ORANGE BOX BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

Produced by famed UK guitar amplifier outfit, Orange, Paul Rigby checks out the company’s new Bluetooth speaker 

Founded in 1968 in London by Cliff Cooper – who still runs the company I hasten to add, the man is in his 80s now – Orange’s client list spans the history of world rock/soul and more. Luminaries such as John Lennon, Keith Richards, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Page, Tina Turner, Peter Green and more have used Orange amplifiers within their work. More contemporary bands (e.g. Oasis) continue that fine tradition.

Despite being rooted within the Pro world, Orange has now decided to shift its gaze towards the general consumer, adding a string to its Fender by addressing more lifestyle HiFi. It’s a useful branding exercise but it also rakes a few extra pennies into the coffers.

Being a fan of vintage TV and becoming familiar with the Orange brand through expansive DVD box sets such as music TV show, Beat Club (highly recommended, incidentally) my eyes and ears picked up when I saw Orange enter the market.

Which is why I grabbed and will be grabbing a few items to check out just what they can do. I’ve already reviewed a pair of wireless headphones and now I’m looking at the so-called Orange Box, a rather meaty looking Bluetooth Speaker that stands 28.0 X 17.5 X 17.0cm and weighs in at 3kg. 

It’s a bulky, solid looking construction so the included leather carry strap is a welcome addition.

Surrounding the chassis, you will note the Orange Peel Tolex material with a basket-weave speaker grille out front. Available colours include black or orange. I reviewed the latter. 

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

Inside is a 102mm bass driver plus a pair of 50mm “high-frequency” units driven by both 30W Class D (driving the subwoofer) and two 10W AB amplifiers (driving everything else). This might explain the meaty, two-part, switch-mode power supply with a mid-line power box and IEC cable to the mains. 

Battery is deemed to last you 15 hours with a three-hour charge time while connections included a 3.5mm input socket plus Bluetooth 5 supporting aptX, aptX HD, SBC and AAC. 

Aesthetically, the speaker looks wonderful. Period. Vintage. Unique. Around the back is the barrel plug power socket but it’s the top that sparks excitement because we have three chunky rotary knobs controlling tone controls and volume, Bluetooth pairing button and light plus a 3.5mm socket.

A cable is supplied for that socket, it is of the curly telephone spring type – again, I approve.

You get a meaty toggle switch for power and a big, impressively bold battery light of the type I last saw watching the children’s TV show, Thunderbirds. The design is, in short, delightful. 

Oh and the box also has a little overload light in case you drive it too hard.

And while some might baulk at the size and weight of this speaker, anyone who wants to buy this Orange box has, to my mind, already bought into the nature of the size and design so it would be a little unfair to complain. 

It’s nice to see that the company is following the Right to Repair advice from the government. It stated that, “Orange pledge to make stock and replacement parts continuously available into the 2030s, with spare cables, straps and rechargeable batteries on hand…”

So how does it sound?

SOUND QUALITY

I began with the diminutive BenQ Trevolo S Bluetooth speaker as a reference, a dinky speaker with fold-out flat speaker panels and played the AAC version of Marvin Gaye’s Mercy Mercy Me via my iPhone 15. 

VS BENQ TREVOLO S

The Orange Box certainly had an easier time filling my listening room with sound. The BenQ (€199 when new) strained, huffed and puffed to do the same.

Also, in relative terms, the soundstage was broad and expansive from the Orange. Imagery was more satisfying too while bass had more heft.

Pushed hard, the Orange Box wasn’t too kind to this lossy file, mids and treble hardened and became edgy when the gain was increased to high volumes. Even so, while I wouldn’t call the upper mids informative or the treble fragile, there was still plenty of detail on view.

VS CABASSE SWELL

I decided to up the quality of the reference and brought in the audiophile quality Swell (£229 when new) from French outfit, Cabasse. I then turned to my Astell&Kern Kann Alpha and played Nick Drake’s Pink Moon at 24bit/96kHz via the aptX HD codec. 

For the Orange Box? I was quite impressed, actually. Not perfect but, for the price, impressive. The Orange certainly enjoyed the high-quality file source and responded in kind with a firm yet disciplined bass response and an informative suite of upper frequencies.

Treble was just a shade in the spotlight, ever so slightly clinical but nothing egregious. While the upper mids were precise and provided layers of information.

The Drake acoustic guitar strings never blurred, providing the beating heart of this song while the piano sat within a welcome wash of reverb. Yes, I would have liked to have had more resonance and ‘body’ from the vocal but I’m being picking now.

VS SONOS ERA 300

I finally moved to the Sonos Era 300 (£379), another bulky and substantial speaker and and stayed with the Astell&Kern.

This time I played Jara from Fleet Foxes at 24bit/48kHz and did hear more edgy upper mids from the Orange if the volume was pushed hard but, at more reasonable volumes, the presentation was all but neutral. Hence, smaller room use would be a better option than trying to fill a large room with this box.

At low to medium volumes, the Orange sounded much happier and better balanced. 

In sound terms, the Orange struggled when compared to the Sonos which offered a broader, layered soundstage, delicate treble, better imagery, and a bigger bass impact.

CONCLUSION

Played at low and medium volumes, the Orange Box is a fine performer as a Bluetooth speaker.

It certainly looks the part with an impressively retro aesthetic, while the sound from the Orange offers a detailed, broadly disciplined presentation that offers a lot from the chunky, yet compact box (well, compact when compared to the likes of the Sonos at any rate).

The Orange may not satisfy serious audiophiles but for casual use, inside and outside of the home, the Orange Box is a useful sonic accessory that will certainly be the centre of attention at parties. 

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ORANGE BOX BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

Price: £275

Website: orangeamps.com/product/orange-box

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GOOD: compact bass, upper mid detail, retro aesthetics, interface

BAD: edgy at high volume, imagery

RATING: 7

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