Fender ELIE 6 Bluetooth Speaker Review: Big Sound, App on the Way

The ELIE 6 stands 7.7 x 4.8 x 4.1 inches and weighs 4 pounds. It’s not afloat dunkable similar the caller Sonos Play, but it offers basal particulate and h2o absorption (IP54). Like the Play, you tin stereo-pair it with a 2nd talker implicit Bluetooth, oregon radical aggregate Fender speakers together.

On the apical panel, analog measurement dials for some the talker and amplifier modes springiness the ELIE a retro vibe, but they tin beryllium a spot of a hindrance successful regular use. This isn't the archetypal portable talker with the Fender sanction (see the Fender Tuefel collaboration speakers), but it's the brand's archetypal solo attempt, and it shows.

The main dial controls some measurement and power, and I had to crank it adjacent afloat measurement to capable retired my room. Its analog plan means you can’t power it from your telephone oregon different root device, truthful you’ve got to set some measurement settings separately. There’s besides nary auto-shutoff, dissimilar astir speakers I test. Luckily, the ELIE 6 offers up to 18 hours of artillery life, equating to astir 17 hours successful my marathon trial astatine astir 75 percent volume, truthful that's not overmuch of an issue.

A play/pause cardinal acceptable betwixt the dials keeps playback power simple, but there’s a regulation successful that you can’t skip guardant oregon backward with treble oregon triple taps similar astir competitors.

The input power is simply a power you won't spot successful astir different speakers, letting you set the amplifier broadside of things for a microphone oregon guitar (or integer devices similar a synthesizer utilizing line-in mode). Swivel astir the back, and you’ll find aggregate inputs, including a USB larboard to powerfulness the talker oregon your phone, the microphone/instrument input, a headphone output, and adjacent a 48-volt phantom powerfulness cardinal that lets you plug successful and powerfulness studio-quality microphones. It’s a beauteous loaded bundle for the musically inclined.

Unfinished Business

Musicians volition beryllium little impressed with the ELIE 6's integer chops. Rivals similar the Positive Grid Spark Mini portable amplifier showcase the powerfulness of integer processing, with an app that lets you research a labyrinth of plug-ins to adhd each colour of distortion, reverb, and echo effects to your guitar oregon bass. The Fender offers zero plug-ins and doesn’t adjacent see an app for basics similar EQ controls—pretty important for dialing successful guitar tone.

Fender’s reps accidental an app is successful the works for “later this year” with features similar an EQ and plug-ins, citing a timeline of Q2 oregon Q3, and erstwhile that happens it volition dramatically amended the experience. Since the talker is lone presently disposable for preorder, I americium hoping that it drops connected launch, but I wasn’t fixed immoderate factual timelines. After aggregate motorboat pushbacks, the talker inactive feels similar thing of a enactment successful advancement without the app improvements, but I person to trial it arsenic what it is close now, not what it could be.

Power Block

It was hard to beryllium excessively perturbed astir the ELIE 6’s integer drawbacks erstwhile I cranked it up and deed Play. I unboxed the talker connected the aforesaid time arsenic Bruno Mars’ archetypal solo medium merchandise successful a decade, The Romantic, and spent the nighttime jamming to the speaker’s awesome mentation of its Latin beats and incredibly catchy melodies portion shaking up immoderate homemade mai tais. It was a large vibe.