Betron KBS08 Bluetooth Speaker, Wireless and Portable
Betron KBS08 Bluetooth Speaker, Wireless and Portable Speaker for Smartphone Laptop Tablet Android
From the brand
Betron Headphones
| Dimensions: | 7 x 7 x 6 cm; 220 Grams |
| Model: | KBS08 BLACK |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | Betron |
| Dimensions: | 7 x 7 x 6 cm; 220 Grams |
| Origin: | China |
The old singing and dancing flashing ring around the speaker is beautiful and the titanium metal work is superb. This little speaker is wonderful in every way however it very large disappointment the volume is very low.
We bought this years ago and it’s still going strong goes in holiday several times a year with us we use it in summer in the garden and still plays as good as it did the day we bought it. Highly recommend
I really like this speaker, I took it on holiday with me and it was good for the radio abroad and also my laptop, Very good, clear and quite loud.
This lil speaker is just a solid little piece of tech for the price and I take it with me on trips because it’s so compact. Would buy another but in gold next time!
Fairly easy to set up. Disco lights a pain but can be deactivated by holding the mode button; trouble is that you have to deactivate them every time you turn on the speaker; don’t think it holds any settings when turned off. Volume sufficient for my car (fits nicely in my cup holder), but little base of course as this is a small speaker.
Has Bluetooth and aux connectivity, the latter is what I wanted and comes with a super little aux cable which is perfect for my needs. Short power lead is also ideal for my car; attaches to the lighter charge point (USB a to c but I have an adapter so all is fine). Overall really pleased, ideal for me.
delivered at lunch time and i immediatley put one of my northern soul sd cards in to try it out , the sound quality and volume for such a small unit is brilliant , much much better than the boom box it is replacing and easy to pack for a upcoming holiday
For such a little speaker, it packs quite a volume punch. Great price, great looking & I would highly recommend. My iPhone & iPad connect to it automatically & easily & I’m pretty pleased with it.
Great little Bluetooth speaker at a good price. Good audio quality for such a small form-factor and the bass response is much improved by pacing it directly on a hard flat surface. My office desk was perfect for this.
Battery life is on the upper end of okay, but its a good compromise on the battery size for the size of the speaker.
After a couple of months, my speaker developed a problem where the mode button stopped working. Customer support was excellent. Had a replacement unit shipped out to me within a couple of days and they had no problems accepting the return without the original packaging.
I highly recommend this speaker and the company that makes it, both for the overall quality of the unit, and the excellent customer support.
Very impressed with this little speaker. Blue tooth is good allowing me to connect to my phone ,answering calls and listening to my music. Great value for money and sold by a British company though the manufacturer is in China.
After seeing and hearing my friends use this in their garden I had to get one. The sound is so clear and even when loud it isn’t hard to listen to. Such a great Bluetooth speaker. Highly recommend
If you want to power the device while listening using audio in wired connection you will need a wall plug. Can’t power with PC usb port while listening or else there’s a static sound so I use the usb plug that came with my phone.
Need to learn the 3 different modes – bluetooth, radio, headset.
Once you have and know these things, it’s excellent.
Housed in a unique alloy case, the KBS08 provides compatibility with all Bluetooth-enabled devices as well as with devices supporting a 3.5mm jack. The convenience doesn’t stop there; the speaker is also equipped with a built-in microphone for hands-free calling, adding more to its functionality.
The KBS08’s incredible audio performance is largely credited to its larger 40mm driver that projects fuller and richer sounds, making it a wonderful enhancement to any music or video player. The bass effect, in particular, is impressive; placing this portable speaker on a wooden table or desk elevates the bass impact, filling your room with vibrant, pulsating music.
Offering direct wireless streaming, the KBS08 allows you to stream music directly from compatible Bluetooth-enabled smartphones, tablets, MP3 players, or computers. Additionally, the speaker supports micro SD cards and includes a 3.5mm audio cable for non-wireless devices, providing a multitude of ways to enjoy your favourite tracks.
The speaker’s design caters to the traveler within us all. It is lightweight, compact (just 61 mm in width and 60 mm in height), and fits easily in a coat pocket, making it an ideal travel companion. Its robust, metallic body further enhances its durability, ensuring your musical journeys are never cut short.
The built-in MP3 player and FM radio are added perks, offering even more ways to enjoy your music. The user-friendly interface, featuring a 4-button control for volume adjustment, track change, play/pause, answering calls, and mode change, makes the experience seamless and effortless.
However, it’s important to note that the KBS08 is not waterproof. Exposure to moisture or a damp environment may damage the speaker, making it less suitable for use near pools or beaches. Additionally, while the LED light show adds a fun party vibe, some might find it bothersome during quieter listening sessions. However, you can easily turn off the lights by long-pressing the mode button.
Despite its petite size, the Betron KBS08 delivers a powerful audio performance, and the sound clarity is impressive. It pairs seamlessly with devices, charges quickly, and lasts for about 5 hours on a full charge. Its minor drawbacks – such as overamplification at high volumes and a strong bass emphasis in voice frequencies – hardly detract from its overall stellar performance and exceptional value for money.
In conclusion, the Betron KBS08 Bluetooth Speaker is a winning blend of powerful sound, portability, and stylish design. With its impressive features and ease of use, it is indeed a remarkable choice for music enthusiasts.
Pros:
* Compact and portable design
* Easy to pair with Bluetooth-enabled devices
* Strong and clear sound output
* Long-lasting battery life
* Versatility (Bluetooth, AUX, SD card support)
Cons:
* Overamplification at high volumes
I wanted a bluetooth speaker so I can listen to internet radio while I’m in the kitchen without having to take the laptop with me, and also for a better sound than my laptop speakers for watching movies/TV. Also, I wanted one with some decent bass that can fill the room when I feel like dancing, but not pay an arm and a leg.
Did I get what I wanted?
It works perfectly on Bluetooth with my phone and AUX with my laptop. The bass is incredible, when you put it on a wooden surface like a table you can actually feel the floor vibrate. The sound quality is really nice and decently loud to fill the room. I carried it to every corner of our small flat and it didn’t cut out even when I closed the heavy bathroom door.
The light strips also make it look really cool and will be a really stylish eye catcher at any house party.
Ease of use & charging:
It was simple to pair (immediately connected with both my Lenovo laptop and Samsung smartphone without issues), quick to charge and worked for about 4 hours on full charge before a loud beep alerted me to its need to be fed some electricity. It comes with a 3-way cable that allows you to charge the speaker via USB. Charging was fast, I didn’t time it exactly but I think it was fully charged again within 1-1.5 hours via a USB mains plug.
There are only a few buttons so you can’t do much wrong. You get the usual Play/Pause/Answer Phone, Forward/Louder, Backward/Quieter and Off/On, and also a Mode button that will cycle through the Bluetooth, FM and AUX functions when pressed. A nice lady tells you which mode you’ve gone into when the button is pressed and notifies you when the Bluetooth is connected.
It has 3 cable slots for AUX, Mini-USB and MicroSDTF. In order to use the AUX function of the speaker, set the Mode to AUX, connect the Mini-USB to your speaker and plug the AUX cable into the device you want to get the sound from. I have no device that uses MicroSDTF so could not test that.
The speaker starts up in the volume that you left it on when last using it, so if that was full volume don’t hold your ears close to it during startup.
Negative points:
Overamplification:
At very high volumes the low price of the speaker starts to show as it overamplifies during certain frequencies at a high volume.
Bass in speech:
For watching movies/TV, the bass is a bit TOO good. It’s quite unnerving to have the basses in people’s voice and sound effects emphasised that much.
Permanent light show:
While the lights are great for a party atmosphere, they do get a bit annoying when you just want some quiet background music and I have not found a way to switch them off completely.
The above would make me reduce the rating to 4.5*, but it’s not annoying enough to give it only 4* given the overall quality.
The following oddity also happened to me that is NOT the fault of the speaker:
Laptop Bluetooth Pitch Shifting:
My laptop’s Bluetooth settings make the speaker pitch shift and put out sound about a half tone higher than the source, resulting in everthing sounding like on helium. I managed to fix it briefly, but whenever a new song started, it would revert to pitch shifted sound again. I currently circumvent this by simply using it via the AUX cable or listening to internet radio via my phone, with which it works perfectly fine.
Some research showed that this is actually a common problem, due to software drivers cutting corners on sound quality in order to produce a consistent signal. If this happens to you, it’s not the speaker that’s at fault but your driver and you may need to do some poking around (my fix on Windows 7: Start > Control Panel > Hardware & Sound > Manage Audio Devices > Properties > Tick “Remove All Enhancements”).
Verdict:
The sound that the KBS08 produces is incredible for such a tiny thing and it’s easy to use, a brilliant value for price ratio here! It weighs next to nothing and fits in a coat pocket, so it’s ideal for travel as well – no more putting my phone in a water glass!
I can’t currently do all the things that I want with the speaker due to the pitch shifting, but as that is not the fault of the speaker I really can’t blame it for that – the workaround with the AUX function or just using the phone works well enough for the time being. I just need an excuse to buy a laptop that has better bluetooth drivers on offer and I’ll be set!
I have been using a free aux portable speaker that you could put in a tube of well known crisps to make a speaker. It has been serviceable and used as a speaker for the p.c but the sound has never been great, having ventured into a music app on my phone, I tried it last week at the bible group I teach, and it wasn’t great and so an upgrade was required urgently (had been lugging heavier portable speakers for ipod for years), but I needed something truly portable. Enter Betron KBS08:-
This little speaker arrived promptly, well packaged, and I was delighted with not only the matt red colour, but also to find that it came pre-charged up (I had thought I would have to charge it up before I could use it), which was perfect as I needed it yesterday evening.
It stands just under 6cm tall and is just slightly 6cm across the base, weighing in at 265g. The colour changing lights are a quirky little feature that all that have seen it were amused by. The buttons on the item are quite small (well they would be, this is a wee product). It took me a moment to understand that to increase/decrease the volume you press the outer section of the button that either vols up/down or skips tracks – although you can do these actions through your phone anyway. It comes with a single cable that merges into two with a usb and aux attachment.
Setting up the bluetooth was even for me I thought a cinch to do, switched it on, a loud voice said enter mode bluetooth, I then matched it up with my phone and it told me that it had been successful – hurrah!
The sound that came out of this little speaker rather astounded me – I am no guru on sound, but I immediately thought – crumbs not tinny at all, has a richness to it. I listen to alot of audible books and this speaker has enhanced my listening experience also. I often listen to and use in group celtic spiritual music at times and the pitch of the tracks can be quite high, but this little speaker is handling it – even the essence of the belled “call to worship” which could have been not great is just fine, there is no sense of distortion at all.
I haven’t tried it with a microsd card, or the handsfree function, radio – in some respects these features may be a little superfluous to requirements for what I need it for, so I cannot presently comment on these functions. But this does not detract in anyway to what I have found to be a super product for my own needs which I suspect for most is to use music from your phone to the speaker, either through the aux or bluetooth.
Enter husband – he recently bought a cheap usb speaker for the p.c – useless item, didn’t work and he was disappointed. We tried this Betron with the p.c and he was surprised and delighted with it, for using to listen to webinars etc, (need aux cable of course for pc, I did plug in the usb also but am not sure it charges and works at the same time).
Enter bible group – that’s brilliant, where did you get it?
Enter Tech savvy teenage son – at group was his first time of listening to it’s performance and he is not shy in commenting – closing prayer said, I saw the arm/hand reach out and he had it spirited away whilst the washing up was done and linked up to his phone – loves it. So a teenagers’ seal of approval – great stocking filler at the price of just under 15..bargain!
Consequently – both husband and son really rather covetous of my little speaker – hinting that perhaps another two in the household wouldn’t go a miss – to keep the peace and so they keep their sticky mitts off mine, I have ordered them both one in their chosen colour.
As always, with anything or any product, it won’t suit some people, but I do think this will fit most peoples’ needs and budgets.