Whatever happened to boomboxes, eh? Modern audio isn’t just about great, powerful sound — it has to be compact, pretty and connected, too.
And that is exactly what Blue Aura appears to be aiming for with the X10, a kitchen-size Bluetooth speaker that retails at £309. But does it truly meet that ambition?
Design
While most audio equipment is sufficiently grey and featureless to miss out on admiring glances, the X10’s cream, faux-leather exterior, complete with stitching and embossed Blue Aura logos, adds some pleasing visual interest without being garish.
All the physical controls and input sockets are grouped together neatly on the rear-facing panel, and while the build quality of the supplied remote control is not exactly luxurious, its layout and dimensions are highly practical.
The compact size of the X10 itself is a bonus, too. Although slightly larger than the average DAB radio, it’s less than five inches deep, and pretty light too. In other words, it’s well suited to rooms too small (or inappropriate) for a proper stereo.
Setup
The X10 is also a great deal less time-consuming to set up than a stereo. Music can be sent to it via Bluetooth, NFC, line-in, and optical input (for hooking up to a DVD/Blu-Ray player, or some other video device). Both forms of wireless are impressively rapid to set up, and the X10’s Bluetooth range easily covers an entire floor of my house.
The energy conscious will also be happy to note that the X10 has a standby mode which can be toggled using a rear-mounted switch. Interestingly, at the back you’ll also find a bracket for optional wall mounting — a surprising, but welcome feature.
Audio
Unfortunately, the X10’s pretty looks, technical proficiency and practicality are not quite matched by its audio — although that’s not to say that it sounds bad.
In fact, the centrally placed subwoofer kicks out a rich, powerful undercurrent that gives Joss Stone’s Fell in Love with a Boy a captivating groove, and Jacko’s Billie Jean a satisfying kick. Equally, mid-tones are reproduced as you’d hope, with no hint at the compact size of the unit from which they emanate.
The sound from the X10’s tweeters, on the other hand, is somewhat tinny and narrow, made particularly noticeable by the combination of crashing cymbals, wailing guitars and piercing female vocals to be heard, for example, in much of Evanescence’s repertoire. To some degree, it does detract from the exceedingly pleasant lows and mids.
It’s also worth noting that the X10 seems to be highly directional. Keep your head in the front grille’s line of sight, and all is well; drift around the room, though, and the bass starts to loose its oomph, meaning those tweeters become more noticeable still.
That said, the X10 is certainly powerful enough to fill household spaces with a combined output of 30 watts, and the louder it gets, the more its imperfections are ironed out. In total, then, the X10’s audio performance is not a disaster by any means —it just “could do better.”
Verdict
In most areas, the X10 is eminently likeable. It provides a setup experience that is as close to plug-in-and-play as you’re going to get from a wireless speaker. The exterior design is extremely classy. It delivers pretty decent sound quality, too. At £309, though, you might be wanting something a little more than decent.
However, putting the price aside, I’d say that the X10 does a reasonable job of meeting all of the demands placed on today’s home audio.
