Urbanista delivers a small speaker with big sound ambitions
There was a time when anything Bluetooth was inherently special, but these days this lowpower wireless technology is practically omnipresent.
One trick it can do that’s helped it succeed is the ability to stream stereo audio while not exhausting the battery of the source phone or tablet.
The Urbanista Melbourne was designed to exploit the wonders of Bluetooth 4.0 and provide output better than a phone speaker for those on the move.
Portability is excellent, as it’s almost exactly the same size as the old iPhone 4 (or new 6SE), but a good bit thicker at 22mm.
Being relatively small, you might think it wouldn't generate much noise, but it’s surprisingly loud. According to Urbanista, inside are three +3W 40mm drivers, plus a 50mm passive radiator.
The ‘passive’ radiator isn’t as static as that description might suggest, because when audio is being pumped through the Melbourne, it oscillates in and out of the back – something that can feel momentarily odd when you pick it up.
Another curiosity is the rubberised coating that encases the whole device. This empowers the unit with IPX4-certified splash resistance, but it doesn’t actually enable it to survive complete immersion.
As good as this covering is, there are a couple of drawbacks to it. The first was that it took me an age to initially locate the small panel that peels back to reveal the USB charging port and the direct 3.5mm audio socket. And it also makes reading the symbols on the control buttons almost impossible. These either need more relief or to be highlighted in a different colour, because otherwise they’re almost invisible on the black review model.
Maybe on the white, ‘blue petroleum’ or ‘rose gold’ alternative colour schemes they're easier to see, I hope.
Urbanista also provides a very short charging cable and what looks like a short shoelace, which is used as a carry strap.
A full recharge takes about two hours, and after that you'll get about six hours of playback – less if you like thrash metal, I’d suggest. That’s not exceptional, but ones I’ve seen that lasted longer were substantially larger than the Melbourne and could therefore include more battery capacity.
The true strength of this design is that the sound quality is half decent, and it’s such a small and insignificant weight that it won’t overload a beach bag.
It’s not the cheapest Bluetooth travel speaker I’ve seen, but it does generate a decent volume of undistorted sound from a remarkably compact and generally well-conceived design. Mark Pickavance
A small speaker with impressively high volume.