Libratone One Click - Review 2022

Libratone continues to expand its lineup of Bluetooth speakers, introducing more than affordable and more easily portable options like the 1 Click. The $199 One Click is outdoor-friendly, and features a fashionable design that can be customized with included handles and loops for toting and hanging. From an audio standpoint, the speaker delivers very solid sound for a system this size. It doesn't, even so, deliver the audio quality we've come to expect from a $200 speaker—so it seems a chip overpriced. Nevertheless, if you're in dearest with its cool design, you won't likely be terribly disappointed with what y'all hear (which can be adapted using EQ presets in the free Libratone app).

Design

Offered in black, greyness, carmine, or teal, the One Click can sit on any i of its side panels, but is designed to stand up with the multi-purpose button closest to the top. Information technology's splashproof, with an IPX4 rating—so it tin get wet, but y'all shouldn't dunk it in water. The 8 by 4.7 by 1.vi-inch, 2-pound frame has speaker grilles on both the front end and rear-facing panels, only curiously, the tweeter is positioned to burn down up, so placing the speaker this fashion is important—if you lot take the speaker upside downwards, or lying on one of its longer side panels, you lot're line-fishing the tweeter away from yous, which will most likely result in a less crisp audio experience.

The front face houses the capacitive touch-sensitive multi-part button, which controls volume with a swipe effectually its circular edge. Borer the center plays or pauses your music. This is also the button for answering phone calls.

The mic intelligibility for the built-in speakerphone is decent, not cracking. We used the Voice Memo app on an iPhone 6s to examination it, and at times the recordings sounded somewhat garbled—but the mic should suffice for taking calls on the become.

Libratone One Click inline Beneath the forepart-facing grille, a 3-inch woofer delivers the bass, aided by two passive bass radiators situated in the center of the panel. Above them, the upwardly-facing tweeter delivers audio that fires off of a cogitating, dome-shaped surface, providing you lot what Libratone describes as 360-sound. When angled upward, the tweeter does practice a skilful job of filling a room, merely the 360 event lessens when placed on any of the other side panels, equally mentioned, and y'all tend to hear a lesser amount of treble.

The back panel houses a Power button and the covered aux input and Micro USB charging connections. The speaker ships with a long clothbound charging cable, but there'southward no audio cable for the Aux input—a bit of a surprise at this toll.

One pleasant blueprint surprise: The outer rubber band of the Ane Click is completely removable. This allows you to easily pop out the prophylactic feet on all of the side panels and replace them with the snap-in strap locks for the included safe handle. There's also a hook that snaps into any of these removable feet sockets. In this sense, the design is quite versatile—hang information technology from a strap or a claw, or set it upright or on its side.

Given its price, it volition exist surprising to some that the One Click is a mono speaker, merely Libratone has been manufacturing even higher-end mono speakers for some time. It could exist argued that with a speaker this size, yous don't get stereo separation anyway, but if the thought of a $200 mono speaker irks you, you'll probably want to look elsewhere (or spend another $200 on a 2d speaker—you can assign the left channel to one and the correct to the other using the Libratone app).

The Libratone app, unlike most free apps that come with speakers, is very well designed and rather useful. You lot can adjust the volume and playback, and more importantly, switch between various EQ settings. There are quite a few offered for the One Click: Classical, Piece of cake Listening, Jazz Lodge, Live Concert, Pic Time, Neutral, Rock the House, Soft & Comfortable, and Speech. The differences between all the modes are relatively subtle, just certain modes bring out particular frequency ranges more others, so it's worth fiddling with if neutral mode, which is our preference, isn't doing it for you. The App also has some built-in Internet radio stations under the main menu, so it'southward a worthwhile complimentary download that adds some functionality and features to the One Click.

Libratone estimates the 1 Click's battery life to be roughly 12 hours, merely your results will vary with your volume levels and your mix of wireless and wired playback.

Performance

The One Click uses digital bespeak processing (DSP), and the result on tracks with intense bass content can be a bit abrasive—the bass will trigger a lowering in the overall volume of the track. It's all in the name of preventing baloney, which is a noble pursuit, only it'south leap to irk purists who want to hear the dynamics of the mix. The louder you lot pump the Ane Click, the more smoothed over the peaks and dynamics become on tracks with strong bass presence. On some tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the One Click delivers a palpable, powerful low frequency thump, but the electronic pulsate hits show too much for the DSP at pinnacle volumes and there's some distortion here and there.

Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better thought of the One Click'due south overall sound signature. The drums on this runway can often sound overly thunderous on bass-additional speakers, but here, they sound restrained—not thin or weak, but certainly not the thunderous sound nosotros might hear from a larger, bass-forrard organisation. Callahan's baritone vocals get a pleasant, rich depression-mid presence through the One Click.

LIbratone One Click On Jay-Z and Kanye W's "No Church building in the Wild," the kick drum loop's attack gets a skilful amount of loftier-mid presence, allowing information technology to stay sharp and slice through the layers of the mix. The loop's sustain also gets a off-white amount of low-mid presence, adding a niggling heft and thump to its presence in the mix. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with laudable depth for a speaker this size, but you lot won't be fooled into thinking in that location'southward a hidden subwoofer in the room. The vocals go a solid high-mid and loftier frequency presence that keeps them in the forefront of the mix, cleanly and clearly, without things ever getting over-sibilant.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel Co-ordinate to the Other Mary, get an added bass presence, boosting the lower register instrumentation somewhat and calculation a bit more body and resonance to the mix. The higher annals brass, strings, and vocals ain the stage, however—they have a very crisp, punchy presence through the One Click. This runway likewise seemed to get far less squashing of the dynamics from the DSP. Regardless, across all genres, the One Click's audio signature is rather sculpted—crisp, boosted highs and a solid, rich bass presence. It's a pleasant sound generally speaking, even if it'due south not entirely accurate.

One more problem with the DSP: It often will fade in the opening seconds of a new track while it'southward analyzing the dynamics. It won't be a deal breaker for everyone, but it can squash the exciting opening moments of tracks that brainstorm suddenly with a powerful attack.

Conclusions

The I Click feels similar a bit of a puzzler—information technology sounds great for a speaker of this size, but non necessarily for a speaker of this price. So information technology exceeds our expectation for a small portable wireless speaker, but at $200 or less, there is enough of excellent contest to consider, like the Editors' Choice Bose SoundLink Mini II. Nosotros're likewise fans of the Soundcast VG1, the Sony SRS-XB3, and the JBL Accuse iii—all are quite portable and offering a potent audio experience for less money. The Libratone One Click does offer solid audio and an bonny, versatile portable design, just compared with these other strong contenders, it feels somewhat overpriced.