INTRODUCTION
If you've happened to own a set of floor standing speakers or a set of good bookshelf ones and you also own a compact portable wireless speaker then you obviously know exactly just how different these are not only in terms of size but also in regard to audio quality/clarity and available power/volume. However since you can't carry floor standing and bookshelf speakers with you everywhere you go noone can really deny the many benefits of owning a good portable speaker. Unfortunately portable wireless speakers may never be able to compete their wired counterparts in terms of available volume but over the years many companies have done their best to come as close as possible in audio quality and clarity with surprisingly good results (always for such compact speakers). One such company is Allocacoc with their brand new audioCube Portable WOOD Edition.
Allocacoc was founded by Yixia Jiang and Arthur Limpens, two industrial design engineers from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Since its inception, Allocacoc focuses on setting a different standard. Such a standard is not limited to a country’s borders, so we had a strong international focus already from the beginning. In fact, our first order did not even come from the Netherlands, but from Germany. Eventually we want to get at least one of our products into every household worldwide, from the richest household in NYC to the most remote one in Malawi. A different standard does not stop at just our products. It bleeds into everything we do.
Unlike most portable wireless speakers in the market today the audioCube Portable WOOD Edition by Allocacoc doesn't feature just two speakers faced towards one of the sides (directional) but four that can deliver unique 360 degrees audio (omnidirectional). The reason i say can is because the audioCube can be placed anyway you want so you can either have all 4 speakers blasting on all sides or have 3 facing front, rear and upwards and the 4th downwards thus using the surface you place the speaker on to amplify bass. Each of those 4 speakers/drivers is 52mm in diameter and features a frequency response of 40Hz-20KHz with 8 Ohm impedance and a signal to noise ratio of 90dB. To further improve bass levels Allocacoc placed a vibrating membrane (plane) on one of the sides which also doubles as the on/off power button. Other features include a wooden enclosure, Bluetooth v4.0 connectivity, wired 3.5mm connectivity, play/pause and volume up/volume down/previous song/next song controls and a 1600mAh (@12.6V) rechargeable battery pack which can provide the speaker with enough juice for up to 12 hours of music playback. So how does it perform?
SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS
The speaker gets shipped inside a small box that has a somewhat clear section at the top from where you can see part of the speaker itself.
The left side of the box is dedicated to the wired capabilities of the audioCube.
Another product picture is placed on the right side.
A few words about the audioCube are printed at the rear of the box in 7 languages.
Contained inside the box is the audioCube, IEC type C charging cable and a 3.5mm audio cable (both cables are 1 meter in length).
THE AUDIOCUBE PORTABLE WOOD
All sides of the audioCube Portable Wood measure 110mm and aside wood (our sample) its enclosure is also available in polished plastic.
To get a better idea about the size of the audioCube Portable Wood we placed it right next to the massive Jabra Solemate Max and the Boom by Ultimate Ears.
The audio controls along with the Bluetooth pairing button are all placed at the front of the enclosure (their position depends on how you choose to use its speakers).
Each of the speakers is 52mm in diameter and their cones are made out of polypropylene.
As mentioned earlier the on/off power button is placed behind a vibrating membrane/plane so it also slightly adds to bass (the hole on the upper right corner is the 3.5mm AUX input).
On one of the sides we see the IEC power port (first time i see that in a portable speaker) which also includes a fuse (for protection while charging).
CONCLUSION
The first time we heard of Allocacoc was just a couple of years ago when they introduced their PowerCube line of multiple electrical socket adapters so i was quite surprised to see that they had since moved on to the manufacturer of not only several other electrical socket related solutions but also speakers. Now about the audioCube things are actually very clear and so we’re talking about a quality portable wireless speaker with very good audio coverage due to its 4 speakers, good bass levels and surprisingly good audio quality and clarity. Unfortunately in terms of volume we were not impressed but at the end of the day even the Jabra Solemate Max which is one of the largest portable speakers out there just didn’t output the volume we were expecting because of its size. As for the rechargeable battery pack Allocacoc claims it can last up to 12 hours but as usual we couldn’t hit that number (companies mostly test batteries with the volume set at 50% and not almost at max like we do). Instead we recorded slightly over 8 hours which is not bad at all for such a small speaker. I really don’t know if it’s worth mentioning but when you turn the speaker off Allocacoc has used the same sound as the alarm of some cars something which we found really funny.
Placing 4 drivers on a portable wireless speaker is not something many manufacturers do and one of the obvious reasons is cost. Because of that the audioCube Portable WOOD Edition although not really expensive still with a current price set at around USD110 inside the USA and 100Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) it may not exactly be what some people will consider as affordable. That being said the audioCube Portable WOOD is a high quality portable speaker with very good audio quality, good bass and surprisingly good battery life and although there’s always room for improvement it’s well worth our Golden Award.
PROS
- Build Quality
- 4 Speakers (360 Degrees Audio)
- Design - Audio Clarity
- Bass Levels
- Bluetooth v4 & 3.5mm AUX Inputs
- Battery Life (Up To 12 Hours)
CONS
- Volume Levels
- Price (For Some)