Most readily useful portable cordless speaker ВЈ200+, Awards 2015. Award-winner continues to be a great performer, but competitors have actually raised the bar Tested at ВЈ300

With What Hi-Fi? 14 September 2016

Our Verdict

In 2008, KEF established the high-end Muon speakers. They certainly were restricted version aluminium towers, sculpted by commercial designer Ross Lovegrove, and additionally they cost ВЈ140,000 per set. Yikes!

Fortunately, their pint-sized descendant, our Award winner as of this cost part of 2015, will be a lot more available. A £300 portable wireless speaker so it’s from high-end to bookend for the KEF Muo.

Build

The Muo could be cheaper than its general, however the premium pedigree is straight away obvious. Lovegrove hasn’t strayed far from the original Muon design and so the external shell is mainly aluminium, which KEF claims is inert and well suited for eliminating unwelcome vibrations.

The wedge form isn’t particularly sleek, but a grille offers it exactly the same hourglass that is sculpted regarding the Muon. So far as portable speakers that are wireless, this can be one of the most appealing ones we’ve seen.

It seems pretty tough, too, as well as its fat and structural integrity are in keeping with one thing Colonel Mustard might use within the Library.

It does not have waterproofing abilities, nevertheless, which rules down using the Muo to rainy festivals and summer time picnics.

Features

In the inside are a couple of drivers that are 5cm a bass radiator. The motorists are a unique design in which the diaphragm is a mix of dome and cone parts decoupled with a flexible membrane layer.

The theory is always to emulate the behavior and faculties of KEF’s Uni-Q motorists in an easier, more technical means.

One of many features let me reveal Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX (superior Bluetooth if you have got a source that is compatible, with a variety of 10 metres.

Pairing is a quick procedure, specially should you it through NFC (near field interaction). You are able to set with two KEF Muo devices for a stereo setup or a multi-room celebration mode.

No Bluetooth? Then you can certainly relate to a 3.5mm cable, though it is not included within the package. Charging is via microUSB – a lovely cable that is braided – and the full cost will give you around 12 hours of playback time.

Noise

How about the sound performance, however; does it nevertheless remain true after a year’s worth of improvements by its peers and rivals? To a level, yes.

The KEF Muo is a performer that is versatile effective at doing portable justice to Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Prince’s Like a Mack alike. It brings an energy that is undeniable the celebration.

The Muo’s performance is defined by quality, tight timing and wide characteristics. Insight and panache is instantly obvious – an impact that never ever wavers even as we switch from cheesy stone to commercial pop music via cinematic soundtrack (Kiss, Taylor Swift and Star Wars, in the event you’re thinking). This thing that is little hugely musical.

Thinking about the field is only a little over 20cm long, there’s a sense that is good of. Nevertheless, there’s no getting from the measurements of the thing, and therefore you ought ton’t expect it to rock the space. But exactly what the black singles KEF Muo does not have in scale and force that is brute accocunts for for with articulacy.

Little speakers that are wireless too often sound cramped and confused, but this isn’t those types of occasions. Musical elements are well given and organised area to inhale. Also throughout the more chaotic pieces – anything by Atoms for Peace, for instance – it is not a struggle to help make down different textures and polyrhythms.

The KEF Muo can be utilized horizontally or vertically, and an internal sensor claims to optimise the noise centered on its orientation.

We choose the noise as soon as the Muo is positioned horizontally, since it seems more focused and balanced. Moreover it advantages from the speaker’s rubber legs, which angle the speaker helpfully upwards just a little.

Verdict

In most cases this is certainly adequate to keep it close to the the surface of the tree with regards to portable speakers around £300, but there’s no getting from the fact the industry has managed to move on somewhat within the last year.

Pit it up against the Dali Katch, for instance, and you also observe that a supplementary ВЈ30 can get you greater scale, more room, greater feeling of dynamics and a standard more detailed and musical noise.

There’s still room when it comes to Muo in forex trading, and you also wouldn’t be disappointed to possess purchased one year that is last it nevertheless being your go-to cordless outfit, but there’s no denying it is losing ground to its more youthful opponents.

Whenever we had been perusing the marketplace now, we’d decide for the Dali, but that’sn’t to express the Muo is not well worth a audition that is healthy.