House of Marley Get Together Speaker Review
Organic materials and a soulful audio experience are the main objectives for the House of Marley Get Together Speaker. Quantifying how close House of Marley have been able to hit their target, we’ve had the £199 speaker blaring out music for the past two months to see if it is indeed noteworthy or not.
Design
Straight onto a good footing, the House of Marley Get Together speaker is a gorgeous sandwich of natural bamboo with an exclusive REWIND™ fabric cover filling. The bamboo faceplate featuring integrated drivers (the specifications of which prove elusive) is undoubtedly the main spectacle. Sitting around the studio on shelves, occasionally laying on the floor and, when it's sunny, venturing into the world on the opposing side of the wall, it’s a versatile design that doesn’t easily get dirty and the form factor is just small enough to be a ‘grab & go’ speaker. There is an aux input and USB along the back; in all honestly we’ve bothered to use these only once and you’ll understand exactly why later on.
Controls & Bluetooth
Couldn’t really be any easier. Separated volume, Bluetooth and power buttons make this a straightforward affair to control physically if so wanted. We command most controls wirelessly from our device, which is snappy; and speaking of Bluetooth, the signal strength will stretch for 10-15 metres and it doesn’t cut out when you wander upstairs with your iPhone either.
Battery Life
Usually brands over-promise playtime results. Yet the House of Marley Get Together speaker bucks that trend, delivering the solid 8hrs of claimed playback with much crazed volume levels at the studio. You can also use the battery to charge USB devices whilst on the move; acting as a handy reserve.
Audio Performance
The House of Marley Get Together speaker will easily fill even open plan living environments with voluminous audio. Within the bold exhibition of noise you’ll stand or perhaps dance in joy to radiant qualities that really make this wireless Get Together a comparable speaker entry to the likes of the wired Sonos Play:1 system. It’s a tight and very entertaining style of warm sound, which the bamboo no doubt amplifies and aids so reverberations and distortion are a true rarity. Bluetooth 4.0 playback performance when compared to direct aux input shows only a hair's breadth of difference. House of Marley have done a great job with the engineering of this speaker to make sure you’re not sacrificing your music library by choosing to play it wirelessly.
Along with shimmery vocal highs that can’t fail to be heard over the richly dark bass production in songs like Kendrick - It’s Too Hot Outside by ‘Anushka’, there’s also still considerable depth to vocal layers across the varied music genres we have played, and honestly, for the money, we don’t think there’s anything better we’ve heard from the wireless speaker segment. I’ll Follow the Sun by ‘The Beatles’ unveils the charming clarity of acoustic renditions and a rather accommodating middle range. Details like the faintest of guitar finger picking echoes are heard here, and such attributes escape to be audible from fellow wireless competitors like the Energy Sistem Music Box 9 or Edifier Rave MP700 speakers. Stereo separation impresses too; despite being a single unit it’s a wide sound style. Even more so, there’s a legitimate soundstage from the Get Together speaker, reflected well with instrumentals we’d describe as being somewhat compartmentalised, where the vocals become defiant in posture against raucous arrangements, reflected in tracks like The Bare Necessities by ‘Melody Gardot’ & ‘Raphael Gualazzi’. This simply isn’t the norm in this category of speaker.
Verdict
The House of Marley Get Together speaker is designed for those that don’t just want massive volume, but also a well tuned soulful sound experience that will complement your next beach barbecue, dinner party or even be used as your main speaker for the home. It’s versatile, damn right stylish and you won’t get better wireless audio performance at this price point.