Bluesound Pulse Mini
A powerful alternative to Sonos
$499 From Bluesound, bluesound.com Features 60W tri-amplified, digital amplification, 2x2-inch and 1x3.5-inch speakers
The Bluesound Pulse Mini is an all-in-one wireless music system designed to stream music from almost anywhere. It can form part of a multi-room music system if paired with other Bluesound gear, and can host web radio streams, stream from Apple Music and 14 other sources, or of course play direct via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The connecting BluOS app unifies all of these disparate sources on one screen.
What it’s really about is audio quality. Though you can stream via Bluetooth 4.0, it’s also compatible with 48kHz/24-bit file types like FLAC, WAV, and MQA. A digital amp and DAC then pushes up to 60W through two 2-inch full-range drivers, each in a patented dual-acoustic chamber, plus a 3.5-inch woofer. To test all this, we streamed Hunter by Björk in 16-bit FLAC (lossless CD-quality). The sound was deliciously warm, with ample bass and plenty of mid-range details that often get lost. MP3s streamed from an iPhone were also impressively nuanced, though not surprisingly the same songs sent via Bluetooth sounded muddy.
Setup is theoretically simple: attach your iPhone to the same Wi-Fi network, then enter your network password in the BluOS app. However, we had a few teething problems getting it to connect, particularly when setting up a network share with an iMac. Learning how to navigate the often overwhelming app also takes time, and you can’t avoid it because there’s no AirPlay (until AirPlay 2 is here).
The bottom line. Time-consuming to set up, but a powerful, exceptionally well built solo or multi-room speaker. A hi-res upgrade to consider.