- Tronsmart Fiitune X30 is out now for $179.99 (about £154 / AU$322)
- 80W output with built-in subwoofer and up-firing “sky driver”
- IPX6 water resistance and 14 hour battery life
The Tronsmart Fiitune X30 is a direct rival to the Sonos Era 300, and it has one particularly appealing quality: it’s less than half the price of the Sonos.
Where the Sonos Era 300 has a list price of $449 / £449 / AU$749, the Fiitune X30 is launching with a price tag of $179.99 / €179.99 (about £154 / AU$322).
As you’d expect, there are a few differences in spec to achieve that much lower price. And if you’re serious about spatial sound, one of those differences may be a deal breaker.
Fiitune X30: key features
The Fiitune X30 has six driver units, including an upward-firing illuminated “sky driver” to throw some audio towards the ceiling, a down-firing active subwoofer, dual tweeters, and dual mid-range drivers. There are four passive bass radiators and total power output is 80W. Frequency range isn’t specified beyond “an ultra-wide 40kHz bandwidth”.
It’s a portable design with an integrated handle, dual-device connection, and IPX6 water resistance, and it promises 14 hours of playback between charges – that’s fairly low compared to the best portable speakers, though there are lots of speakers to handle here, to be fair.
You can tune the audio with the companion smartphone app for iOS and Android, and Android users can stream audio to the speaker in LDAC for the highest possible sound quality. The speaker can be used solo or as half of a stereo pair.
It’s not a bad spec for the money, but there’s one important caveat: the spatial audio here isn’t native, because the speaker doesn’t support Dolby Atmos (or rival spatial audio formats, but Atmos is the crucial one for music right now).
Any spatial effect will be from ‘upscaling’ the music to have virtual extra height using that top-mounted speaker, and any 3D placement beyond stereo will also be added by the speaker.
That means it’s targeting a very different market than the Sonos, and I suspect its real rival isn’t the Era 300 but the Sonos Roam 2. The littlest Sonos is nowhere near as loud as the Fiitune X30 – it’s 10W rather than 80W and has far fewer speakers – but it’s priced identically at $179 / £179 / AU$299.
The Tronsmart could be a juicy set of speakers anyway, with lots of power for a low price, but this might be a case where there’s no point putting the extra effort of spatial speakers in unless you’re going to go the whole way and include Atmos.
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