Loewe Speaker 2go review

The Loewe Speaker 2go is now available at an RRP of £229, making it even better value

The Loewe Speaker 2go is one of the first portable speakers we've seen with a built-in subwoofer as well as a pair of stereo speakers. It's well equipped with the latest features, too.

It supports NFC pairing, which lets you pair compatible devices at a touch, and the high-quality Apt-X Bluetooth streaming codec, which is supported by a number of recent HTC and Samsung phones. Apt-X ensures much higher quality wireless audio streaming than the standard A2DP Bluetooth audio codec.

The speaker also has a 3.5mm audio input, so you can connect it directly to a phone, MP3 player or computer. It also has a built-in microphone, so you can use it to answer calls hands-free. Any music playing from your phone is halted as it switches to call mode, so you won’t have to fight it to be heard. When receiving streamed audio content in Bluetooth mode, Loewe quotes a battery life of eight hours.

At the top of the unit are volume controls, the NFC transmission point, a Bluetooth connection button and a button to answer calls when your phone rings. It has a rear-mounted USB port, but you can only use it to charge your phone, not play music from a USB drive.

The volume buttons on the speaker itself raise and reduce the sound by fairly large increments, but we had no difficulty making finer adjustments with Loewe’s player app on our phone. The app is neatly designed, but it doesn't have a wide range of features, nor is it essential. Indeed, we tested the speaker with Winamp for Android.

AUDIO QUALITY

The Speaker 2go has a fantastically rich and broad sound for its size, matching the performance of much larger speakers. The integrated sub-woofer means it doesn't suffer the brightness of many similarly priced high-end portable speakers, and makes the Speaker 2go easier to listen to over an extended period.

However, there’s a certain low-end frequency range that seemed to have more prominence than the rest of the frequency ranges, which meant some tracks had booming bass drums and sub-bass that made the higher low-end sounds, the mid-range and the high-end sound quiet in comparison.

The rich synths and thumping bass of Pendulum's The Island - Pt I sounded great, as did the fast electronic beats of Apoptygma Berserk's Until The End of the World, while the bass was suitably pounding. Orchestral pieces also sounded great and a capella vocal harmonies were reproduced beautifully.

The Speaker 2go’s subwoofer makes for a massive improvement on the sound quality of our previous Best Buy winner, the Samsung DA-F60 . Its support for NFC pairing and high-quality Apt-X streaming over Bluetooth bring it bang up to date when it comes to features. Sadly, there’s no AirPlay support, you'll have to look elsewhere. However, if you want a very compact portable speaker that sounds great, the Speaker 2go is ideal. It's our new Best Buy wireless portable speaker.