Arctic S111 BT Bluetooth Speaker Review

[section_title title=”Conclusion”] Conclusion

I’ve had my hands on a variety of Bluetooth speakers lately, so how does the S111 BT stack up?

Starting off with the design, and aesthetically the speakers are a mixed bag for me, having a range of colours is certainly going to prove popular but the finish itself looks and feels quite cheap to me; I’ve only been using my pair about a week and there are already a few scuffs and scratches on them. I would much prefer a matte finish, or perhaps the soft touch plastic like we see on Bitfenix cases, that would certainly help the speakers feel higher quality.

In terms of physical design, I quite like the two speaker arrangement, it does give the impression of a wider sound field and it certainly looks unique. I have two complaints though, the first being that the power button is too small for my liking, compared to the massive volume buttons. The second is that the whilst the exposed driver cones look cool I think it might be all to easy for something to damage them so for me some kind of mesh covering them would be preferable.

Moving on to performance and the S111s aren’t bad at all for the money you spend. They aren’t tinny as you might expect with such low output drivers, neither are they muffled in the midrange like most entry level speakers. I do feel like the absence of some kind of bass radiator/ported enclosure design is a shame given the size of them would easily allow this. On the whole though, I’d say they offer solid performance for the price point.

So the last question is are the S111 BTs good value? Considering the decent battery life, unique design and reasonable sound quality I’d say so yes, they aren’t without flaws but those are mitigated by a wallet friendly price point.

A big thanks to Arctic for providing today’s sample, I hope to see more from them in the future.