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SummaryTight and Meaty SoundBattery Life and WaterproofingPairing and ConnectivityTrue Wireless Stereo Sound (TWS)Get 25% off a ZENBRE Z8 PlusThe ZENBRE Z8 Plus, is a reliable, high-quality Bluetooth speaker that's happy to hit the road or brave the elements. With long battery life, stereo pairing and full, punchy sound from a 20W amplifier, these speakers make a great choice among the premium Bluetooth speakers available today. /P>
Sound is loud and room-filling, as you'd expect from the 20-watt amplifier that powers the speaker. There's plenty of headroom on the volume knob, providing plenty of excess power to pump out your jams. The sound is highly defined, with clear, punchy highs that clearly convey ambient noise. The sound color is not as clear as high-end speakers, but the audio quality is comfortably in line with other Bluetooth speakers in the same class.
The larger size of the ZENBRE works in its favor. With a larger device body, larger and more powerful speakers can be added. Higher power amplifiers can be used. Bigger batteries can increase battery life, and the overbearing weight of the ZENBRE speaker could probably knock you out. The deeper, louder sound also benefits from the higher power amplifier included in these speakers compared to less powerful but popular models.
Autonomy is satisfactory, the 6600 mAh battery offering 20 hours of listening. You can also use the speaker's powerful battery as a power bank, connecting your mobile device to charge it from the speaker's power reserves. The speakers' water resistance, listed in the IPX6 waterproof rating, makes the ZENBRE a decent candidate for a travel speaker or just something to keep in your kitchen or bathroom.
Although not completely waterproof when submerged, the speaker is protected even from the strong jets of water produced by a shower. As described in the IP rating documentation:"Water projected in powerful jets (12.5mm nozzle) against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effect." »
Pairing is quick and easy. When you turn on the device, press and hold the power button to enter pairing mode. This will allow you to select the speaker on your streaming Bluetooth device, such as your phone or PC. Once you have selected the device, you will receive a verbal audio prompt to confirm that the connection was successful. In addition, the device offers two preset equalization curves to subtly enhance the bass and treble. While that's not terrible, it's hard to see why we'd rather jam the recording with a pre-cooked EQ we can't control.
As a sidebar, Bluetooth status sound updates sound a plot like famous screen and talk star JK Simmons, which makes speaker pairing and unpairing a hilarious experience for me. I've been terrified more than once to suddenly hear the voice of Portal 2's combustible lemons echo through my kitchen shouting "Power off!" with a distinct sense of assertiveness and mastery of one's domain. For me, the speakers could probably turn off silently without a problem.
Audio sync when watching videos is good, better than cheaper Bluetooth speakers. At least that's when the video plays from start to finish. Pausing and resuming video will often introduce a slight lag between image and sound. This is an old problem with Bluetooth. While some speakers handle it better than others, the Z8 was average in performance.
As explained in the translated manual, two ZENBRE speakers can work together to provide wireless stereo sound. Appearing as a single Bluetooth device with stereo sound capabilities, the speakers seamlessly translate your audio files into appropriately mixed stereo sound.
The speaker you initiate the True Wireless Stereo (TWS) pairing with will be the left speaker and the secondary speaker will be the right speaker. The color of their status LEDs differentiates the stereo channels. The left channel speaker will show a blue light, while the right channel speaker will show an orange light. This makes it easier to position the speakers intelligently.
Once in TWS mode, the speakers appear as a new device in your Bluetooth connection menus. Repair with this new device and you can send stereo sound through the Bluetooth connection.
The sound quality is just as loud as the individual speakers. Sometimes it takes a while for the stereo algorithm to “catch up” to the first few seconds of audio playback. It can be out of sync, echo in one channel, or temporarily mono. But once the wheels started spinning, we were able to play heavy stereo tunes with a fully synchronized stereo image.
Overall, we were impressed with the sound, build quality, and connectivity options of the ZENBRE Z8 Plus.
MakeTechEasier readers in the US can get 25% off the ZENBRE Z8 Plus with code 25QPB82Y . UK readers can get 25% off with code GY52VP9E .
