A modestly priced Bluetooth speaker that delivers meaty sound

You may not have heard of Nyne, but it’s got a full line Bluetooth speakers, including this flagship model, the Bass, which is one of the better Bluetooth bargains at $150 or £125.

I was pleasantly surprised by both the build quality and performance of this speaker. It comes in white or black and weighs about 6.5 pounds (3kg), so it’s on the bigger end of the portable Bluetooth speaker spectrum.

It looks more like a tabletop unit but it’s portable and Nyne is promoting it as an “outdoor” speaker. It has a built-in “hidden” handle that makes it easier to move around your home or out onto the patio. It does work well out by the pool or in the garden, but it doesn’t seem like the most rugged speaker — it’s not splashproof, and one of the little rubber feet on my unit fell off and I had to stick it back on.

Its battery life is rated at an ample 10 hours and it can charge your phone via the USB charging port on the back, though you’ll obviously lose some battery life on the speaker if you’re charging your phone at the same time. Other extras include an integrated mic for speakerphone calls, NFC tap-to-pair technology for smartphones that support it, and an auxiliary input for non-Bluetooth devices. It uses Bluetooth 4.0.

Nyne Bass 9 product photos
See full gallery

Performance

From a sound standpoint, the speaker lives up to its name and indeed delivers strong bass performance and plays quite loud (it helps to put the speaker near a wall to get some reflection). It sounds fairly clean and is reasonably detailed.