twister6
Android Expert
This is a review of BEM Trio Bluetooth wireless speakers. Bluetooth Wireless Speaker Sets | bēm wireless
The popularity of portable wireless speakers is growing, but the design principle still remains the same. Nobody is brave enough to reinvent the wheel, and most of the speakers feature a basic one piece design intended for either indoor or outdoor use. Sounds good until you want to expand your wireless entertainment to cover a bigger room space or a larger outdoor area - it's not easy to start a party with a "personal" entertainment wireless speaker. And that's exactly what BEM accomplished with their new Trio wireless speaker system, taking Bluetooth wireless entertainment from a narrow "personal" level to a wide PARTY level! To accomplish that, they actually came up with some very interesting design details I have never seen being done by anybody else. Let's take a closer look at what I have found.
I always begin my review with a description of the product packaging, but never before have I started by saying - it had some nice weight to it! With any other product this probably wouldn't have been a compliment, but when you are talking about speakers it's actually a good sign of solid design and powerful drivers when it clocks at over 5lb. The box itself had a very clean design with a nice HD image of Trio speaker system which right away gives you an answer about it's name - you are dealing with three cube speakers. Out of the box, very carefully packaged inside, you find 3 identical cube speakers 4"x4"x4" with a common charging base, a wall outlet charger, and 3.5mm audio cable. Each speaker has a soft touch finish around it's sides, a top firing speaker grill, and a rubber base with a conductive charging ring. YES, these wireless speakers come also with a wireless charging!!! Cleverly designed into the base of the speaker there is also a hidden recessed power button and the same on the side - two recessed volume +/- buttons. Each speaker has it's own individual volume control and a power button, and conductive wireless charging which brings us to a common base tray which hosts these speakers.
The base tray has a DC in 5V connection to power it up, and AUX In and Out ports. Obviously, AUX In port is designed to connect external audio source without wireless bluetooth tethering, while AUX Out allows connection to any other speaker system to turn it into Wireless. That is definitely a great bonus! On a side of the base, there is a Bluetooth pair up button with LED indicator. Basically, the base tray serves two functions. It provides conductive charging to power up the speakers, and it's also a Bluetooth base to connect to your phone or tablet. I'm sure you will ask a question, how are the speakers get connected wireless to the audio source? Speakers are actually connected to the base through 2.4GHz RF signal which has a much longer wireless range of up to 120ft away from the base. This means that a speaker base tray can be anywhere 20-25ft away from your phone/tablet connected through Bluetooth while speakers by itself can be placed another 115-120ft away connected to the base through RF (radio frequency) signal. As you can see, BEM guys really stepped it up with a number of impressive innovations that are not typical for your "personal" wireless speaker. They turned it into a wireless entertainment system.
As a bonus, each speaker has a glowing blue LED base once you turn it on - a great visual effect especially when you dim the lights in the room. While placed on the base, in addition to blue light, you also see a red light indicating the charging. Once fully charged, these speakers can last up to 6hr. Of course, the design is great, but how do they sound? Each speaker can pump 2W of power and you can position them in any configuration for surround sound or just together for more power. At max level, the sound is very loud and clear, and actually doesn't get distorted. The only thing is don't expect too much bass. Don't get me wrong, you will hear a bass punch, but not too much of sub-bass rumble. Also, either docked in the base tray, which also has a rubber non-slip bottom, or standalone on their own rubber base - even at max volume you don't have to worry about speakers vibrating on the surface since rubber base works great as a shock absorbent. Also, since you can take speakers away from the Bluetooth base for up to 120ft, in theory you can have it paired up to your phone/tablet in one room, for example on the first floor, while you can take each speaker and place it in different rooms and different floors to transmit the music around the house.
Overall, I was very impressed with the idea and implementation of BEM Trio design. From a wireless conductive charging, to extended wireless transmission combining Bluetooth and RF technologies, to 3 powerful 2W speakers with great design details - everything was executed on a high level. I did miss having some extra bass, but overall sound was pretty good even at max volume. BEM Trio Bluetooth system is definitely something to consider if you want to take your wireless entertainment to the next level!
Here are the pictures.
The popularity of portable wireless speakers is growing, but the design principle still remains the same. Nobody is brave enough to reinvent the wheel, and most of the speakers feature a basic one piece design intended for either indoor or outdoor use. Sounds good until you want to expand your wireless entertainment to cover a bigger room space or a larger outdoor area - it's not easy to start a party with a "personal" entertainment wireless speaker. And that's exactly what BEM accomplished with their new Trio wireless speaker system, taking Bluetooth wireless entertainment from a narrow "personal" level to a wide PARTY level! To accomplish that, they actually came up with some very interesting design details I have never seen being done by anybody else. Let's take a closer look at what I have found.
I always begin my review with a description of the product packaging, but never before have I started by saying - it had some nice weight to it! With any other product this probably wouldn't have been a compliment, but when you are talking about speakers it's actually a good sign of solid design and powerful drivers when it clocks at over 5lb. The box itself had a very clean design with a nice HD image of Trio speaker system which right away gives you an answer about it's name - you are dealing with three cube speakers. Out of the box, very carefully packaged inside, you find 3 identical cube speakers 4"x4"x4" with a common charging base, a wall outlet charger, and 3.5mm audio cable. Each speaker has a soft touch finish around it's sides, a top firing speaker grill, and a rubber base with a conductive charging ring. YES, these wireless speakers come also with a wireless charging!!! Cleverly designed into the base of the speaker there is also a hidden recessed power button and the same on the side - two recessed volume +/- buttons. Each speaker has it's own individual volume control and a power button, and conductive wireless charging which brings us to a common base tray which hosts these speakers.
The base tray has a DC in 5V connection to power it up, and AUX In and Out ports. Obviously, AUX In port is designed to connect external audio source without wireless bluetooth tethering, while AUX Out allows connection to any other speaker system to turn it into Wireless. That is definitely a great bonus! On a side of the base, there is a Bluetooth pair up button with LED indicator. Basically, the base tray serves two functions. It provides conductive charging to power up the speakers, and it's also a Bluetooth base to connect to your phone or tablet. I'm sure you will ask a question, how are the speakers get connected wireless to the audio source? Speakers are actually connected to the base through 2.4GHz RF signal which has a much longer wireless range of up to 120ft away from the base. This means that a speaker base tray can be anywhere 20-25ft away from your phone/tablet connected through Bluetooth while speakers by itself can be placed another 115-120ft away connected to the base through RF (radio frequency) signal. As you can see, BEM guys really stepped it up with a number of impressive innovations that are not typical for your "personal" wireless speaker. They turned it into a wireless entertainment system.
As a bonus, each speaker has a glowing blue LED base once you turn it on - a great visual effect especially when you dim the lights in the room. While placed on the base, in addition to blue light, you also see a red light indicating the charging. Once fully charged, these speakers can last up to 6hr. Of course, the design is great, but how do they sound? Each speaker can pump 2W of power and you can position them in any configuration for surround sound or just together for more power. At max level, the sound is very loud and clear, and actually doesn't get distorted. The only thing is don't expect too much bass. Don't get me wrong, you will hear a bass punch, but not too much of sub-bass rumble. Also, either docked in the base tray, which also has a rubber non-slip bottom, or standalone on their own rubber base - even at max volume you don't have to worry about speakers vibrating on the surface since rubber base works great as a shock absorbent. Also, since you can take speakers away from the Bluetooth base for up to 120ft, in theory you can have it paired up to your phone/tablet in one room, for example on the first floor, while you can take each speaker and place it in different rooms and different floors to transmit the music around the house.
Overall, I was very impressed with the idea and implementation of BEM Trio design. From a wireless conductive charging, to extended wireless transmission combining Bluetooth and RF technologies, to 3 powerful 2W speakers with great design details - everything was executed on a high level. I did miss having some extra bass, but overall sound was pretty good even at max volume. BEM Trio Bluetooth system is definitely something to consider if you want to take your wireless entertainment to the next level!
Here are the pictures.