Sound quality: Anker SoundCore's Rave Neo had Good overall sound quality. Bass has good impact and goes fairly deep but is somewhat tubby. Midrange is grainy, somewhat hazy, and has a slight plastic resonance and a bit of a "swooshy" quality (slight phase shift). Treble is fairly extended but is a bit subdued, smeared, and sizzly. Does a so-so job of recovering room ambience and is somewhat congested. The speaker is monophonic. When two units are used as a stereo pair the sound stage can be made wider depending on placement. There was no significant difference between Bluetooth, wired and USB sound quality. Provides a decent volume level in a large sized room.
Ease of use: We found the Anker SoundCore Rave Neo ease of use to be very good overall. Bluetooth pairing the unit is excellent - it is always in pairing mode when not already paired, has a pairing mode indicator, indicates when pairing mode has occurred and never times out. The volume controls are +/- buttons which have an audible indicator when max volume is reached. Works with line in, USB and Bluetooth inputs. Speaker has 3 sources: Bluetooth, Aux and USB and uses plug-unplug to switch sources. Depending on the source combination, plug-unplug priorities are different. Aux and BT: When Bluetooth is playing, it has priority, when paused, Aux audio plays. BT and USB: When USB is plugged in it has priority over Bluetooth. Aux and USB: When both are plugged in, Aux has priority over USB, and must unplug Aux for USB to play. When all three are connected, Bluetooth has priority, when paused, Aux audio plays, and can't access USB at all. If Aux is unplugged, see BT and USB. Low contrast labeling on Aux input.
