Braven manufacture a variety of speakers, from small to actually quite large ones but what got us interested was the Braven 105, one of its waterproof entries. The Braven 105 is one of four in its active series range. It’s a small speaker, that retails for around £40 and from reading about it, it packs a punch, so let’s check it out.

Spec:

  • Bluetooth speaker
  • IP67 waterproof
  • 8hrs playback
  • Speakerphone
  • Can be used as a powerbank
  • Shockproof exterior
  • Action mount, just like your go pro!

This handheld speaker comes in a clear acrylic case, with a USB cable for charging. There’s no power adapter unfortunately to plug it into a wall. There’s also a stand/carry adapter, so you can mount it in various ways. The speaker is covered in a rubbery plastic, which adds to its durability and comes in a variety of colours, from black to bright pink. On the front of the speaker is the perforated grill and on the back is a microSD port, aux in and a reset button, all covered by a rubber flap. There are three buttons on the speaker: an on/off – play/pause button, plus up/down to control tracks and volume. It’s light, its easy to store and carry. Overall, I like they way it looks.

braven_105_2

One of this speakers USP’s is that it comes with a ‘Go Pro’ like action mount. You know, the ones that you screw in and it allows you to pretty much mount things anywhere. Anyway, this is a great addition to the speaker, as it adds so much functionality. Braven have produced a pretty cool promotional video, where the speaker can be seen on the handle bars of a bike, strapped to a backpack, on a paddle used for paddle boarding and on a walking stick. It just makes it so easy to connect this to anything, when you are doing various activities. Brilliant!

Setting up the speaker is very easy. Just turn the speaker on and wait for the beep. There is a light on the speaker which should now be flashing. This means it’s in sync mode. Now go to your Bluetooth settings on your device, and pair the two together. It’s that simple. Not got Bluetooth? Not sure what device you are using but you can connect your audio device to the speaker via the aux in port, as long as you have a 3.5mm jack cable to hand.

So what’s the sound quality like? Pretty darn good and I’m pleasantly surprised. At volumes up to about 75%, it offers a very rich and well balanced sound but perhaps lacks a tiny bit of bass, but that’s just me being super picky. At the higher volumes, the sound does lose some of its quality, as the driver just cant handle it and at the higher volumes, you need that bass, which is missing. That being said, I don’t think you would ever need to turn the speaker up to 80-100% volume, as at 50% it’s already getting quite loud, which is more then capable of filling a small room.

It has been tried and tested, the speaker is fully waterproof. Unfortunately I don’t do too many water sports, so couldn’t take the speaker out on an adventure but I did throw it into a large bucket of water and it continued to work. As expected, the sound quality is extremely muffled when water hits the speaker grill, so is pretty useless as a speaker in the water. That isn’t the point though. This speaker isn’t designed to sound good in the water, its just to protect it in wet environments. If it gets splashed around the pool, doesn’t matter. If you drop it in a lake – although fishing it back out again could be a problem – it doesn’t matter. The speaker will continue to work. I should also add the speaker does float, so you should be able to find it easily on the waters surface.

The Braven 105 currently retails for around £40 and at that price, it’s a great speaker for taking out and about on your travels. It packs a punch, has a good battery life and can be mounted to pretty much anything you can imagine! The Braven 105 Portable Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker is available from amazon.co.uk now.