- The SoundUp battery-powered Bluetooth amp is launching on Kickstarter
- 100W of mono class D amplification, and two can work in a pair
- 40 hours of playback on battery, 1kg (2.2 lbs) weight
What's more convenient than taking one of the best Bluetooth speakers to the beach? Taking some heavy analog speakers, speaker wire and a battery-powered amplifier to the beach. Er...
It's not the best pitch I've ever pitched, I'll admit. But the SoundUp portable amp is a clever little thing, albeit one with a very specific niche. It's designed to take passive stereo speakers, power them and add Bluetooth streaming to them, and all without requiring a power socket.
This isn't the first device to stream to analog speakers, of course: the likes of Bluesound, Elipson and WiiM have made compact Bluetooth and Wi-Fi amps that'll happily bring streaming audio to passive speakers.
But to the best of my knowledge, this is the first battery-powered Bluetooth option, and it's also considerably more affordable than more advanced amps. Where the do-everything Bluesound Powernode Edge is $749 / £599, the SoundUp is simpler and on Kickstarter with an early bird price of $159 (about £118 / AU$240 before tax and shipping).
SoundUp portable Bluetooth amp: key features
The SoundUp is a more modest device than Bluesound's one, so you don't get features such as Apple AirPlay. But you do get Bluetooth 5.1 and a wired aux input going into 100W of Class D amplification, which is pretty impressive.
However, this output is in mono – you can pair two SoundUps for stereo, which still isn't a bad price. If you run it on battery, the promise is up to 40 hours of playback time (I assume this drops a bunch if you try to power a multi-driver floorstander), though it can also run on wired power over USB-C.
The SoundUp supports speakers with impedance of 3 to 8 ohms, peaking at 100W into 3 ohms and "closer to 90W peak with 4-8Ω".
The sales pitch here is that the SoundUp enables you to take advantage of old speakers, speakers that "were high-end in their day, built with real wood, quality drivers and tuned acoustics that cheap modern Bluetooth boxes can't match. Today, you can pick them up second hand for a fraction of their price."
And that's absolutely true: there are some really lovely speakers going for a song on places such as Facebook Marketplace. Although I wouldn't say that most of them are particularly portable, especially the ones with real wood and tuned acoustics, so when you team them up with the 1kg (35oz) SoundUp that's quite a lot to lug around.
So as much as I love the oddness of the amp, I'm not going to be ordering one for me, though perhaps some people will love the idea of their speaker location being free from the tyranny of power outlet placement.
Still, the Kickstarter has raised tons more money than its initial funding goal so it's clear that there's demand for this rather unusual amp. You can find out more here, on the official Kickstarter page.
➡️ Read our full guide to the best Bluetooth speakers
1. Best overall:
JBL Flip 7
2. Best cheap:
JBL Clip 5
3. Best high-end option:
Bang & Olufsen A1 3rd Gen
4. Best party speaker:
Tribit Stormbox Blast 2
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