REVIEW: KitSound Sonar Bluetooth Speaker

An 80s disco in your pocket.

KitSound are known for making speakers and headphones in some weird and wonderful shapes (we should know - we've reviewed a tonne of them). But making your music sound great is usually all a speaker can offer... until now. That is because from now on you'll be watching your music as well as listening to it, and it's all down to the Sonar Bluetooth Speaker.

Most portable Bluetooth speakers are designed to be charged up, dropped into your bag, and then used when you need some tunes, no matter where you are. Although great for creating some musical ambience in the most unlikely of places, they hardly effectively recreate that summer you spent in Ibiza hitting the Ministry of Sound every night, do they? Well the KitSound SonarBluetooth Speaker... won't, if we're honest, but it will add a whole new dimension to your musical interludes.

On the front of the tiny speaker is a panel of LED lights which change colour and flash along to whatever songs you are playing though it. There are five LED themes which blink happily away in different modes, with our favourite being the four-square block theme - just like the lights on an 80s DJ's sound system ("We've got some great tunes for you tonight, ladies and gentlemen. To kick us off, here's a little Duran Duran.").

So it looks great, but what about the sound reproduction - the real reason you bought it? The 4W speaker does a very good job, especially with heavy bass. Although smaller battery-powered speakers like this are never going to blow you away, it does serve to provide pretty decent sounds when close by. It's 'room-filling', but only when the room is quite small. When outside it is great for picnics, or to provide the BBQ chef with a little musical relief (and to drown out the sounds of people constantly asking when the sausages will be ready). All that exterior is fun is aided in no small way by the KitSound Sonar Bluetooth Speaker being water-resistant and supplying six hours of playback on one charge.

So a pretty robust speaker in its own right, that offers the added appeal of getting funky with its bad self.

£30

Available from www.amazon.co.uk

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