Jam Titanium Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Speaker Review

1. Introduction2. Unboxing3. Jam Titanium Bluetooth Speaker4. Testing5. Final Thoughts6. View All Pages

When it comes to buying a wireless speaker to give your smartphone a little more oomph whilst playing music, many people merely look at the price and buy the most affordable one. However that is not going to do justice to the ever improving media quality that is available to consumers, so what can you buy that will, without breaking the bank?

Jam is hoping to show you just what, with its Titanium speaker. Priced at around the £50 mark, it occupies an important niche between the big boys and the entry-level speakers, but promises to deliver high quality sound, in a compact and unique looking package.

Features

• Bluetooth wireless support up to 10 metres.
• Offers up to five hours of playback.
• Precision driver for superior bass.
• Speakerphone allows you to move instantly between music and calls.
• Max output of two x 4.5w speakers with two active drivers and two passive radiators.
• Auxiliary 3.5mm input for connecting alternative devices.

The packaging for the Jam Titanium speaker is very simple: just a plastic surround with some basic information about the speaker and its various features.

It is clearly visible through the packet, so you know which coloured variant you are getting. In our case, we had the turquoise blue/green version.

There are no accessories with the Jam speaker, so since it charges from a standard micro-USB you will need to provide your own. However since that has become the standard for smartphone chargers, it seems likely that you will own one already if purchasing this particular speaker.

The Jam Titanium is a compact speaker at just over six inches in length and two and a half high. It has a metallic casing, which in this case is a dull turquoise. While certainly quite a unique shade, I do not find it very appealing and would personally prefer the black or grey versions which are also available – though that is a matter of taste rather than anything practical.

The front features a perforated grill made up of rounded corner rectangles, or straight-edged ovals (depending on your perspective on the world) with a secondary circular holed grill behind it.

The rear is just bare metal, while the top has a trio of rubber buttons for controlling the speaker and the ongoing music. There is volume up and down, but more notably a play/pause speakerphone function which not all speakers have. 

The two end panels are distinctly different. While one has the 3.5mm input port for auxiliary music playing from devices without Bluetooth support, a micro-USB connector for power and charging, and the power button itself, the other merely hosts an etched-in Jam logo.

The underside features a pair of low profile rubber feet to help hold the speaker in place and prevent it from scratching surfaces.
To test a speaker like the Jam Titanium, we put it through its paces listening to a variety of different musical and audio sources from various genres and with different speaking voices. Throughout we listen for audio quality across the frequency range, as well as testing its abilities to broadcast at distance and high volumes.

As much as there are various factors that go into making a great speaker, audio quality is far and beyond the most important, so we will begin there. The Jam Titanium is a very competent wireless bluetooth speaker. It has some solid bass, that is quite surprising for its size and price point, and the rest of the frequency range is well represented. If there was a weak point, it would be the mid-range, which feels a little light with some tracks, though fiddling with your device's EQ settings can aid this.

Of course while the bass is good for a speaker like this, it does only extend so far down the spectrum. Like almost all portable speakers, there is very little of the ultra-low, rumbly bass that can so characterise a high-end speaker system with a subwoofer. However the Titanium does at least try, and you get low enough that it will give you that chest-kicking bass; though this can result in slight crackling at high enough volumes.

As with a lot of capable speakers, the Jam Titanium is often as good as the music source you give it to deal with, so higher quality tracks are recommended, as when given something of high-fidelity to play with, the Titanium does a very good job.

Also available in blue

As for other aspects of its operation, its range is not bad, extending to about 25ft in our own tests when unimpeded. This was reduced to 18ft when used indoors with the odd closed door or wall in the way, but in either instance that is more than enough, since going beyond such ranges begins to reduce your ability to enjoy the music anyway.

One aspect of the Titanium I was a particular fan of, was it is ability to control the music being played. Not only did it have volume controls as many other speakers have, but it has a pause and play function, which can be invaluable in scenarios where reaching for your phone is not easy.

Better yet though, this wirelesss speaker also lets you skip backwards and forwards in a play list. This lets the speaker stay the centre of your music listening experience, rather than the device it's sourcing its tunes from.

That is only augmented further by the ability to take calls to the device. It acts as its own speaker phone and works well with the caller coming through clearly and your own voice being transmitted just the same to them. You can even hang up on them with the play/pause button if you want to. This was one of the more impressive additional features, since it worked better (in this respect) than the much more expensive Ultimate Ears products we have reviewed previously.

The Jam Titanium bluetooth speaker is a well priced, solid all round performer that is difficult to fault. It is not the best looking speaker out there (though the other colours do look nicer than this one in my opinion) but it makes up for that with its good sound quality, nice feature set and ability to take the control of the music playing experience away from the smartphone.

Yes the fact that it can “only” skip forward and back, play and pause does mean you will need to have the playlist set up in the first place, but this is more control than most portable speakers will give you. The same went for speakerphone calls, which when answered via your handset give you the ability to end them via the speaker if needed.

There are of course speakers out there that do more than the Jam Titanium. There are speakers that have their own apps, wireless updates, smart-bluetooth remote-on and higher audio quality, but they are invariably more expensive.

This bluetooth speaker comes with solid audio quality at the top and low-end and though it might be a little weak in the middle, it more than makes up for that with its feature set which even outstrips some much more expensive models. The only major down point for this reviewer was in the way it looks, but that is so much a matter of opinion that it barely counts as a negative.

All in all, the Jam Titanium speaker is a solid choice for anyone looking for an affordable bluetooth speaker that will deliver most of the features of much more expensive models, without breaking the bank.

The Jam Titanium is available straight from Jam Audio for £50.

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Pros

• Good audio quality through most of the frequency range.
• Good bass for its price.
• Decent volume.
• Able to control music with skip, play/pause functions.
• Speakerphone allows for clear calls through the speaker.
• Good price point.

Cons

• Bland looks.
• Can crackle with bass notes at high volumes.
• Lacks an app and remote-on feature.
• Range is a little restrictive.

KitGuru Says: The Jam Titanium is an impressively capable speaker for its price point, delivering strong audio and well designed controls in a compact package.

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