The Braven 855s is not only a Bluetooth speaker, it’s a Bluetooth
speaker with a rugged enclosure that makes it water resistant and
capable of absorbing everyday bumps. You can easily use this speaker
outside, in the kitchen, or even in a workshop without fear of
accidental splashes and bumps tarnishing its looks and performance. Most
importantly, though, it’s a speaker that produces enjoyable sound.
All you really need to get this mini speakers working is a
smartphone, tablet, or laptop with a Bluetooth connection. You don’t
even need to place the speaker near a power outlet; it has a large
internal battery that can last an entire day (depending on the volume
level), and it’s not a big speaker, so you can easily rest it on a small
space as long as there is some room behind it for the bass radiators to
breathe. The hardwareIndeed,
the Braven 855s is 250mm wide, 75mm deep, 110mm tall, and it weighs
1.52kg. It’s covered in a rubber enclosure that can grip a tabletop, and
there are grooves present that can allow water to flow off the speaker,
rather than remain on the surface, if it gets wet. A row of buttons
resides along the top, and these are what you use to pair the speaker to
your device and control the music from your player. There is also a
speakerphone button that can allow you to take calls and talk using the
speaker’s built-in noise-cancelling microphone. There aren’t any lights or screens to look at — all you see are the
aluminium grilles (which are said to airline-grade aluminium) and the
rubber. The grilles protect the speakers and the bass radiators. Along
the front there are two speakers, and on the back there are two bass
radiators that act in a similar way to bass ports in order to reinforce
the sound. The power output is rated at 20W.
The right side has some ports and a battery level indicator, and these
are hidden behind a rubber flap that must be closed in order for the
speaker to be resistant to water. Note that the Braven 855s is not
designed to be submersed in water. The flap doesn’t provide a
super-tight seal; it only acts as a cover so that splashes don’t enter
the port openings.
The ports include a 3.5mm line in facility, power (a full battery charge
can take six hours), and full-sized USB. The USB port can be used to
charge mobile devices such as phones and tablets, and that’s due to the
large capacity of the battery (8800 milliamp-hours). There is also a
battery level indicator button; when you press it, a series of lights
come on to tell you how much battery power is left. Each one represents
20 per cent. The annoying thing about this particular feature is that
the speaker has to be powered on in order for the battery level
indicator to work, which seems counterintuitive.
Using the Braven 855s is a piece of cake. Paring
can be completed easily by holding down the play button for a few
seconds until it emits a sound, and then scanning for Bluetooth devices
on your music source. We had no problems connecting to it with a Samsung
Galaxy S4 smartphone, and also a variety of Windows 8 tablets and
notebooks, even Windows 7 notebooks. If it had asked us for a PIN, we
would have had to type in four zeros. On the speaker itself, you can
control the volume, pause and play music, as well as skip tracks by
holding down the volume buttons for a couple of seconds. Sound qualityBraven
has made use of the aptX Lossless codec for this speaker, and we tested
using a variety of musical genres. Overall, we found its sound quality
to be very enjoyable. Mid-range and high frequencies were accurate and
well defined. Even when we had the speaker on a low volume setting we
could hear finer details in the music. What was lacking was deep and
punchy bass. This was expected considering the small size of the Braven.
Instead, rather than being rich in its output, it offered a somewhat
flat and short bass response that wasn’t well suited to all forms of
music. In particular, bass-heavy music wasn’t
ideally matched to this speaker. In saying that, we got used to this
characteristic and it was enjoyable to listen to, mainly thanks to the
overall clarity and power that the speakers supplied. However, we found
the Braven to be better suited to rock and folk music (and a lot of pop
music). For these genres, its performance was great. Vocals sounded clear and accurate (Michael Jackson’s ‘whoo
sound was sensational), scratches from fingers moving along guitar
strings were audible, and lots of other details in the music were not
missed. Furthermore, the sound was loud enough to fill up a
regular-sized bedroom and living room. There is
an extra setting that you can play with to give the sounds a bit more
separation and enhance the stereo effect. It’s called SRS WOW HD and
it’s a processor that can be enabled by pressing both the volume up and
down buttons simultaneously. We found that it made music sound more
spacious, accentuating high frequencies and providing more reinforcement
for the bass. It had the effect of adding more body compared to the
natural flat sound that we were used to. Create a true wireless stereo systemPerhaps
the most exciting feature on the Braven 855s is its ability to be
connected to a second Braven speaker so that one speaker becomes the
left stereo channel, and the other becomes the right stereo channel. You
can use either another Braven 855s, or a Braven 850, which is the
non-rugged version of the 855s, and you can place them as far apart as
you want (say a few metres) to create a beautiful stereo soundscape
that’s better than anything only one of the Braven speakers can do on
its own. The two speakers can be linked using
True-Wireless technology from CSR. To connect them, you need to
disconnect your audio player from each speaker, then press and hold the
battery indicator button for a few seconds on both Braven speakers until
you hear a sonar-like sound. It takes about 1min before the speakers
make their connection, which is confirmed by further beeping after a
period of silence. Once the speakers are
connected to each other, you can once again connect to either one using
your source device. It’s important to note that your two Braven speakers
essentially become one device, so you can’t connect different audio
sources to both speakers. When you connect to one speaker, that means
you connect to both. The speakers will share their controls, which means
if you change the volume or press play on one, then the same settings
are applied to the second speaker. Apart from
allowing you to space the out further to achieve a better, more
enjoyable stereo effect, the output also becomes louder. It’s
essentially like playing music through a mini Hi-Fi system, but without
the bulk of a head unit and the cords that a mini Hi-Fi provides. You
can put these speakers anywhere thanks to their wireless nature and
excellent battery life. To give you an example, the battery lasted over
23 hours in our tests, in which we played music over Bluetooth at a
mid-level volume. So what’s the verdict?The
Braven 855s is really good. The build quality is strong, the water
resistant finish useful, and these traits make it a speaker that can be
easily used in almost any type of home or work environment (it could be a
good speaker for a workshop floor, for example). The sound quality is
very good overall, though a little flat, but it can be enhanced by using
the built-in SRS processor. Furthermore, we
love the ability to link the 855s speaker to a second Braven speaker in
order to provide a true stereo system. In fact, we enjoyed using it this
way and recommend you consider two Braven speakers as a solution if
you’re after a stereo system that can be placed almost anywhere in the
home and moved around at will. For us, it’s a
very capable wireless audio solution, both as far as the versatility of
the hardware is concerned, and the sound output. You do have to pay a
fair bit, though, and that’s the only hurdle, especially when there are
more powerful speaker docks available at cheaper prices. Both
the rugged Braven 855s and the non-rugged Braven 850 cost $400 each,
which means you’ll be up for $800 if you want to use them as a stereo
pair. However, you have to remember that you’re essentially getting a
system that is small, easily moveable due to wireless technology, and
which can last a long time when running on batteries.
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