BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT:
Anker continues to humble its competition by offering premium performance at a value-oriented price with its new Soundcore Rave Partycast BT speaker. The Rave Partycast does pretty much everything a portable party speaker should...it plays loud, clear, deep, long, is impervious to splashes and other liquid-related accidents, and adds in some fun RGB lighting just to keep things lively--DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED.
PROs:
- Excellent, full-bodied sound that matches, and even bests, some of the competition costing more than twice as much. We've set it head-to-head against the outstanding performance of the Sony SRS-XB501G and found the Anker to come out on top in terms of sound quality, especially clarity in bass and mid-bass when played back at higher volumes
- Loud enough for sound to carry across a large pool/backyard without distorting during playback--the BassUp setting and added passive radiator at the back really adds some nice heft to the lower registers that makes for a fun and engaging listening experience--even if the speaker is just a bit too small to pump out the bass beats that can rattle your rib cage. Vocals and acoustic guitars are lively and clear without becoming too sibilant or harsh, especially when the volume creeps up past 75% or more
- Rubberized feet on the side and bottom give you the option for vertical or horizontal placement; add in the ruggedized feeling texture and the design feels suited to the beach, poolside or patio without leaving you worried about marring the finish if you want to set it down on the sidewalk or pavement...there's even a threaded tripod adapter on the bottom if you've got the itch to mount these mid-air or higher
- All inputs and the DC charging/power socket are covered by a THICK, tethered, waterproof rubber panel that sits flush inside a recess on the back panel; the IPX7 rating of the entire enclosure means the speaker is rated against full submersion in water. Now, we didn't chuck our speaker into the pool to verify this claim, but it continued to play unabated even after some--"aggressive" splashing courtesy of our youngest daughter. Suffice it to say, you can confidently use this party speaker at the beach or poolside, or in an area where "errant drink splashing" from your guests might be a risk
- Soundcore app is a bit more complete than some companion apps we've seen for other BT speakers...use it to customize the LED/light show presets (there are 5 to start with), EQ and bass settings, switch sound-sources on the fly (i.e. go from BT to USB or AUX), play DJ (complete with scratch and drum sound effects as well as manual LED/light control), adjust sleep/power-down settings, and even use the speaker to provide lights and accompanying sound effects for some...ahem...party games (spin the bottle, truth or dare, or timed word games). I honestly can't see anyone seriously using the party game feature very often, and the light DJ function is probably more compelling if you have multiple speakers strewn about and connected via Partycast (Anker claims you can link up to 100 Partycast speakers at once--yikes!) to amplify the sound and light effects, but the app controls seem complete enough to let you do what you would want to with a party speaker without a lot of constant attention/intervention required
- Soft-touch, no-profile buttons on the panel underneath the ergonomic carrying handle give you complete control over power, BT connection, bass boost, lighting, Partycast connections to other speakers, volume & playback controls and even access to Google/Siri--and again, because the entire shell is waterproof, you can confidently skip tracks or adjust playback volume poolside without having to worry about finding a towel to dry off first...definitely a plus if you want to make adjustments on the fly without fumbling for your phone
- Anker claims battery life up to 18 hours...I honestly don't think that's an unreasonable expectation. We used our Rave Partycast poolside every afternoon for a week in a combination of LED/music and music-only configurations and the battery indicator still showed at least 1/4 charge on the battery. While we haven't let it play continuously to full discharge, this speaker should easily last you through an all-afternoon/night get-together on a single charge, even playing loudly and with lots of LED effects for good measure. Oh, and if you absolutely can't find an outlet or wall charger, the USB port on the back of the Rave Partycast will even keep your phone's battery charged up and topped off while it's connected--NICE!
CONs:
- The rubber feet that accommodate two different speaker orientations are definitely appreciated, but they barely raise the speaker off the ground...setting the speaker on very rough or very uneven surfaces (bricks, gravel, etc.) still means a good portion of the plastic shell is sitting on hard/craggy items. Yes, the ruggedized plastic finish feels like it can take a little punishment, but slightly more ground clearance would have been appreciated to help keep the speaker looking its absolute best
- Remember, this is a PARTY speaker, it is not meant for critical listening (or even stereo, for that matter). Nevertheless, there seemed to be just a bit of hollowness in the mids when playing particularly bassy music (EDM, metal, etc.). But it wasn't that the bass was unnaturally accentuated or bloated, only that bass reproduction seemed to take priority over some of the other frequencies during particularly complex passages, especially those with many multi-layered instruments and vocals all vying for attention at the same time. However, in a party-type or poolside environment, or even just outside of a perfectly quiet bedroom or office where you could really concentrate solely on the music, I honestly don't think anyone would much notice or perhaps even care
- It would be really nice if the wall-wart power supply and DC power port was replaced with a USB-C charger and onboard USB-C port; USB-C connectivity and chargers are becoming far more commonplace now, but rather than being able to leverage our growing collection of USB-C cables and chargers (many of which were made by Anker!) that are already lying all over the house/car, we have yet another dedicated power supply we'll have to keep track of...
