Audio Pro P5

The P5 portable speaker lands with a sturdy, robust design and rich bassy audio that make for a rock-solid combination, but there are better-sounding speakers for similar money.

Introduction

Audio Pro isn’t a brand for grand statements. There’s a sense of modesty to their approach that’s less eye-catching than other brands.

With the P5, it’s a portable wireless speaker that speaks to that simple sensibility. The description on the company’s website identifies it as a “Bluetooth speaker with battery” – that’s really all you need to know about it.

Well, unless you intend to purchase the speaker of course, in which case, let us tell you whether this simple Bluetooth speaker is worth getting.

Design

• IPX4 water resistance
• Functional looks
• Feels tough and durable

Available in just the black attire, the P5 isn’t a speaker to set tongues wagging with its looks. Its front is essentially all grille with a pattern that pockmarks its surface and an acoustic mesh material beneath it. Adorned with an Audio Pro logo embossed in a silver finish, it’s very boring and cliché to say about a product from Scandinavia, but the P5 gives off a minimalist vibe.

It feels robust, like a speaker that could survive some drops and remain unperturbed by scratches and scuff marks. At 729g the P5 is not insubstantial in terms of weight – Audio Pro says you could put this in your travel luggage for holidays and at 22 x 9.7 x 5.3cm (HWD) that is true, but it’s not any smaller than the competition. The Marshall Emberton II, for example, is more compact.

It is a more portable effort in terms of transport with its wrist carry strap (it also means the speaker can enjoy some hang time), and you could position the P5 on its back or facing towards you. On the top are buttons for playback, volume and Bluetooth and though the buttons are shallow and there isn’t much ‘give’ in pressing them, only powering on the speaker requires a significant press (a nudge for everything else). The power button doubles up as play/pause for audio.

On the side is a flap that conceals an aux 3.5mm input and a USB-C input (for charging). This little compartment contributes to the speaker’s IPX4 rating, which is not strong as I’d have expected for a portable speaker. It indicates that the P5 is fine against splashes of water but hasn’t been tested against dust and small particles (like sand). Both the Emberton II and JBL Charge 5 offer far sturdier resistance in that context.

Features

• 14-hours of battery
• Supports stereo pairing with another P5

If the Audio Pro P5’s list of features was a book, it would be shorter than a novella. The features are, as you’re about to find out, a short story.

Battery life is quoted at 14 hours, which is respectable enough but at this price point it’s towards the lower end of the scale. The likes of the Wonderboom 3, EarFun Uboom L and Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 all encroach on the P5’s battery levels at less expense. The Charge 5 adds five more hours on top, while the Emberton II more than doubles it.

While the number quoted suggests that all-day use should be fine, regular use would require the P5 being plugged into the wall more often than its similarly-priced rivals, and pushing it to full volume sees the speaker bleed battery even faster at just four hours of playback.

The speaker’s battery alerts could be better as well. Battery life doesn’t show up on my Android smartphone (common for a wireless speaker), but when battery is low, all you’re given are friendly R2-D2-like bleeps, which weren’t too helpful in knowing how much was left before it powered off. Charging back to full takes four hours.

There’s no support for the Audio Pro app, but the P5 does support stereo pairing with another P5 speaker with its TWS (True Wireless Stereo) feature. A Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connection is provided (no mention of codecs) and while the connection has been consistent, you won’t want to travel too far (say more than 10m) as the connection doesn’t extend as far as the Charge 5.

There’s support for MP3, AAC, WMA, Apple Lossless and FLAC audio files via the aux input, and that is your lot on the features side. A short story indeed.

Sound Quality

• Warm, bassy inflections
• Good emphasis on vocals
• Rivals offer better clarity and detail

Warm and rich are two words to describe the direction Audio Pro has taken with the P5. At its best, the P5 offers a fun, lively sound that puts you in the mood for heading outdoors, or indeed, enjoying its sound when you’re outside.

In general, that warmth does mean it gives up a little sharpness and clarity to the likes of the Charge 5. With St Vincent’s Pay Your Way In Pain (via Tidal), the top end of the frequency lacks bite and sharpness, the warmth blunting the tone of the piano that opens the track. But the P5 eats up the track’s bass beat with more relish, providing a richer performance but lacking the overall balance that JBL brings to the table.

The Audio Pro imports some good levels of detail in retrieving the crashing cymbals in Avail’s The Bad Plus, but it can’t quite make up for the P5’s more muddied midrange. Instruments blend into one another rather than being distinctly identifiable, and again, the Charge 5 tonally strikes a more natural manner in presenting instruments, as well as better separation and organising the soundstage in a neater, clearer way.

The P5 is fairly agile but not massively so in terms of dynamism, capturing the inflections of Annette Askvik’s vocals in Liberty well, while that tonal warmth presents voices with an appealing richness and solid clarity. In fact, the P5 treated vocals well with any song I fed it.

The device also showcases some decent rhythmic ability with Harry Styles’ As It Was, though again the familiar warmth comes at the expense of overall clarity. The soundstage the speaker produces doesn’t spread much beyond the confines of the device either, though it doesn’t suffer from distortion when pushed to full volume. The P5 is also one of those portable speakers where you’ll get the best sense of is performance from head-on or just to the side, so not the most ideal for 360 degree sound.

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