Vifa Oslo

Warm sound from this textile-covered speaker

$549 Manufacturer Vifa, vifa.dk Features Bluetooth aptX, 3.5mm aux-in, rechargeable battery

This portable Bluetooth speaker costs, as you’ve probably already noticed, a large number of dollars. Vifa’s sales pitch makes it out to be an objet d’art as much as a way to listen to music, and we do like the design a lot.

The frame is a single piece of aluminum that covers the sides and connects all the way around to form the handle, with a matt finish. The grilles on the front and back are covered with a custom textile from a Danish manufacturer that feels a lot like a high-quality wool finish – because that’s partly what it is. It’s all very finely made and very polished, as you’d expect.

Most importantly, the sound has had the same treatment. The Oslo’s audio is big and rich, full of detail and warmth. Bass is thick and disciplined, meaning that it doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the soundscape despite having good punch for the size of speaker. You’ll have no problem picking out not just individual instruments, but exactly how they’re being played. It fills a room with its audio easily without any hint of distortion – it’s great across the range. Our only complaint is with the volume gradation steps; on iOS, we found that pressing the volume buttons led to it being either too loud or too quiet in a fairly average-sized living room.

We also found that it tended to hijack our Bluetooth connection a lot if we left it on. We’d switch to our iPhone speaker, then suddenly find it apparently silent, because it was playing on the Oslo in another room. We’ve been disconnecting in the Bluetooth menu as a workaround, and reconnecting when needed, but we’re not keen on the extra hassle.

THE BOTTOM LINE. An excellent-sounding speaker with a cool design – but it’s expensive and has a few small niggles.