Harman Kardon has more or less mastered the art of combining sexy, elegant design with quality audio performance, so the pocketable Esquire Mini Bluetoothspeaker comes as a bit of a surprise. Visually, the speaker lives up to the Harman Kardon branding, but its audio performance does not distinguish itself from other modest-sized competitors. Unfortunately, its price does distinguish it: At $149.95, the Esquire Mini feels about $50 more expensive than a speaker that tends to distort should be. A speaker this size needn't have deep bass response, but a speaker this price shouldn't suffer from distortion. If you don't mind a slightly higher price and a slightly larger frame, the Editors' Choice Bose SoundLink Mini£159.95 at Currys offers far better sound quality with similar portability.
The Esquire Mini exudes class, looking like the kind of gadget a CEO has in his or her briefcase or coat pocket. Measuring 3 by 5.5 by 0.9 inches (HWD), the 8.4-ounce speaker is offered in black, brown, crème, and white models, and sort of looks like a cigarette case. Alas, the Esquire Mini has no hidden compartments, just a retractable kickstand so that the speaker can angle its sound outward rather than directly upward. Two 27mm, 4-watt drivers behind the textured, metallic grille and Harman Kardon logo handle the audio.
The aluminum side panel houses Power, Bluetooth pairing, Answer Call/End Call, and Volume Up/Down controls, along with a micro USB port for charging (a sturdy charging cable is included), a USB port for charging external devices (using the same cable), and a 3.5mm Aux input along the left side. The volume controls work with your phone's volume levels, not independently of them. A leather strap in also included, and attaches to the side panel near the ports. The microphone for using the speakerphone function is located on the opposite side panel.
Pairing the speaker with an iPhone 5s was a simple, quick process. Harman Kardon rates the Esquire Mini's battery life at about 8 hours on a full charge, but your results will vary depending on how loudly you play your tunes.
Performance
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," you wouldn't expect a speaker the size of the Esquire Mini to output much deep low end. At $150, however, it's reasonable to assume that the speaker will not distort even if it can't produce booming lows. Unfortunately, the Esquire Mini distorts at volume levels well below maximum on this track: At roughly mid-level volume, the drivers start to have notable issues. So, if electronic music with intense low end makes up much of your music library, it's best to avoid this speaker.
The Esquire Mini redeems itself on tracks that lack such throbbing bass. Bill Callahan's "Drover," for example, sounds crisp, clear, and rich, with his baritone vocals getting just the right mixture of low-mid warmth and high-mid edge. At top volumes the Esquire Mini gets impressively loud for its size, with no distortion to speak of on tracks like this.
Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild" also evades distortion despite having some sub-bass synth hits that could easily cause issues. At top volumes, the Esquire Mini gets far louder than one would expect from such a compact frame, even if the frequency range sounds like it's all mids and highs. The vocals come across clearly on this dense mix, and the attack of kick drum loop is sharp enough to slice through the mix and make up a bit for the lack of serious low end. The deep bass on the track is too low for the Esquire Mini to even attempt to reproduce, so distortion doesn't occur; The Knife track presents a wider range of deep low-end that's pushed to the forefront of the mix rather than playing the role of accent. So, with some hip-hop and electronic tracks, the speaker will be able to perform cleanly. It's just on a track-by-track basis whether you'll experience wild distortion.
On classical tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the vocal parts and higher register strings and brass rule the spotlight. They don't sound overly bright or harsh, but with very little low frequency presence to push the lower register strings and percussion parts higher in the mix, the end result is a sound signature that is noticeably lacking in bass response, even at high volumes. Distortion doesn't enter into the equation here; everything is delivered cleanly, but it can sound thin.
It's true that we can more or less expect a speaker this size to be weak on bass, but that brings us back to the high price. While the Esquire Mini is certainly a good-looking, highly portable option, there are more compelling speakers in this price range. The Editors' Choice Bose SoundLink Mini offers laudable low-end and an attractive design, though it's a bit larger and more expensive than the Esquire Mini. The Jabra Solemate Mini$54.97 at Amazon is also a solid choice that manages to be quite portable and still offer a decent sense of bass, while the less stylish Panasonic SC-NT10$61.99 at Amazon avoids distortion on even deep bass tracks, despite its very portable size. If all of these options are out of your price range, you can find distortion-free Bluetooth audio for far less: The Editors' ChoiceLogitech X300 Mobile Wireless Speaker$61.02 at Amazon is much less expensive and offers full sound for its small frame. For $150, the Esquire Mini is best suited for rock, pop, and hip-hop mixes that avoid extremely deep bass, but classical tracks sound a little thin and truly deep bass tracks distort.
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