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Today we are taking a look at the Divoom Voombox, a rugged portable speaker built to deal with rough conditions outdoors. It is a stereo speaker with bluetooth functionality, allowing you to pair up a phone, PC or laptop and to play music wirelessly.
The Voombox is weather resistant with a chunky layer of rubber protecting it from knocks and falls. You will also supposedly get 12 hours of use out of it on a single charge, which should be enough to keep you going all day.
Speaker specifications:
- Weight: 700g.
- Output power: 7.5 W x2.
- Frequency response: 100-20,000Hz.
- Signal to noise ratio: >75Db.
- Playback time: up to 12 hours.
- Battery capacity: 3200 mAh.
- Battery charge time: up to 4 hours.
The Divoom Voombox ships in a hard plastic case with a card sleeve wrapped around, listing speaker specifications and key features, such as battery life, Bluetooth and weather resistance.
Once you take off the card sleeve, the box splits in to two parts, one containing the necessary cables and manual – the other holding the speaker.
In the box you will find the speaker itself, a USB charging cable, an audio cable, a wrist strap and a user manual. As you can see, the Voombox is indeed a rugged product. The rubber is thick and feels like it will protect well against drops.
On top of the speaker you will find all of the controls but unfortunately, there is no track skip option. This means you will need to have your playback device handy if you want to skip a song and are playing music wirelessly via Bluetooth.
On the side you will find the rubber flap protecting the USB and audio ports while on the other side you will find the attachment for the wrist rest. However, I do doubt that many people will actually want to strap this speaker to their wrist, it does have a bit of weight to it and is fairly bulky.
I will be putting the Divoom Voombox through its paces, checking sound quality, battery life, water resistance and wireless performance via Bluetooth.
The Voombox is extremely well-built and feels like a solid product which you would expect given the weight of the device. For the tests I shall be taking a look at Bluetooth range, battery life, charge time and of course, sound quality.
To kick things off, I listened to various genres of music and even a few podcasts through the Voombox for a few days. Overall sound quality is good, with plenty of bass packed in for such a small speaker. However, things do start to drift off at louder volumes.
At high volumes, the Voombox begins to distort a little in tracks with lots of bass and can't quite deliver a rich full sound, instead sounding quite harsh, particularly in the high-end. At normal listening volumes, the speaker can compete with the best in its size class but don't expect to fill the house with sound.
Vocals come through nice and clear and acoustic instruments produce detailed, warm sound. This speaker handles most genres of music very well, it is just a shame that quality starts to dip at higher volumes.
Battery life is important for any portable device and I am pleased to report that the Voombox holds its charge very well. I used the speaker for several hours at a time over the course of a week before needing to recharge. The only downside is that it takes about three hours to recharge from flat.
Using the speaker wirelessly, I was able to get around five to six meters away over Bluetooth, which isn't a bad range. Sound quality remained consistent and I did not experience any sound drop-outs over this distance.
While some Bluetooth speakers on the market are waterproof, like the recently reviewed UE MEGABOOM, the Voombox is merely ‘weather resistant', so we won't be dunking this speaker in a sink of water. Weather resistant means that it can withstand outdoor conditions but may not hold up if you abuse it over time. I wouldn't take this product in to the shower with me for example but you probably could get away with sitting it on some wet grass.
Overall, we are impressed with the Divoom Voombox – it is a solid product, well-built and delivers excellent sound quality for the size. While the speaker isn't too great at high volumes, we wouldn't expect a speaker in this size class to be used for a room filling experience.
At regular listening volumes, we have no complaints about the sound quality of the Voombox, it delivered a pleasant listening experience every time. That said, the sound can become a little distorted and sibilant at higher volumes, which is a little disappointing.
Bluetooth range is quite good, allowing you to take the speaker between 5 and 7 meters away from your playback device. However, the lack of skip track button on the speaker itself means that you will likely want to keep your playback device close by at all times. We did find the omission of a skip button annoying – hopefully this can be fixed in future product iterations.
Battery life should get you through most days. I was able to use it for a few hours at a time daily for nearly an entire week before having to recharge so I imagine this would work well for days out or even on a road trip. The downside is that it takes around three hours to re-charge again so you will need to plan ahead if you want to take the speaker out of the house.
The Divoom Voombox can be found on Amazon for £59.00, it is available in a wide variety of colors as well. We feel that this price is fair for the build quality alone. The Voombox couldn't power a house party but it is good enough for small gatherings and solo listening.
Pros:
- Good build quality.
- Decent sound quality at normal listening volumes.
- Long battery life.
Cons:
- Recharge time is a bit long.
- Sound becomes distorted at high volumes.
KitGuru Says: Everything considered I have no problems recommending the Divoom Voombox. If you are looking for a solid portable speaker and don't need to fill a room then the Voombox is worth considering.
