You may well be shopping this weekend, attempting to get a head start on your holidaze. A popular item are iPod docks which, while being a great idea, have a major problem; They’re either tethered to your car or a wall outlet for their oh so necessary power feed. Portable speakers also have their downside, namely fidelity. They sound about as good as that oatmeal box+string telephone you made when you were a child. What, you didn’t make telephones? Anyway, if you have an Android or iOS phone, it’s also nice to have a wireless speakerphone so you can share tunes, streams and podcasts, while being able to take calls without having deal with the tinny speaker in your phone…
Some bright geek folk have contemplated this very problem and have come up with a rather tidy and very high fidelity solution. Soundmatter’s foxLv2 Bluetooth is a small but hefty powered stereo speaker with a Bluetooth radio. foxL manages to jam two dual voice coil, full range speakers with a passive radiator, and four channels of amplification into a space only 5.5" in length and 9.5 ounces in weight. All this tech resides in a light weight composite case that I thought was metal until I read the spec sheet.
Spigots and controls are few and easy to use. The front has only one control, a Call Answer/End/Reject button with an LED that indicates what Bluetooth is up to. On one side, there’s a standard 3.5 mm stereo mini–jack, like you’d find on an iPod. That side also has the power jack, which mates with the included wall wart. A thoughtful feature of the power adapter is that it includes a set of international wall outlet prongs that can be swapped out depending on local standards. So, no need of AC adapters for the hard core road warrior.
foxL’s opposite end cap has Mini–USB jack, for charging only, and a second 3.5 mm jack, this time for an external subwoofer. Because of the device’s diminutive size, it’s incapable of creating any meaningful bottom. For those who want their booty shaken, not stirred, I tested the foxL Bluetooth with a Maxx Home MiniWoofer, a 7" cube that reproduces frequencies below 100 Hz. Sure enough, it added a heft that the foxL alone couldn’t manage on its own.
For the wireless kids, foxLv2 Bluetooth supports the latest, higher fidelity v.2.0 A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) flavor of Bluetooth. I paired the foxL to both my iMac and my phone and, in both cases, it was easy as pie. The foxL Bluetooth appears as two different Bluetooth devices, a stereo receiver for hi–fi playback, and a mono in/mono out device for hands–free phone use. When used as a hands–free speakerphone, calls were crystal clear, and the other parties had no problem with fidelity from my end.
Article comments
1 - Martin
Beware. What's really annoying about this, for the rest amazing speaker: if the battery gets low it starts to make a beep every 5sec. I cannot imagine what the reason for this would be, but is shortens the use time without reason. If you plug in the charger, you still have to wait a minute or so before the annoying beeps stops. So you better turn it of, go to the toilet and turn it on after you get back.
2 - Sean
I agree with martin however it's a warning so u have to charge it buts not needed
3 - Oliver Masciarotte
Hey guys,
I have yet to drain the batter so low that it starts beeping. foxL begins to reduce amplification when the battery is really low, that's when I know it's time for a recharge.