OUR VERDICT
The No Bounds is a great little Bluetooth speaker – sustainably designed, smart looking, tough and lightweight. You won’t be holding conversations with it any time soon, but it delivers great sound and is very reasonably priced.
FOR
- Stylish design
- Eco-friendly materials
- Good depth of sound
- Great battery life
AGAINST
- No virtual assistant support
- No dedicated app
- Price and availability
The No Bounds speaker has a recommended retail price of $59.99/£59.99/AU$99.95, making it the second cheapest option in House of Marley’s Bluetooth speaker lineup behind the diminutive Chant Mini.
Design
Like all of House of Marley’s products, the No Bounds speaker is made from as many natural and sustainable materials as possible – but not at the expense of style. Its base is cork, which helps keep weight down and means it’ll bob merrily if you happen to drop it in water (it has an IP rating of 67, meaning it can survive a dip into a meter of water for up to half an hour). A robust dust cover conceals aux and USB-C ports, so you can take it out and about without worrying about sand, dust and dirt getting inside either.
The outer bumper is made from recycled silicone, which has an attractive speckled appearance, and the grille is House of Marley’s proprietary Rewind fabric made from hemp, cotton and recycled plastic. The speaker comes supplied with an aluminum carabiner clip and charging cable wrapped in the same Rewind fabric.
The No Bounds is available in black, white, red and blue – the latter two of which are tastefully muted shades rather than the somewhat gaudy hues of many Bluetooth speakers (we’re looking at you, Ultimate Ears). It fits nicely in one hand at 108mm in diameter, and is 51mm high.
Our only complaint is that the icons for the speaker’s buttons are lightly embossed in the silicone rather than printed, which can make them tricky to see in low lighting. Still, ink isn’t always particularly eco-friendly, so it’s an understandable decision and helps keep the speaker looking smart and minimalist.
Performance
Pairing a single speaker with your phone is simple – just turn the No Bounds on, then hold the Bluetooth button and look for it on your phone. It’s also possible to pair two speakers at once, but this is a little more complicated and involves holding down a combination of buttons.
This little speaker produces a surprisingly big sound. We compared it back-to-back with the larger UE Boom 3, and although the No Bounds doesn’t deliver quite as much bass (bass and treble can be adjusted by double-pressing the volume controls), its sound is nevertheless well rounded and impressively loud. The speaker’s impressive battery life means you’ll enjoy that sound for up to 10 hours.
The main drawback of the No Bounds is its lack of smarts – there’s no support for Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri here, and there’s no app for adjusting sound profiles as there is with the UE Boom 3. This speaker is, however, a fraction of the price of the Boom 3, so that’s not unexpected.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a robust Bluetooth speaker for traveling, the House of Marley No Bounds could be precisely what you need. It’s small and unfussy, with a tough design and great battery life.
It lacks the smart features you’ll find in top-end Bluetooth speakers, but for simply enjoying music on the road, it’s seriously impressive.
Source: techradar.com
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