I'd have to pick the Flex even if the A1 is more accurate just because I feel like it's better value for money. Although the Flex is bigger and slightly heavier as well the unreliability of the A1 controls is a huge negative to me. Thank you for another great review! 😁👍👏
Bro pls use a closeup mic for your vocals. You deserver 1M subs, hopefully clear closer ASMR type of vocals in your videos will attract the 1M subs sooner.
Flex is great but not powerful/loud enough for me. I really like that speaker but I sold it and bought Charge 5 instead. Much louder and battery last longer.
Really good stuff. Thanks to your reviews my family and friends now have W-Kings and Soundcore speakers and they love them. Do you plan to review the W-King D10?
I've gotta go with the B&O this time because in contrast the bass on the Bose sounds boomy as hell for higher level listening whereas the other speaker sounds flatter and more reasonant because of it's deep bass handling capability which becomes further enhanced by it's neutral sound reproduction. Edit: Wow the bass sounds like its distorting at higher levels though! Maybe its the other way around afterall hahaha. The Bose is certainly better than the B&O for higher level listening. But I feel for lower levels this Beosound A1(1st gen) has a very neutral tuning that may attract the audiophiles out there.
the a1 is the better speaker for sure but the overall balance doesnt suit all genres in the way the flex remains a safe option. ive been picking up the a1 now and appreciating it more for its hifi credentials where the flex lacks a little excitement but thats what makes it a safe option. the flex remains a mid bass speaker and the a1 a deep bass speaker and depending on your genre and personal taste will prefer one or the other.
King- Move the EQ towards bright on the A1 resolves the issues your taking about . The flex would be a tiring sound over long listening periods and has no EQ just the stock sound 😌
Alan, Great review. I have been looking for this review for a while and then forgot about it. Now I am interested again, and you have done it. Thanks muchly. I have the A1 Gen 2 - 2 of them, actually, and in Stereo, they are really fab. I love using them and enjoy them immensely. I know you didn't like them, but they were never going to be a boomy speaker, but in Stereo, they are amazing. Played them for a friend, and he was smitten immediately. As you pointed out - it is a combination of the base from such a small speaker and the detail they retrieve from the track. They really do punch above their weight. HOWEVER I am really interested in the flex. I am very keen to see how they sound like a sa stereo pair. I have no interest in buying any speaker that doe snot does well as a stereo pair. Not having a pair means you have to deal with Mono, and then there is no point comparing them anyway. The music is invariably recorded in Stereo, so listening in Mono does not even give you a fair representation of the music. Any ideas on how they are as a stereo pair? What are your thoughts on stereo pairing? Is a stereo pair of Bluetooth speakers the new boombox? This summer is going to see many parties - a stereo pair of Bluetooth speakers is going to be a real thing. In my opinion, at least, haha. What do you think? Thanks again for the video - excellent as usual.
Of course stereo always sounds better but i only have one flex so cant comment on that, sorry. I found the A1 1st gen a much better listen than 2nd gen.
@@alanrossreviews Many MAny people have said the same about the Gen 1 vs Gen 2. I extensively reviewed them, and I got two of each and tested them inside and outside using various sources. You are right. Gen 1 is louder and more impacting. However, Gen two does a significantly better job with clarity, imaging, and soundstage than Gen 1. All of those are subtle, but the differences become quite evident when you listen for them. If people are doing more analytical listening, they might notice .....but who is doing analytical listening with Bluetooth speakers? Version 1 also has muddier bass, which bleeds a bit. That said, Version 1 does 'Sound better' when you just hear them side by side for a short time - when I listened to them in stereo pair side by side for a while, I concluded that I was keeping the new ones. That gave me the additional battery life and water and dust protection as well. The other thing is burn-in. After several months of having them, I found that they sound even richer and more responsive now than they were when they were completely new. Could that be my mind playing tricks ... maybe? (I returned the version 1s and kept the pair of version 2s - I could not be happier). I still think the flex is impressive, though, and I am looking to see if I get a pair -- they could be great for travel. Please let us know when you will do a stereo pair comparison ... SEveral Bluetooth speakers can do the stereo pairing now, and it would be good to see which pairing is better. Tribit's £50 speaker can do it, and I am told it sounds pretty good. Stereo pairing gives a whole different feel to listening to Bluetooth speakers. I think it is entirely different from listening to them alone. What do you think? Is there a chance you will do that video? Would love to see that, and it would really help out. BTW - Have you ever heard of the Bose sound link Micro in stereo pair - Wow - you wouldn't believe that small speakers could produce a sound that big. Please have a look and see what you think. Your expertise in assessing these pairs would be phenomenal.
trouble it gets expensive buying two of every speaker. i used to do it but now only for my go to speakers. i also have less and less time to do the reviews so try to keep it to the most interesting. but yeah two of each would be ideal. i found the gen 2 just didnt go loud enough while the a1 does manage to get dynamic enough i dont need more volume.
@@alanrossreviews Another great video Alan. Loving the sound of the flex (the a1 ain’t no slouch) but it’s just a certain smoothness about the bose I like.
Real battle will be between Denon and Bose...I had A1 and bass distortion bothered me regardless of it's weird EQ usage, besides battery was so crazy bad...I sold it immediately...
Until I listened to this comparison on hk studio 7, I thought that bose is probably much better, but when I released the comparison and on axis test, beoplay plays very deeply, hk studio 7 showed me that the bass is not so great for bose, at least not for me, the depth of it bass surprised me. Beoplay made up for here, however. Greetings from poland
Yup the a1 goes deeper but the bass isn't full, flex has no deep bass but has a full mid bass. The a1 is clearly the better speaker but more fussy in setup and genres
@@alanrossreviews yes better than the 2 gen. I don't know if they just save money on the material but B&O make such a mistakes and change it for worse some speakers I'm still have the 1 gen and it's really ok
Yes Flex is on sale now at €140 which is pretty good value. I have two first gen A1's and they are perfect for stereo listening in a small room at relatively low volume levels. I pair them directly without using the app and they stay connected. I get about 18 hours of battery life at the volume I listen at. Tempted to replace them with 2x Flex, but probably a waste of money.
@@rossdev Here in the UK you can buy a refurbished one from Bose for £95! That was too good for me to pass up, and it looks as good as new. So far I'm loving it. Not sure it'd compete against 2 A1s, but I really like the sound signature, prefer it to other small speakers I have (Uboom L, Soundcore Boost, Maxsound Plus).
@@alanrossreviews Cheers! Surprising, given the age, and makes things even closer, but I've gone for the Flex for £95 refurbished! What is it that makes the Flex sound so (for want of a better word) crunchy? I love it. Work so well for metal. Only speaker I've heard that sounds similar/better is the Motion Boom.
Nice test ! the Bose is defeated ! off topic about these speakers but, did you see the Transmart BANG ? looks like a very good candidate for the undefeated Motion Boom.. :) with tweeters and omagad strong RGB leds !
@@alanrossreviews I understand, I don't like them (as well as W-King) 😅 but on others videos, looks like it have clearly more overall bass and a bit more volume, however not so deep for sure. Hard to tell about higher frequency without a good microphone and test like yours 👌 An Aux port, and 8 "customisable" EQ's, hard to find more informations about it
@@udim7284 I had one too it was a good speaker back in the old days but the highs always sounded raspy if I cranked it above 73% and below this volume step it wasn't so loud so it was kind of a let down for me...
@@bluetooth_speaker_junkie agreed. but for light listening it's still a good speaker. I also have the Charge 3 which is much better for louder music and has more bass.
I have both, compared them for an hour and B&O (1st gen) definitely has deeper bass, more complex sound. Bose is just louder, but Beoplay A1 feels like sound is coming from a bigger system. But I dont know how the second gen B&O (beosound A1) performs.
I have a bit of a love/hate thing with the 1st gen A1. The depth of bass for its size is astounding, the lack of mid and upper bass is unfortunate, but I guess really hard to have in a speaker of that size while still keeping the really deep bass without making a mess. Detail of the highs is great. It's the depth of bass I really miss in many other speakers, especially of a similar size or even many that are significantly bigger. The form over function aspect of this speaker is bloody annoying. Almost invisible controls that you mush and hope for the best, no clicks here, thank you! A crap app. Works reliably for me but I really wish they'd give the option of a regular graphic equalizer. Very annoying how b&o wildly overstated the battery life on the 1st gen. I've replaced the 2500mah cells with 3400mah, but that did involve soldering them in series and soldering a protection board, replacing heat shrink wrapping etc, so not completely straightforward. Overall I still love this speaker for what it does at its size. But it is stupidly expensive. The only other speaker of a similar size that I own that has bass this deep is the isound bar. It's a really weird speaker, strange tuning but with an amazing soundstage mode and amazingly deep bass that both turn into a flabby mess if you turn it up much. It's also glitchy, unreliable and very cheap build quality. But again very cool for what it does so differently. Was £30!!
@@alanrossreviews That room echo is painful. Any plans to do some room treatment and review the results? I think speaker placement and DIY room hacks can make most speakers tolerable.
i dont record speakers in this room where i do the videos, my test room is very treated. the audio here was simply because i had to use the camera audio. even this room is treated around and above the table but i had to use the backup audio from the camera which sits some way off.
Take a look at the Monster Superstar Bluetooth speaker. I got it back in 2014 and it’s still kicking. Packs a lot of sound for such a small speaker. I use it to listen to music in the shower
I have not found any Teufel speakers in your videos. At least the search does not show them. Are they not available where you live? They are pretty good.
@@alanrossreviews Okay thanks :) My scenario is that I do not care if it goes loud, price doesn’t matter too much, it will be for home use but I want something easy enough to carry around the house and to take out on the odd occasion. All I care about is sound quality. Hopefully that is enough for you to recommend one or two to me
My go-to if its only about sound is the audio pro c3 and minirigs in full 2.2 setup. But if I want bigger bass it's the go play or in a smaller package the motion boom. I dont know what you consider good sound. Flat signat6?
@@alanrossreviews Thanks for your responses :) So in the end, after watching a lot of your videos I ended up ordering the Stockwell 2. I had a voucher and the store only sold the Marshall. Hopefully I don’t regret it!
I ve heard in a store beoplay a1 and i loved it.But I think it isn't durable. Also i ve read that very easily makes farting noises from the woofer even new and you have to fix it. I haven't heard the flex. I would have bought a1 already with 113€ new if it wasn't the durability and battery issues. Or i go safe with the flex at 135€ Dilemma!
do you mean gen 2? i didnt like gen 2 but did like gen 1 and still have it. yes flex is a safe option but the a1 1st gen has such a great sound for its little size.
So im just wondering were you aware that tribit have created a app for their new 2022 devices. I just got my tribit stormbox micro 2. And I am in shock I had no idea that tribit created a app for the new 2022 devices. They even have a 9band eq.
Only my email and then they sent me a Tribit Verification Code of Registration number for me to confirm that my email address was correct and working. After that I was able to create a password and login.
@@alanrossreviews Just chilling on my phone and got a magic notification 😝 4.2 is also the wattage of JBL Go 3 😱 By the way, I prefer the deeper bass of the A1 👍
@@alanrossreviews It's indeed a bit problematic, just a bit more punch would help the deep bass to shine, but overall such a deep bass on a small speaker is impressive for sure 😋
I got a Flex and am a bit disappointed that it has no support in the Bose app in order to customize the sound. Also in real life it is impressive for the size but the lower bass is non existent tbh
@@alanrossreviews i find it good but amazing is not a word i would use. I find the compression of the Flex and the Soundlink Micro very noticeable. It sounds like a slow compressor. When you have sparse arrangement parts or long intros it raises the volume and when the track kicks in it gets lower in volume and compressed making the tracks less exciting many times as there is a reason why intros are calmer than the rest of a song. Contrast. In music production you can achieve this with manual volume riding or compressors and,, well mixing. Only then its wanted. When just wanting to playback something I dont want a speaker try to impress me by what sounds to me like it has some kind of integrated compressor-limiter that messes with dynamics a bit too much for my taste. As for what bass i expect, not much. I would prefer more low end extension and sacrifice max loudness a bit. Most small speakers sound crappy at max volume anyway so why not have better bass. Teufel Rockster Go has day and night more bass than the Flex but i find it dull sounding in the highsThese are my thoughts. “Its a vicious circle” like fat bastard said
@@alanrossreviews ps: plus i find it amazing that there is no way to customize and store the Flex speaker eq responce like even a motion plus can do. I would expect this to be standard in 2023 for any speaker but no scotty dont
@@alanrossreviews I am using the app "jet audio" as a player on my phone. This app has an integrated Eq. Only issue is that if I make a curve for one speaker then I have to remember to switch it off when I use headphones or a different speaker and I would like to have the ability to store the curve in the speaker itself cause I get lost between all my audio combinations of devices like monitors at home , headphones , different bluetooth speakers when traveling etc. Its not that I can't do it , it's just really inconvenient. But one can't have it all. Just thought its not that hard for the Devs of the speakers to implement this. Go figure
Alan, I am browsing trustpilot. Companies like Sony, Bose, Apple etc have the worst scores. Just looked and Anker soundcore have a very good score. Thoughts? I was looking at phone companies as I'm getting a new phone, and I was surprised to say the least
@@alanrossreviews im looking at Blackview BL5000, i need ruggedness! I had a Blackview BV9900 for 2 years. Although it frustrated me with some software bugs... it certainly lived up to the claims made around ruggedness. It went missing so I'm looking at the options. The numbers of reviews made for the different companies are not that far away from each other. Even with more units being sold from bigger companies, you would expect better quality and so better reviews? Anker does score very well. JBL, terrible. Denon, terrible, Sony, terrible.... so can trustpilot really be trusted?
@@DJunclepaul2nd I'd certainly agree with Denon terrible. Great sounding speakers but you're lucky if you get one without some serious battery / reliability issue. And Anker are really very good with customer service over all of their products.
@@edewar6004 had my pair of Denon Bt250s or 250bt's, I forget, for a couple of years now. No faults. The batteries do drain over time but that was as standard 🤦
Is it just me or is the bass tighter on the Flex? It seems to be a bit uncontrolled on the A1. I bought an A1 when they came out and didn’t like it as much as the P2.
@@alanrossreviews Maybe I just had a faulty A1, I usually like most B&O speakers. Out of interest have you dropped your Flex yet? How hardy would you say they are?
You compare flex to a1 but also to C5. Why not to C5 with a1. I have possible to buy a1 for Half price. From your comparison a1 more for me. I'm just curious :-)
Hi Alan - is your A1 model on the recent software 5.3 I think it sounds great for vocals . If you set to ' mono ' playback on your device it gives the sound more depth. ie iPhone settings under accessibility
It sounds much richer than the 2nd Gen . I think the sound has great detail for a small unit . Battery not great so I attach a mini external battery back ... works a treat ✨👍
not sure, i dont have it with me so would have to check but i always update to latest firmware at the time of recording. im on android, will try this out when i have the speaker again. how you doing? its summer time 😝
Yes. Summer's here Alan . I'm doing well ! Not sure if I'm travelling abroad this summer . Keep up the good work ...... I guess the next big hyped speaker will be the mightly JBL boombox 3 I would think you'll have to take out a second Mortgage to purchase one ha ha 🥴 Keep good 🕺🏻☀️ C
@@CraigIvor Hi mate, I tried this combo in the past and I noticed the speaker was drawing more power than what was getting form the battery pack, so if I had a low battery the speaker will eventually die sooner than later. Is that the same case with you? Also, did you upgrade the internal battery? Cheers.
@@alanrossreviews thats amazing. we have speakers from jbl flip size category having deep bass similar/better to jbl charge 5 size category at lower volume levels. but we dont seem to have speakers from jbl charge 5 size category performing equal to boom/xtreme size category in terms of bass even at lower volumes.
its a big amp on the a1, smaller speakers need more power and excursion. the a1 is a £200 speaker dont forget and while it goes deeper the mid bass is somewhat lacking so its not really a full sounding bass as on the c5.
