It has quite a few plus points but the price could be a deterrent, says Khalid Anzar.
Home-grown audio products brand Acoosta recently launched the Acoosta Uno portable speaker, with a built-in collection of more than 14,000 songs from around 1,000 artists across genres.
This premium speaker supports several connectivity options, including Bluetooth for wireless, USB for plug-n-play, AUX for wired and FM Radio for spectrum-based audio broadcasts.
It also has mic-in and live recording features, allowing you to sing along on Karaoke tracks and record your favourite songs or messages directly on to a USB storage device.
The unit has an arc-shaped, floor-standing design with stereo speakers covered by an aluminium mesh grille and a small monochrome screen on the front.
The speaker's body has a brushed finish with leather accents.
Most of its controls are placed on top, including the volume-cum-selection dial, source selection key, favourite button, home/back key, built-in music access key, Bluetooth key and FM radio key.
The connectivity and charging ports are at the back.
The speaker comes with a small remote control, which makes it convenient to access built-in music files.
The favourites button on the remote makes it easy to mark audio tracks from the library pool and helps you build a playlist of your favourite tracks, so that you can play them in a series without searching, skipping or manually fiddling around different pre-categorised playlists.
In terms of performance, the speakers are a delight to use.
The audio has a deep bass, fine-tuned treble and a vocal-heavy mid-range.
It is loud and delivers a balanced output that does not distort even at high volume.
However, the stereo effect is minimal and that limits the speakers' portable utility.
Apart from doing the ordinary well, Uno has some special features too.
You can invite a friend over to sing along using the dual mic-in feature. It also allows you to adjust the mic echo and volume.
These mics also come handy while recording audio bytes or singing along audio sung on karaoke tracks on a USB. It's a convenient way to share your work with like-minded people on social networks or otherwise.
Portable speakers are as good as their on-battery time and the Acoosta Uno stands true on the company’s claimed five hours of playback time.
However, charging takes time -- it takes around an hour to charge from zero to 100 per cent.
The Acoosta Uno is a complete package, with support for all basic connectivity options.
The built-in pool of songs from Sony DADC covers tracks from most popular genres – classic, pop, international, ghazals, Bollywood, etc.
However, the offline content is static and there is no way to update it.
Priced at Rs 11,999, these speakers are aimed at the niche market of people with interest in music. For others, these might seem leaning more on the expensive side.
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