Devialet Mania (Deep Black)

As an audiophile who attended audio engineering school who is picky on audio quality, I can say this is the most portable bluetooth speaker to get the party jumping in your dorm, studio apartment, or hotel room.With that being said the listed 30hz frequency response on the low end on the Mania isn’t the best but you can’t find another portable bluetooth speaker this small giving you 30hz. There is no perfect Bluetooth speaker. You have to compromise on sound or portability. The more expensive Devialet phantom gives 20hz response but is a lot heavier and a lot more expensive and is not bluetooth. There is always a trade off with quality and portability.Portability: 5/5 starsSuper light and easy to carry around and you can buy the case with strap.Sound Quality: 3/5 starsThe Mania compromises on mid frequencies to give you the bass on the low frequencies. If you listen to music that focuses on mid range like folk and classical music, you will be disappointed with the Mania. The mid frequencies sound suppressed even when you use the equalizer in the app. I listen to mainly, hip hop, reggaeton, and EDM. This captures most of the bass in those songs but not the 20hz deep 808 bass. Overall it gets the job done of what I’m after. Something super portable and has some kick ass bass to get the party started in my hotel or studio apartment.Battery Life: 1/5 starsYou get 20-25 minutes of play time on a full charge unplugged before it dies.Who the Mania is for:Understand why you are paying a premium for the Mania. You are paying for portability and 30hz frequency response for bass. All those JBL Bluetooth speakers go only as low as 40hz. They are not playing back the bass frequencies that makes you wanna dance. The Mania does.You are going to feel Mania is underwhelming and overpriced with the sound quality if you place it on a counter top or table.If you use this outdoors or on the beach it will sound like overpriced trash.You have to use the acoustics of the room and place it in a corner between two walls where bass frequencies linger to increase the amplitude of those low frequencies. This thing is tiny but when you place it in the corner of the room, the 30hz frequency response will have your apartment/hotel neighbors complaining of disturbing the peace if you listen to rap and edm.

I love everything about this beautiful speaker this design how it performs at the max volume sounds the same and it doesn’t get distortion at all and wherever I put the speaker it sounds awesome. Totally recommended friends and family if they love quality speaker this is the one to go!

全体音質⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️★高音質⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️中音⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️重低音⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️★(置く場所による)値段なりの音質

I bought this speaker for basically one reason; I primarily listen to EDM and hip hop and wanted a portable speaker that wouldn’t DSP out all bass frequencies below 40hz. I don’t need a ton of bass, I just wanted something that wouldn’t completely remove parts of my music, this does that. It’s rated for 30hz - 20khz, but it will output below 30hz, just at somewhat reduced volume.I wanted to get that out of the way because if you’re someone who listens to EDM and/or hip hop/rap, you‘ve probably realized that you have a different definition of what constitutes “mind blowing”, “deep” or “low” bass than most reviewers on audio-centric websites. Most music without synthesized instruments does not often dip much lower than 40hz, which makes it a lot easier to be satisfied with small speakers. Bass compresses/stops getting louder at the same rate as the rest of the frequencies between 50 and 65% volume, depending on the frequency. It does benefit from giving one of the bass drivers something to shoot into or reflect off of. If you place it near a wall or ideally a corner, the bass is improved, and if you put it on its side so one is down firing into a bed or couch, you can actually feel the rumble. It’s kind of insane to see coming from like 3” woofers.So, onto everything else. I was fairly surprised at the speaker’s response outside of bass as well. I assumed that the midrange would suffer, because outside the push-push woofers, the mania only has four 2” full-range aluminum drivers. Somehow, these are able to deliver midrange very well. Maybe there’s some crossover magic and the woofers are delivering the lower midrange as well, but it doesn’t seem like it, because vocals and guitars don’t suffer when the bass hits.The soundstage is decent at higher volumes. Below 40%, it’s pretty obvious the sound is all coming from a very precise location. Devialet seems to be improving on it, as after 2 weeks of ownership, I’ve already had two firmware updates come in. Devialet posts basic changelogs in news posts on their websites, both have had a bullet point about improving audio rendering.Battery life is pretty terrible. I don’t mind it too much personally, because really I was looking for a speaker that was portable in the sense of bringing it places easily in a backpack or luggage and plugging it in. USB-C charging makes it more convenient. It’s only IPX4 rated, so bringing it to a beach or pool seems kind of sketchy. I would probably at least get an adhesive USB-C plug. I’ve only used the included charger, but I’d imagine that 45/65w laptop chargers would work. Worth noting, this thing can push 176 watts peak, but the included charger sure as hell isn’t 176w. The battery can drain while it’s plugged in, I’m not sure if this has battery health management or something. It does have a quad-core ARM processor and takes about a minute to “boot”, so I think it’s fairly advanced.The biggest downside, other than cost, is that it has far too much Bluetooth latency to be used for movies and TV. AirPlay latency is significantly better, but you’ll only be able to transmit from Apple devices. The fact that there’s no AptX or LDAC support shows this device is catering to Apple-users far more than Android. Devialet doesn’t reveal the native audio specifications, but AirPlay sound quality is noticeably better on top of the latency. The Devialet app sometimes has issues tracking changes you make like EQ and volume. You’ll change the sliders, and the speaker will clearly make the changes, but visually the app will revert to what it had before. If you minimize the app and come back, it will then refresh. Minor gripe, and Devialet is improving this with both app and firmware updates. I’m honestly pleasantly surprised at Devialet’s commitment to improving the device for existing owners.I’m not sure what else to say. All in all, it’s easily the best portable speaker I’ve owned, though also double what I’ve paid for any previous portable speaker. It is truly the only speaker of this size where I can listen to EDM and rap, and it sounds full, like nothing is cut out or missing. You’re getting all of the sound, maybe some will be recessed if you go above 65% volume, but at least it’s there.

IN SHORT: Amazing bass for its size (especially the frequency response) and great treble, but lack of mids let the sound down. Unreliable app. Mostly solid build quality. Not worth the $800.Background: My interest in audio lies between that of an average consumer and an audiophile. My previous portable speakers were the JBL PartyBox 310, HK Onyx Studio 6, and Anker Soundcore Motion+. Bass is important to me but I wanted something small, leading me to this speaker. This is my very first premium audio product, so I'll be extra critical in my review.Build/Design: This tiny ball weighs roughly 5 pounds. It feels solidly built and the feeling of picking it up and carrying it around will remind you that this thing is $800. It has a quirky design (my cousin calls it the Portal speaker), but I think it looks more cool than tacky. The handle is sturdy and makes it easy to carry with 2 fingers. In light grey, it will complement a marble countertop. The exposed woofers come to life when playing the right music. My nitpick is the top of the handle, where a very visible manufacturing mark is present (hopefully it's visible in the photos).Features/Usability: This is a Bluetooth/Wi-Fi speaker, but I've only listened to music over Bluetooth. I also used the built-in Alexa, which worked without issue. There is a Devialet app that can control the speaker via Wi-Fi, but it's unreliable. It worked fine directly after the initial setup, but sometimes it wouldn't find the speaker despite being on the same network. In the app, the "equalizer" only has an option for "low" and "high" instead of the traditional multi-band EQ. There's also an adaptive sound feature that optimizes the sound based on its surroundings, but I didn't notice it in action.Due to it being a smart speaker, the boot time is ~40 seconds which can get annoying. After that, it takes ~10 seconds to connect to my phone via Bluetooth. Battery life is not great, it lasted 5 hours with bassy music at 60% volume. The USB-C charging is nice though.Sound: With proper placement, the Mania produces clean, mind-blowing, and subwoofer-like bass. It’s picky with placement compared to my Onyx Studio 6, as the bass output sounds relatively dead in some (but not all) places where the Onyx gives good bass. You obviously won't get the same amount of raw output as a larger speaker like an Onyx or PartyBox, but there's still a lot of bass. The standout feature is how low it can go, especially compared to those larger speakers.Devialet claims a slightly exaggerated 30Hz extension, but it still outputs an appreciable amount there (and even a bit lower). Other portable speakers seem to hit a wall at a certain frequency, but this has a more gradual roll-off. As a result, basslines on certain songs won't suddenly disappear if it goes too low, it'll just play slightly softer. This is noticeable in songs like Joeyy - From, which the Mania plays much better than the Onyx.Thanks to the driver placement, the sound dispersion is very good and the quality won’t degrade much if you’re not directly in front of it. The Mania won’t fill large rooms with rich sound, but it excels in spaces that are 400 ft^2 and under. Unfortunately, the lack of mids makes this speaker less than ideal for genres where vocals and instruments are a more important part of the listening experience.The 4 full-range drivers produce a clear and open-sounding treble without being too harsh, but instruments and vocals on certain tracks seem like they’re hiding. Though this speaker does well with EDM, the lack of mids can make genres like jazz and soft rock sound a bit hollow and lacking in soul. This can make the speaker sound smaller than it is, even if it has great bass.In terms of overall loudness, this speaker does well under 60% volume. Above that, the bass compresses and the trebly nature of this speaker makes it sound harsh. Below that, the speaker performs consistently across the volume range.Conclusion: The Mania is definitely not worth the $800 that Devialet is asking. However, it fills a portable speaker niche that no other company has with its tiny size and amazing bass performance. In that regard, the cost is somewhat justified, but I would have priced it at $600 max. Considering its big bass and clear treble, the lack of mids can make some tracks sound incomplete. With that said, I’m interested to see if other companies will create a direct competitor to the Mania.An alternative to the Mania is the aforementioned HK Onyx Studio 6, which is slightly larger but can be picked up for $100 new. Though it has a more front-firing and less clear sound than the Mania, it doesn’t have the same issue with mids being recessed. It doesn’t go as low, but the bass output is slightly better. Plus, you can pick up 2 and play them in stereo for ¼ the cost of the Mania if space and aesthetics aren’t an issue.