Meet the KitSound Voice One (Amazon). This is a smart speaker that looks great, has high quality audio, and is about half the cost of an Apple HomePod.
KitSound is a British audio brand, and they recently launched the Voice One speaker in the US. When they asked to sponsor this video I quickly agreed because I wanted to see if there was a true affordable competitor to the new Apple HomePod. Watch the review video above to find out.
The KitSound Voice One starts at $179.99. It is a powerful smart speaker with built-in Amazon Alexa voice service. In the box, which I love the way this box opens by the way, you’ll find the Voice One speaker, 3 different power cords (one each for USA, EU, and UK), along with a 3.5mm aux cable, a remote control, and the quick start guide.
The Voice One speaker is 11” tall by 5” wide and deep and weighs just under 4 lbs. It’s sporting a retro style design with a charcoal colored stain-resistant Nano coated woven grill that gives it a very pleasing look. If you’ve seen some of my previous videos you’ll know that I love gray products. There’s just something attractive about gray and this speaker is no different.
On the front you’ll find a mute & unmute mic button, a volume ring with a tap to talk button in the center, the ring will change colors depending on the current function, below the ring is the input button to change between Bluetooth Aux or Wifi mode, an action button below that, and a KS light that will light up with the beat when the speaker is playing loud music.
On the top there are two far field microphones which work very well for picking up your voice from far away or even during music playback. On the back you’ll find a subwoofer port, along with a very convenient USB port to charge USB devices, and a 3.5mm line-in port for wired inputs.
This is a smart speaker that works with Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and many other Internet Radio services including Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. The setup is super easy, just download the free KitSound app and follow the instructions to connect it to your Wifi network and to your Amazon Alexa account to enable voice commands. The KitSound app is not the most intuitive app in the world, but it does do its job fairly well and I have not experienced any bugs or glitches so that’s always a good thing. From the app you can control playback, change various settings including the bass and treble, set a sleep timer, configure presets, and more. So the app does give you a nice variety of controls.
Speaking of controls, the remote control is an added bonus. It contains the same controls that are on the front of the speaker which is nice, and its most functional use is when the speaker is playing loud music, so instead of trying to scream Alexa, you can just use the remote’s button to enable Alexa. The Voice One also has multi-room technology so you can actually pair up to 8 speakers wirelessly and have them play the same audio across all the speakers at the same time. Great for parties or yeah, parties.
The smart aspect is one of the best features of the Voice One. I love its integration with Amazon Alexa and I also love that it has Spotify Voice Control and Spotify Connect. I’m a big Spotify Premium user so I’m constantly listening to music on Spotify and the Voice One speaker shows up as an available device right in the Spotify app so that’s how I play all my music on this speaker, even though the speaker does have Bluetooth as an option as well. It’s great because when you use a Spotify Connect device like the Voice One, the music streams directly to that device so you’re getting high quality audio plus it saves your phone battery from draining so quickly and it also lets you use your phone for voice calls without interrupting the music.
Using the Amazon Alexa voice service is a very nice touch as well. You can ask it general questions, you can ask it to play certain artists or songs from any of your connected music streaming services, and if you have other Amazon Alexa compatible smart devices in your home, such as my Nest Thermostat, you can control them from the speaker using voice commands.
So we know how smart it is, but what about the audio quality? Well, the other best feature about the Voice One is its 360 degree room-filling sound, which is a result of the two side-facing drivers at 10 watts each paired with the strong bass reflex. So there’s no front-facing speaker which caught me off guard at first, but the side facing drivers really do give it a true stereo-quality sound, and they are very satisfying to listen to. From the highs to the mids to the lows, it’s just a very clean and rich audio output even at very loud volumes. I’m a hip hop head so the majority of what I listen to feels like it was made for this speaker. It definitely shines with rap music and hard hitting beats, but really any genre of music that I’ve played have all sounded very good.
Overall, I’m very impressed with the Voice One. Just the fact that it’s a smart speaker with built-in WiFi & Amazon Alexa makes it desirable. But when you combine that with its high quality immersive audio, the slick looking design, and all the other features like wireless multi-speaker synchronization, the free app, the remote control, the convenient ports, all for less than $180. That’s what makes it a must-have especially if you’re considering an Apple HomePod or any other smart speaker for that matter. For the price, you’re getting a fantastic speaker that I’m sure you’ll love.
I hope you enjoyed my review of the KitSound Voice One smart speaker. Thanks to KitSound for sponsoring this video, and thank you for watching.