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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Tronsmart Mirtune S100 Bluetooth speaker is available now for $80 on Amazon.
- If you like your music really loud, this little speaker will impress.
- The minimal EQ options and narrow soundstage will not impress audiophiles.
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Allow me to paint a picture.
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The volume on my phone was set to around 50%, which is a pretty good level for testing speakers. I tapped play on “Analog Kid” by Rush and was punched in the face with a wall of sound.
I hadn’t expected such volume from a small speaker, but there it was. You’d have thought my phone was cranked to 11, and the band was right before me playing live.
I quickly grabbed my phone and turned down the volume to roughly 25%, but the speaker was still pretty loud. Next, I opened my decibel meter, cranked the volume back to 50%, and the meter read 86 decibels.
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According to Decibel Pro, “85 decibels is a high noise level on the decibel scale. It is 15 times more intense than the 70-decibel level considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safe for human hearing.”
So, yeah, it’s loud. I didn’t test the decibel reading with the phone at 100% volume because my cats would probably never forgive me.
Okay, enough with the decibels.
The specs
- 30W racetrack subwoofer (a type of subwoofer with a rectangular or oval shape, similar to a racetrack), dual-engineered 10 W tweeters, and 2.1 channel audio
- 50W sound
- 20 hours of playtime
- IPX7 waterproof
- Custom EQ via the Tronsmart app
- Retractable handle
- Built-in power bank to charge other devices
- Beat-driven lights
- Bass enhancement with SoundPulse
- Price – $99
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My experience
As I mentioned earlier, the Tronsmart Mirtune S100 speaker is loud. At the same time, it really does need the Tronsmart app to get the best sound. Out of the box, the sound is fairly hollow, with muddy lows and dull highs. Once I had the app connected to the speaker (which was surprisingly easy), I immediately went to the EQ tab and created a custom curve.
Unfortunately (as I’ve mentioned with other Tronsmart speakers), the EQ is limited to 5 bands, so you’re limited in how much you can adjust. Even so, with my usual curve (increased bass, lower mids, and increased highs), I was able to get some pretty decent sound from the S100.
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I tend to be fairly forgiving of Bluetooth speakers because, by design, they cannot compete with the sound produced by wired speakers. And when a speaker sells for less than $100, you already know what you’re getting into.
That being said, with only a 5-band EQ at the ready and the decibels the S100 can produce, this baby is a steal.