Victrola Music Edition 2 review: Fill your small space with big sound - AppleInsider

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Victrola's caller Bluetooth talker makes a beardown showing, offering awesome dependable prime successful a tiny package, cleanable for hanging retired connected your table adjacent your Mac.

Victrola, known for its affordable modern turntables, has yet breached into the satellite of Bluetooth speakers. We're excited to cheque retired the Music Edition 2, a tabletop talker with ample artillery beingness and built-in wireless charging.

Victrola Music Edition 2 - Design

The Music Edition 2 boasts a modern plan that we consciousness would acceptable into astir homes. In addition, we liked however the geometric signifier connected the beforehand gives a spot of ocular involvement without feeling excessively gaudy.

The metallic exterior besides makes it consciousness much important than galore different portable speakers we've tried out. It has an IP67 rating, meaning that it's harmless to instrumentality it poolside oregon to the beach.

The geometric signifier adds ocular involvement to the beforehand and backmost of the speaker

The ME2 that we received is simply a sleek, matte black, but it besides comes successful silver.

In it for the agelong run

Victrola says that the Music Edition 2 tin get up to 20 hours of playtime earlier it needs to beryllium recharged. Nevertheless, we got conscionable astir 19 hours astatine 50% measurement earlier the talker unopen down. Close enough.

If played astatine a little volume, you whitethorn inactive beryllium capable to get the 20 hours advertised.

The talker charges via USB-C, and from empty, we recovered that it took a small implicit 4 and a fractional hours to complaint fully.

But the Victrola Music Edition 2 is much than a tabletop talker — it's besides a convenient Qi charging pad. We tested it with our iPhone and a bladed TPU case, and it worked with nary issues. However, erstwhile tested with a thicker case, it was hit-or-miss if we could get it to charge.

The Qi charging pad allows you to complaint your smartphone oregon Qi-compatible earbuds

Of course, utilizing it arsenic a charging pad volition drain its interior artillery faster, but it's inactive a bully diagnostic to have. We deliberation that this diagnostic makes it an fantabulous dorm country oregon workplace flat accessory.

Victrola Music Edition 2 - Sound prime and performance

The Victrola Music Edition 2 features Bluetooth 5.0, which makes it casual to brace with smartphones, tablets, computers, oregon different Bluetooth-enabled audio devices. We had nary contented connecting it to immoderate instrumentality we threw astatine it. It does not diagnostic AirPlay.

It besides has a line-in, which means you tin link it to a bequest instrumentality oregon escaped up a Bluetooth slot connected your Mac if you truthful choose.

It adjacent plays MP3s from USB-C flash drives, which is simply a useful instrumentality if you're going camping and don't privation to drain your telephone artillery playing music.

When it came clip to trial the sound, we were amazed by however afloat it sounded. It's got a astonishing magnitude of bass for a tabletop speaker.

The midrange besides sounded good, and we're pleased to study that the high-end is crisp and seems to clasp its ain nary substance the volume. There was nary distortion, adjacent astatine the highest volume.

We recovered that bass-heavy genres could get rather loud

Speaking of measurement it tin get amazingly loud. It averaged astir 78 decibels astatine maximum measurement from 3 feet distant during our testing, which seemed an due region for a desktop speaker. A fewer times, the talker could mean a small implicit 80 decibels, but this heavy depends connected what you're listening to.

This is simply a spot little than the HomePod mini and a batch little than the HomePod.

Because it's a azygous speaker, the soundstage isn't peculiarly robust. However, you tin brace 2 speakers unneurotic for existent stereo dependable astatine halfway betwixt what brace of HomePod mini oregon archetypal HomePods would cost.

Overall

The Victrola Music Edition 2 is an fantabulous enactment erstwhile abstraction is astatine a premium. You tin easy tuck it distant connected a desktop, a bookshelf, oregon a room counter. As we'd mentioned before, it would marque a fantastic talker for a dorm room, a workplace apartment, oregon a tiny talker for a location office.

The talker charges via USB-C, and besides features an audio-in larboard to link to bequest devices

While it's not going to regenerate a high-end, multi-speaker dependable strategy for audiophiles, for those who privation a tiny all-purpose talker with a fewer other benefits, the Music Edition 2 is simply a coagulated choice.

If you'd similar a smaller speaker, Victrola besides has the Music Edition 1, which is fractional the size of the ME2, has a 12-hour artillery life, and nary wireless charging capabilities, and costs $99.99.