I had the pleasure of spending a recent long holiday weekend with Tenqa’s latest offering in the world of nearly cable free speaker solutions, the Tenqa SP-109 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker. (I say nearly because they do require a power cord, though Tenqa does have alternatives that do away with that as well.) There were two criteria that were particularly important to me when investigating a Bluetooth speaker system. First was Bluetooth range, I had fears that while I might not have any cables connecting my Bluetooth enabled music player to the speakers, there might be a pesky invisible tether keeping my phone all but docked next to the speakers. The second was audio quality, I don’t claim to be an audiophile but I have a developed enough of an ear to tell the difference between a *thud* and whatever that hollow noise that speakers often produce as a sad alternative to it.
First off I’m very happy to report that when pairing my Motorola Droid smartphone with the speakers the range was fantastic. I could literally walk anywhere in or around my 2 floor house (4 bedrooms) without noticing a hint of crackle or static. I believe this was due to my Droid having v2 Bluetooth, and I’m not sure how prevalent that is in mobile devices (so buyer know thy media player’s capabilities). On the connectivity front my only real complaint was that after somewhat long pauses or re-pairing the device there was occasionally a brief muted period before the device reached full volume (I won’t necessarily attribute this to the speakers, but it is a minor complaint).
As for sound quality, we’re talking about a sub $100 speaker system so it would behoove any potential buyer to bear in mind that you’re not going to get home theater quality sound out of this device. That being said the sound was very serviceable for most standard home applications. I listened to a variety of my favorite podcasts on it and it was nice to be able to seamlessly transition from in car listening to in home listening, and it has good clarity and volume. As for music, it performed reasonably… I could notice a substantial difference when moving from these speakers to my car audio system (unmodified ’97 Honda Accord, impressive I know), but it wasn’t the sort of difference that would stop me from using it. I’d probably describe it as missing on the high and low ends making the overall audio quality somewhat flat. I found myself wishing that the device had a line out so I could use it simply as a Bluetooth receiver for the other speakers I have in my living room (the kind that go *thud*).
Setup was a breeze (open box and plug in device) and the Bluetooth range and reasonable sound quality made it something I’ll continue to use. That being said I won’t be DJ’ing any holiday parties with these speakers; I like my parties to have a bit more in the thud department! All in all I liked the Tenqa SP-109 Bluetooth Speaker, it did exactly what it promised.
(Disclaimer: Gizmos for Geeks received a complimentary review copy of this product.)