Braven Stryde 360 - Review 2022

Braven makes portable Bluetooth speakers that are typically a bit tougher than your boilerplate model. The Stryde 360, at $99.99, is relatively affordable given its outdoor-friendly design that tin can be submerged in h2o. It can also become quite loud. The drivers, however, run into distortion issues at tiptop volumes, making its powerful output less of a selling indicate. At moderate levels, baloney isn't much of an issue, only in this cost range there are several solid options that don't distort at all, similar our Editors' Choice, the JBL Charge 3.

Design

Available in grey-and-yellow or dark gray-and-red, the Stryde 360 is cylindrically shaped, with a iii-inch diameter and 6.v inches in length. Its IP67 rating means it can be immersed in water upward to one meter, and it has total protection from dust ingress—in other words, it'due south perfect for hikes or for using poolside. The outer console is primarily metallic speaker grille, divided into 2 halves that encompass a unmarried driver each, firing in contrary directions. The circular ends of the speaker house passive bass radiators.

The lower panel has safe feet that go on the speaker from rolling effectually when placed on a flat surface. This is besides where yous'll find a snap-shut compartment that protects the micro USB charging port (a micro USB charging cable is included), a 3.5mm aux input, and a USB charging output, which allows you to charge mobile devices using the Stryde 360'south battery.

On the superlative panel, in that location's a rubberized array of buttons for power, play/interruption (which is also the speakerphone push button), plus/minus for volume (these piece of work in conjunction with your phone'due south primary volume levels), and Bluetooth for pairing. The book buttons double equally track navigation buttons depending on how long you hold them in—this is not our favorite button combination, equally information technology makes information technology easy to accidentally skip a rails when only meaning to conform the volume.

Near the buttons, there's a pinhole mic for speakerphone calls. The mic offers mediocre intelligibility—using the Vocalism Memos app on an iPhone 6s, nosotros understood each word, merely at that place were plenty of audio artifacts, making the overall quality somewhat fuzzy. This is more than or less par for the grade with portable Bluetooth speakers, so it'due south not a huge issue.

Braven estimates battery life to be roughly 12 hours, but your results volition vary with your book levels. Other than the included charging cable, the speaker ships with no accessories.

Performance

The Stryde 360 gets exceptionally loud for its size and toll. But on tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife'due south "Silent Shout," the speaker has trouble delivering deep lows without distorting. Baloney creeps in at moderate-to-loftier volumes before the truly deep bass comes in around the xv-second mark. At height volumes, the speaker'south drivers and passive radiators cannot handle the intense lows and there's quite a flake of baloney. At moderate levels, much of this goes abroad.

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Pecker Callahan'due south "Drover," a runway without any truly deep lows in the mix, gives us a improve sense of the Stryde 360's overall sound signature. This blazon of track is more than upward the speaker's alley—the drums are delivered cleanly, albeit without much sense of bass depth, and Callahan's baritone vocals take a strong depression-mid richness to them. The high-mid presence lends some added treble edge to his vocalisation and the guitar strums. Unfortunately, at top volumes, distortion creeps in, even on this track that shouldn't challenge the drivers that much.

On Jay-Z and Kanye Due west'due south "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop gets plenty of high-mid presence, accentuating the loop'southward sharp assault and assuasive it to slice through the layers of the mix. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the vanquish are delivered with a solid sense of depth, merely at top volumes, we once over again run into baloney bug. The vocals are delivered cleanly and conspicuously at moderate volumes, though there'south a little added sibilance, and the vocals sometimes sound like they're doing battle with the bass response on this runway—which mostly is beefing up the pulsate loop.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel Co-ordinate to the Other Mary, have a well-baked, bright presence through the Stryde 360. The lower register instrumentation gets a petty bit of a boost here, but aught that brings it too far forward in the mix—the spotlight still belongs to the bright higher annals brass, strings, and vocals.

Conclusions

It would exist a lot easier to go excited about the positive things the Braven Stryde 360 brings to the table—a rugged pattern and a powerful maximum volume output for $100—if distortion issues weren't and so prevalent in testing. It'due south certainly possible to mind to tracks without encountering distorted lows, but there are competing models in this price range that avoid deep bass baloney altogether. The JBL Charge 3 (our about recent Editors' Choice), the EcoXGear EcoSlate, the EcoXGear EcoCarbon, and the Bose SoundLink Colour II all offer varying degrees of water resistance and audio that doesn't distort. The Stryde 360 isn't a bad speaker, but there's footling other than its rugged build to help information technology stand up out in a crowded field.