The $300-and-above price realm is tricky territory for Bluetooth speakers—you expect a certain level of audio performance for that price, often delivered in dedicated plug-in speakers like the Editors' Choice Marshall Stanmore($874.99 at Amazon). If the speaker is portable, like so many Bluetooth options, your expectations for audio quality should probably be toned down a bit. The $399.99 (list) Jabra Solemate Max tries to provide the best of both worlds. It's a powerful Bluetooth speaker, and it's also ruggedized and portable, though many users might find it too bulky to throw in a tote bag or backpack. The speaker's performance begins to waver a bit at top volumes on tracks with deep bass, but across most genres and at slightly lower listening levels, the Solemate Max is a winner that can put out well-defined, full-bodied audio.
Design
Jabra has more or less mastered the art of making portability and ruggedness look modern and cool. Measuring 5.5 by 11.9 by 4 inches (HWD) and weighing in at roughly 6.6 pounds, the two-tone gray (with tiny neon yellow accents and cable) Solemate Max is one of the heftier portable speakers we've tested. Its rounded rectangular, ruggedized exterior is splash- and dust-resistant, with a metallic speaker grille cover on both the front and rear panels.
The top panel holds a set of controls for playback, volume (which adjusts your phone's volume rather than working independently of it), track navigation, and a dedicated button for answering phone calls that doubles as a battery status indicator. Pressing both volume buttons simultaneously mutes and un-mutes the built-in microphone during phone calls. Behind the front grille, two 15W tweeters and two 30W woofers pump out audio, aided by a passive bass radiator between them.
The Solemate Max is NFC-compatible to make pairing with certain smartphones and tablets easier. The NFC zone is located on the right side panel, along with a 3.5mm aux input, a micro USB port for direct playback from your computer, a USB port for charging other devices, and a Bluetooth on/off switch. The bottom panel has a ridged rubber, sneaker sole-like surface like other Solemate speakers to prevent the Max from moving around on tabletops. The panel holds a long notch that the included 3.5mm aux cable securely snaps into. A rubber handle on the left side panel lets you easily carry the speaker.
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Pairing with an iPhone 5s was a quick and simple process, but a little cheesy. The verbal prompts from the speaker, like "Go ahead and connect me," sound like they were recorded by a Lite-FM radio DJ.
The Solemate Max comes with a power adapter that connects to the rear panel, along with a USB cable. When fully charged (which takes roughly 2.5 hours), Jabra estimates a battery life of roughly 14 hours for music playback or talk time, and a standby battery life of up to 400 hours.
Performance
Jabra offers a free Jabra Sound app that allows you to listen to music and YouTube content with Dolby sound processing. Generally, I find any Dolby application to stereo music to be unnecessary; nothing I know of is mixed with the idea that the listener will later be applying some Dolby sound processing to the mix, so I recommend avoiding the app. However, it does allow you and your friends to compile playlists from everyone's respective phone (provided everyone has the app). Purists will be pleased by the ability to pull audio via a computer's USB port; this typically results in a cleaner signal than using a PC's (often cheaply-made) digital-to-analog converter and 3.5mm analog connection.
On tracks with deep bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the Solemate Max pushes out quite a bit of low frequency response. At maximum volume, it sounds as if distortion is just about to creep in, but it never quite does—it seems the digital signal processing (DSP) tamps down the deep bass just enough to avoid it. At that level, however, the system begins to vibrate intensely, which creates its own noise. This is only at a very high volume; at moderate-to-high levels, there's no hint of distortion. The bass response is not as thunderous as it might be with a subwoofer system, but there's plenty of powerful low and low-mid presence.
On Bill Callahan's "Drover," his baritone vocals get just the right mix of treble edge and richness in the low-mids. They never sound muddy, which often happens on systems that boost the bass too much and don't apply enough presence in the high-mids. The drums on this track also get a little extra low-end, but keep from sounding heavy or unnatural. This track sounds best when the spotlight belongs to the guitar strumming and Callahan's vocals, and the Solemate Max does a laudable job of maintaining this focus at moderate-to-loud levels.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop's attack gets enough high-mid presence to slice through the busy mix, and the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat have just enough gusto to make themselves prominent. However, mostly their top end and less of their truly deep frequencies come through. Vocals on this track remain clear and in the forefront regardless of who's rapping or singing.
Classical tracks, like John Adams' "The Chairman Dances," lack much of a low-end presence through the Solemate Max. The primary focus stays on higher register strings, brass, and percussion, while the lower register instruments have a more subtle presence. This is more or less how it should be; classical mixes aim to sound as natural as possible, and that partly means not boosting the lows tremendously as we often hear in pop, hip-hop, and electronic tracks. Things by no means sound thin here, as there's a strong presence in the low-mids.
If you like the overall sound description of the Solemate Max, but are looking for something smaller, the original Jabra Solemate and the Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Speaker III($599.99 at Amazon) are both solid options, but their lower prices and more portable designs mean a trade-off with the Solemate Max's power. If you don't care about portability, and just want the best Bluetooth system in this price range, the Marshall Stanmore and the Soundcast Melody($449.99 at Amazon) (which is technically portable, but even bulkier than the Solemate Max) are both great options. At $400, the Jabra Solemate Max is a solid performer and built to be taken on trips and withstand some minor abuse. The deep bass issues at top volumes are relatively minor, but a slight disappointment for such a large, expensive speaker. Unless you listen exclusively to electronic music and hip-hop, however, it shouldn't be a deal breaker, and the Solemate Max makes up for it with solid design and clear, vibrant audio at more moderate volume levels.
The Jabra Solemate Max is a powerful, rugged portable Bluetooth speaker that delivers a solid audio experience across most genres, though deep bass can be an issue.
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