- The SoundUp battery-powered Bluetooth amp is launching on Kickstarter
- 100W of mono class D amplification, and two can work in a pair
- 40 hours of playback on battery, 1kg (2.2 lbs) weight
What’s extra handy than taking one of many best Bluetooth speakers to the seaside? Taking some heavy analog audio system, speaker wire and a battery-powered amplifier to the seaside. Er…
It isn’t one of the best pitch I’ve ever pitched, I am going to admit. However the SoundUp moveable amp is a intelligent little factor, albeit one with a really particular area of interest. It is designed to take passive stereo speakers, energy them and add Bluetooth streaming to them, and all with out requiring an influence socket.
This isn’t the first device to stream to analog speakers, of course: the likes of Bluesound, Elipson and WiiM have made compact Bluetooth and Wi-Fi amps that’ll happily bring streaming audio to passive speakers.
But to the best of my knowledge, this is the first battery-powered Bluetooth option, and it’s also considerably more affordable than more advanced amps. Where the do-everything Bluesound Powernode Edge is $749 / £599, the SoundUp is simpler and on Kickstarter with an early bird price of $159 (about £118 / AU$240 before tax and shipping).
SoundUp portable Bluetooth amp: key features
The SoundUp is a more modest device than Bluesound’s one, so you don’t get features such as Apple AirPlay. However you do get Bluetooth 5.1 and a wired aux enter going into 100W of Class D amplification, which is fairly spectacular.
Nevertheless, this output is in mono – you may pair two SoundUps for stereo, which nonetheless is not a foul worth. In the event you run it on battery, the promise is as much as 40 hours of playback time (I assume this drops a bunch if you happen to attempt to energy a multi-driver floorstander), although it may additionally run on wired energy over USB-C.
The SoundUp helps audio system with impedance of three to eight ohms, peaking at 100W into 3 ohms and “nearer to 90W peak with 4-8Ω”.
The gross sales pitch right here is that the SoundUp allows you to reap the benefits of previous audio system, audio system that “have been high-end of their day, constructed with actual wooden, high quality drivers and tuned acoustics that low cost fashionable Bluetooth containers cannot match. At this time, you may choose them up second hand for a fraction of their worth.”
And that is completely true: there are some actually beautiful audio system going for a music on locations resembling Fb Market. Though I would not say that almost all of them are notably moveable, particularly those with actual wooden and tuned acoustics, so while you crew them up with the 1kg (35oz) SoundUp that is quite a bit to lug round.
In order a lot as I like the oddness of the amp, I am not going to be ordering one for me, although maybe some folks will love the thought of their speaker location being free from the tyranny of energy outlet placement.
Nonetheless, the Kickstarter has raised tons extra money than its preliminary funding objective so it is clear that there is demand for this quite uncommon amp. Yow will discover out extra here, on the official Kickstarter page.
The perfect Bluetooth audio system for all budgets
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