In Review: Tronsmart Studio Bluetooth Speaker

While I’m a big user of headphones over the course of a week, there’s certainly a time and a place for a good external speaker. Whether you’re listening to tunes while getting some chores done, or linking it in to get sound out of a projector, there’s no doubt that a stand-alone speaker can get you better sound than your phone (or whatever device) can provide on it’s own. One of the latest we’ve been spending some time with is the Tronsmart Studio Bluetooth Speaker.

What’s that, you’ve never heard of Tronsmart? Us either, this was our first go-round with the brand. This is far from their first and only device, as they offer quite a number of speakers, headsets, keyboards, and other accessories. When we got the Tronsmart Studio Bluetooth Speaker in, we were surprised by the weight of the speaker. Some of this is likely due to the aluminum case (many speakers are all plastic construction), but we wouldn’t be surprised if there was some chunk of metal in there to give it some heft. And hey, if it keeps it steady on the shelf while it’s pumping out the tunes, all the better.

Really, that’s the true test of a speaker – how it sounds. As with many bluetooth speakers I’ve checked out, I’m pleasantly surprised by just how much sound you can pump out of the Tronsmart Studio Bluetooth Speaker. The hard spec is 30W of output (you’ve got two tweeters and a woofer), and it gets plenty loud (even more so if you’ve got a couple that you setup in broadcast mode). With it’s default EQ, the sound is… ok. It gets the job done, but for listening to music, you’ll at least want to put it into “pulse” mode, which bumps the bass and the treble. It’s a tad muddy, but it’s a much better sound than the default. And, if you use their associated app, you can play with other present EQs to see what fits. For spoken word and podcasts, I think the default will serve you well.

The Tronsmart Studio Bluetooth Speaker also has a few other tricks up its sleeve. While bluetooth will no doubt be the primary connection method, you can also use the 3.5mm line in, or you could load up a MicroSD card with your tunes, and play them directly from that. Not sure how used that SD card option would be, but it’s nice that it’s there, I guess? The other input, it’s worth noting, is a USB-C connector. This can’t be used to push audio (as near as we could tell or figure out) but is instead used to charge up the internal battery (which hey, given the faster rates you can get on USB-C, we’re all for it). In terms of playback, the specs list out a 15-hour playback (at 50% volume); of course putting it into pulse mode is going to impact that some, given the boosts it gives.

All in all, we came away pleased by the Tronsmart Studio Bluetooth Speaker. It manages a larger and more complete (though slightly muddied bass) sound than we’re used to having out of a speaker of this size. Additionally, the shape of the aluminum casing puts us in mind of something that would sit on top of a speaker stack. In other words, it’s a refreshing break from the norm of your standard rectangular cube or cylindrical column. Sure, it’s a bummer we don’t have better contrast (or backlighting) on the buttons on top, but that seems to be par for the course for portable speakers. You can buy the Tronsmart Studio Bluetooth Speaker from Amazon for $69.99, as the brand doesn’t sell direct. Also of note, when we checked, it looked like Amazon had an $8 coupon as well, so that knocks the price down a bit. tronsmart.com / amazon.com