Bluesound’s Pulse Mini produces nice sound, meshes with different Bluesound merchandise for multi-room eventualities, and goes nicely past your commonplace air-pusher with the power to play a plethora of file sorts from USB storage and shared folders in your community, along with on-line streaming providers and radio. It helps Bluetooth, in fact, however you may as well add it to your property community with or and not using a cable.
This $500 speaker is comparatively cheap by boutique audio model requirements, however that’s a good stack of coin for many customers. And for the worth, it ought to ship a greater out-of-box expertise up entrance and be outfitted with higher controls for the lengthy haul.
First-time setup
The Bluesound packaging appears worthy of a $500 speaker, and the speaker itself comes sheathed inside a material bag quite than plastic. Prime shelf, child! Okay, possibly a shelf beneath black velvet, however I’m a house-pour kinda man.
The ethernet and energy cables are present in cardboard pockets that encompass the speaker within the field, which brings me to my first minor gripe—the absence of three.5mm analog and digital optical (TOSlink) cables. There’s a three.5mm-to-optical adapter, however that’s it. This may very well be thought of eco-conscious quite than parsimonious, should you both don’t want them or have spares mendacity round. However that journey again to the shop for a cable is a ache.
Bluesound is a bit stingy with the assistance, too. There’s a quick-setup sheet, nevertheless it just about begins and ends with telling you to plug the speaker into an AC outlet after which obtain the Bluesound app. That may be high quality if there have been complete assist in the app. There isn’t. As a substitute, the app sends you on-line the place you need to wade by a sequence of “generally requested questions,” which could—or may not—let you know what it’s good to know.
The Bluesound Pulse Mini Internet browser interface.
The Pulse Mini options Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ethernet, USB, and streams from providers. There’s additionally a cell app and a Internet interface (surf to the gadgets URL after it’s linked to your Wi-Fi or ethernet). A complete consumer’s information is so as.
Sound
Usually, I’d dig into the design and options at this level, however because the Pulse Mini’s sound is what redeems all its peccadilloes, I’ll go to with that first. To be completely trustworthy, I wasn’t in love with the best way Bluesound EQ’d the Pulse Mini out of the field—only a wee bit too thumpy and flat to my older ears. Happily the corporate gives software program treble and bass controls with as much as 6dB of minimize or increase utilized in a really musical style. I used to be capable of dump sufficient bass and add the contact of shimmer that I personally go for.
Conversely, you may tweak it for sufficient thump that even dancing revelers could have little to complain about—in a small room at any price. The 60-watt Pulse Mini is fairly loud, however it’s after all of the “mini” within the lineup. The marginally bigger 80-watt Pulse 2 is probably going the bolder social gathering animal.
For some cause you may’t see the Pulse Mini’s drivers by the grill on this photograph; you may in actual life. It’s a fantastic sounding speaker, however as with practically all single-box, front-firing audio system, the stereo area is on the slim aspect.
I’ve just one minor gripe; my common grievance about any speaker that isn’t two audio system: a slim stereo area. That’s a problem with the class, not the Pulse Mini particularly (though side-firing drivers have been recognized to assist in the correct acoustic setting).
All informed nonetheless, the Pulse Mini is an excellent sounding speaker; actually, I’d say it’s light-years higher than what you discover within the $100 to $300 vary.
Observe: I examined the the field each streaming through Wi-Fi, which is the equipped app’s most popular technique, in addition to Bluetooth from Android gamers that additionally assist the aptX codec. The Wi-Fi was barely cleaner, nevertheless it was a close to factor.
Codecs and providers
I’m a little bit of a codec hound, and Bluesound helps fairly a number of of them, together with two of my favorites that many audio distributors skip: Home windows Lossless and Opus. Opus information are uncommon, nevertheless it’s a really high-quality lossy commonplace. And I just like the title. Ha. MQA can be supported. Some TechHive editors are enamored with MQA; personally, I’m nonetheless attempting to trace down exhausting technical data on what precisely may make that codec particular.
After all, the Pulse Mini helps the standard suspects, together with MP3, lossy WMA, Apple (lossy AAC and lossless ALAC), FLAC, and WAV. The speaker helps sampling charges from 32kHz to 192kHz at depths starting from 16- to 24-bit.
The record of streaming providers supported is equally complete and consists of Spotify, Amazon Music, TIDAL, Deezer, Qobuz, HDTracks, HighResAudio, Murfie , JUKE, Napster, Slacker Radio, KKBox, Bugs. TuneIn Radio, iHeartRadio, Calm Radio, and Radio Paradise are additionally supported.
All in favour of integrating the speaker into your sensible dwelling? You will discover assist for DIY options like Lutron in addition to customized methods similar to Control4 and Crestron. (We didn’t consider this characteristic.)
Design and options
Again to the Pulse Mini’s bodily attributes: It is available in black or white, cuts a pleasant profile, and options minimally distracting lights that may be dimmed or turned off. It measures 13.2 inches throughout, 6.1 inches deep, and 6.eight inches excessive Weighing about eight kilos, it’s reasonably hefty as a high quality speaker ought to be (to transmit bass to acoustically coupled surfaces). A helpful recess on high of the unit serves as a deal with.
The highest can be dwelling to my least favourite a part of the Pulse Mini: the management plate. You’ll discover quantity up/down, subsequent/earlier observe, and play/pause symbols, however they’re positively lifeless. Whereas you’ll ultimately hear the results of a press (apart from quantity, should you’re paused), there’s a slight lag. It’s a barely odd and never solely nice tactile expertise with no click on, vibration, mild pulse, or every other suggestions indicating that you just certainly touched the right management.
The controls for the Pulse Mini look good, however to our lights (pun meant), the dearth of any sort of suggestions once you contact them aside from the consequence makes for a much less regular expertise.
The entrance of the Pulse Mini is dwelling to the facility indicator mild, which could be dimmed or turned off (at the side of the top-mounted management panel), in addition to twin 2.5-inch tweeters and and a Four-inch woofer (ported to the rear) hidden behind a grill.
It’s on the again of the unit the place issues get attention-grabbing. There’s an ethernet port; a type-A USB 2.zero port, for playback from thumb drives and the like; a Mini-USB port for Bluesound’s diagnostics; a three.5mm jack for headphones; and one other three.5mm jack for each analog and TOSLink optical enter. I’ve already mentioned the cables, or lack thereof. There’s additionally an AC jack—the unit doesn’t run on batteries.
As you may inform from the rear panel, the Pulse Mini can play again from analog, optical, and USB sources. It additionally options Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The Pulse Mini is “tri-amped;” that’s, there are separate amps for the left/proper audio system and woofer. As talked about, it’s rated for 60 watts complete, however Bluesound doesn’t publish how a lot is directed to the woofer and the way a lot goes to the full-range drivers.
App and options
Most customers will depend on the BluOS cellphone app to configure and management the Pulse Mini, however you may as well achieve this utilizing your PC and an online browser. Kind within the Pulse Mini’s IP handle, hit enter, and also you’re introduced with the identical configuration choices discovered within the cellphone app, simply not as politely organized.
What’s lacking from the browser app is a media participant and any kind of library capabilities. Telephones are nice, however there are causes critical work is completed on computer systems. I for one would’ve significantly appreciated having the ability to manage the varied sources and management playback from inside my browser.
The library web page from the Bluesound BluOS app.
Becoming a member of a Wi-Fi community was straightforward. Certainly, the one actual configuration snag I bumped into was discovering the shared folders on my community, of which there are numerous. The BluOS app has a “uncover community shares” operate, nevertheless it didn’t work for me. This may occasionally have one thing to do with my Home windows workgroup not rocking the default title. Regardless, manually getting into URLs and folder paths is just not one thing many customers are comfy with.
Bluesound BluOS app with bass/treble increase sliders.
Whilst you can log onto music-streaming providers utilizing the browser app, you want the cellphone to truly use them. It’s the one place the place you may choose songs and sources. Whereas the cell app is mostly straightforward to make use of, on my Android cellphone, it didn’t choose up the songs I’ve saved domestically. It’s the one participant I’ve ever tried that doesn’t. Delicate annoyances like that may add up.
Conclusion
You may pay much more for loudspeakers that sound no higher than the Pulse Mini and that don’t have its myriad capabilities. And, if there’s a option to be made, I’ll at all times go for sonic excellence and options over the niceties of set-up and hand-holding. Ultimately, the Pulse Mini’s foibles are livable.
However for goodness sakes, should you’re going cost $500 for a speaker, present an honest consumer’s information, throw within the required cables, and design controls that click on, blink, flash, buzz, or do one thing once you press them.