All of them can also hook up directly to a computer, tablet, or smartphone through a wired USB connection-a useful feature considering the scant possibility of getting a room full of people to deactivate Bluetooth on their phones. The Bluetooth speakerphone models we tried were the Airhug 01, the Anker PowerConf S500, the Beyerdynamic Space, the Cyber Acoustics Essential SP-2000, the Emeet M3, the Jabra Speak 510, the Poly Sync 20+, and the Raycon Work Speaker. Simulating the chaos of corporate meetings Or rather, they start by huddling around-and then they gradually wander off to different parts of the room, where the reverb from their marble floors and wood-paneled walls starts to swamp their sentences. When I call them, they often put an iPhone in speakerphone mode and then huddle around it to talk with me. I’ve been pining for a good speakerphone ever since the pandemic hit in 2020. I’ll confess that part of this quest was personal. We found their promise to pluck people’s voices cleanly out of the noise and echo irresistible, so we collected several leading models and put them through the toughest tests we could conjure up. (Well, almost.) These compact devices combine the functions of a conference-call microphone and a portable Bluetooth speaker. Did you just agree to proofread a contract for the boss-or to take care of their basset hound for a week?įortunately, new, sophisticated Bluetooth speakerphones aim to make conference calls sound as if they were produced by Quincy Jones. What should be a productive conversation can turn into a frustrating exercise in lip reading, clairvoyance, and disambiguation. The causes are manifold: cheap webcam microphones, noisy conference rooms with terrible acoustics, and most annoying of all, TED Talk wannabes who wander the room when they speak. With many meetings now combining employees in a conference room with colleagues on Zoom, office workers who can barely figure out their home stereo often struggle to get everyone coming in loud and clear. We don’t consider any of these features essential, but they can be convenient add-ons.As if freeing up printer jams and troubleshooting Wi-Fi problems weren’t enough, audio engineering has now joined the list of frustrating technical tasks that office workers are expected to master. Special features: Bluetooth speakers may offer extra features, including speakerphone capability, multi-speaker pairing (the ability to play the same material through two Bluetooth speakers at once), and built-in lighting.The sonic differences among these codecs are insignificant next to the easily heard differences among the speakers themselves. Bluetooth codecs: We don’t award extra points for inclusion of additional Bluetooth codecs beyond the standard SBC codec found in all Bluetooth devices. Playback controls: Because you can control the playback from your Bluetooth source device (usually a phone or tablet), we don’t require the speaker itself to have playback controls, but it’s a convenient perk.Less-expensive models often don’t sound better or play much louder than a phone’s built-in speakers. We prefer speakers with an Ingress Protection (IP) rating, which tells you exactly how dustproof and waterproof a speaker is. Ruggedness and waterproof design: We give priority to speakers that are built to survive the knocks and bumps of travel.In selecting our top pick, we prioritize speakers that are compact and easy to toss into a backpack or beach bag. Portability and battery life: We focus on models that have rechargeable batteries and are designed to take a trip to the beach or the park with no hassle.
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