First Looks: Creative D80 Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Skimping slightly on portability allows Creative to pack in two 3-inch drivers into the D80. In the company's own words, this is a 'wireless speaker that rocks'. Here's our assessment of this extremely affordable stereo Bluetooth speaker.
Sizable Audio
In May this year, sound card and personal digital entertainment device maker, Creative Technology, refreshed its pure wireless speaker line-up. Among the many new products introduced is the super-affordable (S$49 to be exact) D80, a single-piece Bluetooth speaker.
We like the black color version; it makes the D80 looks like it costs more than S$49.
The D80 measures in at 336 x 115 x 115mm; while it’s small enough to still fit into a backpack (at 1.06kg, it’s light enough too), comparatively, it’s noticeably larger than some of the new-fangled, wireless portable speakers in the market right now, such as the Jawbone Jambox and the Veho Mimi VSS-002. That being said, on the upside, the D80 packs dual 3-inch drivers.
Smack in the center of the fabric grille are (from left) the Aux-in jack, the volume controls, and the Connect button/LED indicator.
The D80 has a smooth, curved exterior; customization is possible by means of swapping the color grille in front of the speaker drivers. The D80 is available in white (with a pink, blue, or green grille) and black (with a black grille).
The power switch is located at the back; there's no external power supply to deal with, just plug in the power cord.
Big Sound
Overall, the D80 gave a credible sonic performance; we threw quite a wide variety of audio sources at it. It's worth noting that it has a balanced, but slightly forward-sounding audio signature. A caveat: when listening to Tiesto’s Elements of Life, we noticed that the bass wasn’t as tight as we’d like it to be.
Bluetooth pairing was easily done without any hiccups; wireless music streaming worked well up to 10 meters from the D80. If you’ve a non-Bluetooth-capable music player, you can still connect to the D80 via a wired connection using the Aux-in port in front of the speaker. For laptops that don’t support stereo Bluetooth, you can buy the tiny BT-D1 Bluetooth USB dongle. To add a wireless transmitter to the iPod, there’s another BT-D5 dongle.
Final Thoughts
The biggest draw of the Creative D80 is its affordable price. For just S$49 you get a stereo system with two 3-inch drivers and the added benefit of wireless stereo playback. While it doesn’t require an external power brick (thank goodness for that), unlike the S$89 D100, it doesn’t accept AA batteries. So don’t forget the power cord when you want to bring it out and about.
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