Braven 405 Hd Portable Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker Review

The Braven 405 is a small, water-resistant, highly portable Bluetooth speaker. It's listed at $79.99, but nosotros've seen it for as much as $twenty less on multiple sites, including Braven's. For the cost, you get a pool- and trail-friendly speaker with some bang-up extra features—most notably a born kickstand and the power to charge mobile devices. If audio is your peak priority in a portable speaker, however, there are ameliorate options in this toll range. Simply if the outdoor-friendly design of the 405 appeals to you, its bright audio functioning is good plenty to warrant the price.

Design

Available in seven colors (black, blue, pinkish, orange, purple, white, and neon yellowish), the 405 measures 3.vi by 5.9 by 1.2 inches (HWD) and weighs ten ounces. It's a flat, easily portable design, and an IP67 rating means it's shockproof and can be submerged in a meter of water for up to 30 minutes. The front panel is all speaker grille, with a matte plastic finish that complements the bright color choices. Behind the grille, two drivers and i passive radiator deliver the audio.

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The 405 has a very handy born kickstand on the back console, which allows you to angle the drivers toward your ears when on tabletops or lower surfaces. Or you can lay the 405 apartment on its 4 safe anxiety, also on the back panel.

The left panel houses the controls—there are rubber-covered buttons for ability, play/pause, and volume. The play/pause button besides controls call management, as well as Bluetooth pairing if you hold information technology in longer. The plus and minus buttons do double duty as volume controls (that work with your mobile device's main book levels) and runway navigation buttons, depending on how long you lot concord them in. We're not huge fans of this blazon of setup, because it'south easy to skip a track when you mean to adjust the book.

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The right panel has a snap-close embrace that protects the pinhole reset push, the battery status push, the micro USB port, the USB port, and the 3.5mm aux input, for which at that place is no cable. In fact, a micro USB charging cable is the only included accessory, just considering the speaker itself doesn't need much protection and the charging cablevision can likewise be used to charge your mobile device using the 405's battery, there's non much to gripe nigh in the accessories section.

There's a absurd LED indicator on the correct console every bit well. It's ane of many touches, similar the kickstand, that brand the 405 feel like more than thought went into its design than often occurs in this price range.

Braven judge the 405'southward battery life to be roughly 24 hours, which is excellent, but your results will vary with your mix of wireless and wired playback, also equally your volume levels and whether yous employ it to power your mobile devices.

Performance

The 405'due south price and dimensions tell u.s. that it'due south not likely to be a powerhouse with a massive bass sound. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, similar The Pocketknife's "Silent Shout," the 405 predictably runs into some minor distortion trouble—and it also dances across slick surfaces when the kickstand is up (due to the bass vibrations). At slightly lower levels, the 405 seems to handle the bass a little better, but it must be said that the speaker doesn't get very loud in the showtime identify. If yous're using it outdoors, you might be inclined to max out the book, and on certain tracks, this volition event in baloney.

Bill Callahan's "Drover," a rails with far less deep bass in the mix, gives a better idea of what the 405'due south overall audio signature is like. The drums on this track can sound thunderous through speakers that heavily boost the bass, but here the drums are shifted somewhat into the groundwork, a subtle tapping instead of a heavy or insistent thump. Callahan'south baritone vocals go a prissy sense of richness in the low-mids, and the treble presence they need in the high-mids and highs in order to maintain their contour and clarity. At college volumes, surprisingly, the drivers sound similar they're teetering on the border of baloney, but they never really get at that place like they do with deep bass tracks.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick pulsate loop gets enough of high-mid presence, lending its attack a definitive sharpness that allows it to slice through the layers of the mix while its sustain gets a solid sense of bass thump, fifty-fifty if it it seems like nosotros're feeling the passive radiator creating vibrations more than we are hearing deep lows. The sub-bass synth hits on this rail don't actually distort at tiptop volumes, only they also don't sound terribly prominent in the mix—we get more of their raspy peak notes. The vocal performances on this track are delivered with clarity through the higher frequency ranges, rarely, if ever, veering into overly sibilant territory.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound well-baked and bright through the 405—there's some lower annals presence in that location, but the spotlight clearly belongs to the college annals strings, brass, and vocals. In other words, this is a bright-sounding speaker, which bodes well for outdoor usage. Merely information technology'southward non a terribly powerful speaker, and it'south defective in the lows a bit, even for something this size.

Conclusions

If you're looking for a mega-bass bonanza, the unfortunate truth is that y'all won't notice it in this cost range. However, in that location are some options that offering a stronger sense of bass than the Braven 405—unsurprisingly, the more money yous spend, the more than depression end you typically get. We are fans of the outdoor-friendly Sony SRS-XB3 ( at Amazon Canada) , the Turcom AcoustoShock Tough ( at Amazon Canada) , and the EcoXGear EcoCarbon ( at Amazon Canada) , as well as ane of our favorite upkeep-friendly models, the JBL Clip ii ( at Amazon Canada) . For $80 (or less, if you practise a little poking around online), the Braven 405 is a solid selection if your main priority is a speaker that can withstand water, tolerate being dropped, and charge your mobile devices on the get. It's a features-offset, audio-2d organisation, and in that regard, it fares quite well. The audio isn't bad, it'due south just not this speaker's meridian selling point.

Braven 405

Cons

The Bottom Line

The Braven 405 speaker delivers decent Bluetooth sound in an exceptionally outdoor-friendly, hands portable design.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/braven-405

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