Beyerdynamic Phonum wireless bluetooth speaker review

Bluetooth speakers are typically designed for listening to music, but you can also use them as hands-free speakerphones for calls when connected to your smartphone or computer. Interestingly, the wireless speaker I’m reviewing here works quite differently from mainstream options, in that it doesn’t focus on the music listening experience at all.

The Beyerdynamic Phoneum is a wireless speaker designed specifically for voice communication – whether it be phone calls or audio and video conferencing over the Internet – and connects to a source device via Bluetooth or a wired USB connection.

Price is around Rs. 25,000 in India, the Beyerdynamic Phonum is an expensive speakerphone, but specially designed to let you take calls without taking your hands off your keyboard. It’s intended to be used for business calls whether you’re at home or in the office, and works with both a smartphone and a computer. Is this great wireless speaker worth the price? Find out in this review.

Design and Specifications Beyerdynamic Phoneum

Most consumer wireless speakers are designed with portability and weather resistance in mind, so the Beyerdynamic Phoneum stands out with its subtle and sophisticated look.

The round body has a flat, soggy base, with a narrow section just above that you can use to wind a cable. The grille is on the top, though the speaker is on the bottom and touch controls are all around. The physical power switch and USB Type-C port are on the back for charging.

Some controls – volume, microphone on/off, Bluetooth, and microphone direction mode – are visible at all times, while call answer or reject controls and microphone direction indicators are illuminated only when receiving calls and during calls. You can leave the Beyerdynamic Phonem on standby and take calls as they go, or turn it on when you need it.

Using Beyerdynamic Phonemes is quite simple; It connects to a source device via Bluetooth and activates its controls on the device when it is in use, depending on whether it is on standby or is active. You can also connect it to a computer using the included USB Type-C to Type-A cable, which establishes a wired connection between the two and also charges the Phoneum’s battery.

The Beyerdynamic Phonum uses the company’s Gecko microphone technology, which has three voice tracking modes and can detect sounds coming from any direction around the speaker. You can cycle through the modes while in use and choose the one that best suits the purpose. Fixed mode follows a single speaker to a fixed location; Follow mode moves the follow to the active speaker in the group; And 360 mode picks up sound from all directions.

The speaker has a 2-inch down-driver, 120-10,000 Hz frequency response range, automatic echo and noise cancellation for the microphone, and Bluetooth 4.2 for connectivity. The Beyerdynamic Phonum packs a 2,600mAh battery that lasts for around nine hours while streaming audio. When used as a speakerphone system, I was able to get around 16-17 hours of total battery life, toggle between sleep modes, make a few phone calls, and occasionally play music .

Beyerdynamic Phoneum Performance

Unlike most of the wireless speakers I’ve reviewed, the Beyerdynamic Phoneum focuses strongly on the voice calling experience. Although I occasionally used this speaker to listen to music, I mostly connected it to my iPhone and stood on standby during the work day, making and receiving phone calls when needed. I have also used it several times with my MacBook Air for Zoom conference calls.

The tuning of the barydynamic phoneme is, as you would expect, appropriate for the voice. Output was crisp and accurate, and voices were loud and distinct enough to be heard clearly in a quiet room up to 10 feet away. Additionally, connectivity was stable as long as the phone was within about 3m of the speaker.

I found the commands particularly easy to use; I could see who was calling on my smartphone and quickly press the call answer button on the Beyerdynamic Phoneum to pick up without disrupting my workflow in my home office. Adjusting the volume was also easy, though I didn’t often need to do it in a quiet room, and turned it up only when I wanted someone else in the room to hear what was happening. Was saying.

The Gecko microphone system is as good as it looks and was able to accurately pick up my voice from about two feet from the speaker. Environmental noise cancellation and echo cancellation also worked well to make sure my voice was clearly picked up.

While callers reported that it sounded like I was talking on a hands-free device because of the distance between the speaker and microphone, my voice was still clear. Calls weren’t affected by typical clarity issues people encountered when using a hands-free device.