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Soundfreaq Sound Kick Speaker Review

 

I had the chance to review Soundfreaq’s Sound Platform before and I was very impressed with its performance.  Soundfreaq has other speakers in the market but its newest baby is the Sound Kick.  I love this new speaker, not only because of its sound performance, but also because of its price.  For only Php4,950 (about US$110), you get a solid-sounding Bluetooth speaker with an equally solid design. While the Sound Platform needed to get plugged into a socket, the Sound Kick uses a rechargeable battery, making it a mobile speaker for your devices.  The Sound Kick is quite cheap considering the price of current Bluetooth speakers in the market.  The other popular mobile Bluetooth speaker, the Jawbone Jambox, costs $200 or double the price of the Sound Kick.

 

The design of the Sound Kick is quite similar to the Sound Platform, although it is quite smaller and a lot thinner.  The Sound Kick has a rectangular shape and is very light at only 1.6 pounds and measures only 10.5 inches by 4.2 inches.  The sound kick is a premium-looking speaker set that uses a combination of plastic materials and steel coating for the front grille.  In other words, this baby is meant to be displayed, not hidden.  And since it’s a mobile Bluetooth speaker, this will surely be brought to a lot of places.

The Sound Kick works with an extendible back chamber that doubles as an acoustics enhancer and a kick stand.  The Sound Kick is quite thin as I mentioned, so the extendible chamber is quite necessary to improve the sound.  This feature is quite smart in my opinion as it helps keep the speaker compact, and also helps improve the performance at the same time.  The fact that it is used as a speaker stand at the same time is a bonus.

The front of the Sound Kick is just the steel coated grille with the Soundfreaq logo at the center at the bottom is a thin light indicator bar that blinks on certain functions.  On top of are the indented touch-controlled buttons for adjusting volume and for selecting tracks.  Located at the back are the USB port, the power input and a 3.5mm slot.  The USB port charges devices even while you’re playing tracks.

  

The Sound Kick works with a lot of Bluetooth-enabled devices like Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Android devices, BlackBerry phones, and even laptops.  Its streams Bluetooth wireless with any A2DP compatible device.

Connecting your device is pretty simple.  You just turn on the Sound Kick, press the “Pair” button and while the light indicator is blinking, you turn on your device’s Bluetooth and choose the Sound Kick from the Bluetooth devices available.  You’re then immediately connected.  When you play tracks on your device, it then plays through the Sound Kick.  You may carry the speaker anywhere, and your device anywhere as well, so long of course as they are within range of each other.  If you’re using an iOS or an Android device, the Sound Kick even has a Remote Control App which you can download.

Going to the sound performance, the Soundfreaq Sound Kick delivers.  For a speaker this small, I was surprised that it can deliver good sound and can even fill the living room even when volume is on just on mid-level.  The Sound Kick is not as good as the bigger Sound Platform but the smaller size of the Sound Kick makes this quite expected.  But the Sound Kick is no slouch.  I like how it handles highs and mids, and even bass to some extent. The details and crispness in the highs is quite impressive.  Bass is not as rich as the Sound Platform’s but it is good enough.  The Sound Kick does not easily break in high volume, and it’s a testament to Soundfreaq’s expertise in making mobile speakers.

The Soundfreaq Sound Kick enhances sound quality through the extendible chamber at the back of the speaker set and the UQ3 button, a digital enhancement feature. The UQ3 is supposed to give the impression that the speakers are spaced further apart.  This feature is also present in the Sound Platform.   The UQ3 works in certain tracks but in most, it doesn’t.  At least not in the level that’s really noticeable.When it works, the bass level is enhanced, so are the mids.    But the Sound Kick doesn’t really need the UQ3.  It sounds good enough without the UQ3 and in instances where it works, it’s just a bonus.  What you need to do if you want to get the kind of sound that you expect in a song is to change your EQ settings on  your device.  I got the optimum sound quality of the Sound Kick by experimenting with the iPhone’s EQ presets.

The Sound Kick uses a 2200mAh rechargeable battery which gives about 6 to 7 hours of continuous play time by streaming music over Bluetooth. This is good enough.

When judging the Sound Kick, you have to keep in mind that this is a small mobile speaker, with a price point that’s very competitive.  So for the Sound Kick to sound this good, it’s quite a marvel how Soundfreaq managed to make something this good at a very low price point. The Sound Kick is currently the best choice when getting a mobile Bluetooth speaker. Nothing beats a speaker that sounds good and is priced cheap.

You can get the Soundfreaq Sound Kick at Astrovision, Beyond the Box, Buz, Digital Hub, Digital Walker, Gadgets in Style, GUI,  iCenter, iGig, iStore, iStudio, Listening Room, Listen Up, Power Hub and Technoholics.

Rating: 8.9/10

 

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