INTRODUCTION

   Have you ever felt that you've seen everything in your area of expertise (study/work) only to find out that you were wrong? Well i don't know if this happens a lot to you but in the electronics industry there's always something new that manages to catch us off guard either because its superior performance compared to similar products or because it's innovative. Well that happens to be one of the things we all like about this industry (a friend of mine says that there's always a surprise around the corner) so we're not really complaining. Now as you all know portable speakers use one or more drivers and sometimes even a passive bass radiator to produce sound a "rule" which pretty much applies to all kinds of speakers. Well our friends from Bass Egg seem to have a different idea in mind and so today we're testing their latest VERB portable speaker.

   With the Bass Egg, EVERYTHING IS A SPEAKER. But what does that mean??? Traditional speakers employ a moving diaphragm, or speaker cone, to generate air disturbances; these disturbances are what we hear as music. The Bass Egg, on the other hand, has no speaker cone. Instead, it sends vibrations into the object it is sitting on, thus turning that object into a “speaker.” In today’s world of smartphones and tablets, portability is paramount. Consumers want to enjoy their music no matter where they are, and it is no surprise that the portable speaker market has exploded in recent years. But traditional portable speakers are plagued by small speaker cones and small, narrow sound that lacks lower midrange and bass. Simply put, traditional portable speakers can’t move enough air to produce full-frequency sound. Suddenly, with the Bass Egg, everything in your world has the potential to be a full-range speaker. The only limitation is your imagination.. These objects could range from a table, the hood of a car, a skateboard…. you name it. The result? Huge, full-range sound, generated by a device that fits in the palm of your hand.

   When we heard rumors about a portable speaker which could transform most surfaces into a full-range speaker we naturally expected to see an egg shaped device (the company is called Bass Egg) but as you can see from the above picture the device looks much better than that (in a way it looks like the two ends of an egg inverted, an hourglass as some people who've seen it have pointed out). So the VERB is actually a speaker that transfers/projects audio signals via vibration onto most available surface materials like plastic, wood, glass, metal, fiberglass and more (rock and concrete for example are excluded materials). The device packs a total power output of 10 Watts, can achieve a frequency response up to 50Hz-16kHz at roughly 100dB, has both 3.5mm and Bluetooth connectivity and comes ready with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery which can give it up to 10 hours of life. Now we've seen many portable speakers that sport a better frequency range but we like to decide things based on our ears so let's see what the new VERB is all about.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

We received the gun metal version of the VERB inside a white/grey box which has a picture of the speaker at the top and a drawing at the bottom.

The product name is placed at the front of the box right above the company name.

Bass Egg has placed the VERB inside a thick piece of foam (covered with soft material).

Unfortunately the box contains just the VERB, USB to miniUSB charging cable and the user manual.

THE VERB

The anodized aluminum body of the VERB weighs 523g, stands 95.5mm tall and and measures 63.7mm in diameter. The top is made out of plastic to assist the broadcast of the Bluetooth signal.

As usual to showcase the size of the speaker at hand we placed it right next to the JABRA SOLEMATE MAX and the PITBULL RockDoc speaker.

Bass Egg has placed a drawing at the top front of the VERB and their name at the bottom.

Moving at the rear from left to right we see the miniUSB port, power LED, Bluetooth pairing/power on switch and the Bluetooth activity LED.

At the base we see that this is actually the VERB-G model (Gunmetal/Grey possibly) and that it outputs 20W and not 10W as the specs-sheet says.

This is where the "magic" happens so the VERB basically transfers audio via this metal/rubber extension of the speaker onto any surface you place it on.

CONCLUSION

   The VERB is actually not the first speaker we've seen that uses vibrations to transfer/project audio onto other surfaces but it seems to be the best choice out there currently not only because of its anodized aluminum body but also because of its quite good audio quality. Of course as Bass Egg points out in their manual this depends on the type of surface you decide to use the VERB on but during our tests wood followed by glass yielded the best results (wood if you prefer bass and glass if you prefer mids). I was hoping to use the VERB on metal but the vibrations are too much for most sizes so i don't recommend it. Unfortunately we don't have a yacht on which we could test the speaker to see if it can use the entirety of its massive fiberglass surface like Bass Egg suggests in order to deliver better sound so we're just going to leave this open just in case we can do so in the near future. As for the battery well during all the weeks of testing we never went over 7 hours so the 10 advertised by Bass Egg don't seem like farfetched number and besides even 7 is very good. Our only "recommendation" to Bass Egg is for them to place touch controls at the top of the device just like with their previous product version (only came with a 3.5mm connection) since we feel that there are many people who may want to control the volume and song selection from the speaker (not to mention that it would look way cooler).

   You can currently find the VERB Bluetooth vibration portable speaker by Bass Egg for just USD99.95 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 130Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag which may seem as a bit on the excessive side especially in the EU (you can also purchase the rubber "shells" seen above for around USD13/15Euros). However you need to remember that the VERB is not your average everyday portable speaker not only because it looks like no other and has an anodized aluminum body but also because it uses vibrations to project sound on most materials which gives it more volume than most similarly sized speakers. Of course much like most things if you just want a low-cost portable Bluetooth speaker there's no need to look this way, if you do want something special however and you don't mind paying a bit more to get it then the VERB by Bass Egg is a clear winner.
PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Innovation
- Good Audio Quality (Wood/Glass)
- Good Volume Levels
- Battery Life (Up To 10 Hours)
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Price (EU)
- No Media Controls
- No Material Outputs Good Bass/Mids/Highs