequencies from 48Hz to 20kHz. It’s honestly overkill for a speaker like the X600, but it does give you a huge amount of control.
Want an even bigger sound? You can take two Motion X600 speakers and create a stereo pair via Bluetooth.
A quick look at some of the brands you can see using Soundcore both on the X600 itself and on the product page on Amazon. My review unit came with a badge on the left side that says “Lossless Audio,” but this one did. No lossless wireless speaker
Lossless refers to two things: a song that has been digitally encoded in such a way that the original recording information is not lost, and streaming Bluetooth codecs that promise the same thing when played wirelessly from your phone. For the X600, the former doesn’t apply; it doesn’t actually encode or play lossless digital audio directly, and the latter doesn’t apply either. It is indeed a certified Hi-Res wireless speaker, thanks to support for the LDAC Bluetooth codec (currently only available on Android devices), but LDAC is still a lossy codec, not lossless.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Does any of that matter? Probably not. In this case, it simply means that the X600 won’t sacrifice as much quality for Bluetooth as speakers that only support smaller codecs, like SBC and AAC. Still, LDAC is a bit of a rogue beast in its own right, and unless the speakerphone and your phone are in close proximity (say, three feet or less), you’re unlikely to get the most out of your 24-bit/96kHz. ability. What if you’re just streaming Spotify? You won’t even notice.
Soundcore says the Motion X600 will give you around 12 hours of playback on a single charge, but note that this is based on playing around 50% volume, with bass boost and surround sound options turned off. Play louder with those features enabled and that number drops precipitously, down to five hours. For a portable Bluetooth speaker of this size, that’s a very bad thing. You’ll find several models that can get closer to 20 hours, including the Marshall Emberton II, Marshall Middleton, and Sony SRS-XG300.
The Soundcore Motion X600 might not be packed with features like speakerphone capability, power bank charging, or a party mode for connecting multiple speakers, but its sleek, mostly metal design makes it an option. unusually attractive, while its integrated handle and excellent water protection provide just the kind of utility you need from a portable speaker. Once you turn the sound on, it’s an awesome little boombox.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn