Bluesound Pulse Flex (2025)

Design

• Choice of three finishes
• wall-mount and stand as optional extras

Bluesound apparently doesn’t think there’s much wrong with discreet and understated when it comes to wireless speakers – the Pulse Flex 2025 doesn’t make a big visual impression, and that’s quite obviously how the company wants it.

So your £279 or equivalent buys a handily compact (196 x 131 x 111mm, HWD) speaker that’s fundamentally a triangular prism in shape – but with each of the corners of each triangle rounded into a curve.

It’s available in three different finishes: black means a black plastic base and black plate housing the with physical controls on top, with a quantity of charcoal fabric in between, while the pebble grey and tan alternatives feature white plastic with either grey or a kind of pinky-tan fabric.

No matter the finish you prefer, you’ll be in possession of a speaker that’s just as nicely made and carefully finished as the asking price demands – check out that causal little brand logo towards the bottom of the front of the speaker for an indication of just how seriously Bluesound takes the whole idea of understatement.

The Pulse Flex 2025 will function perfectly happily as a stand-alone mono speaker, of course. But because the BluOS ecosystem allows for a couple to work as a stereo pair, or to form part of a home cinema surround-sound system in partnership with other Bluesound speakers, the company offers both stand- and wall-mount accessories (at a cost, naturally) to assist with placement.

There are also some physical controls in a little panel at the top of the speaker – raised buttons handle play/pause, volume up/down and skip forwards/backwards. There’s also a row of three little buttons that correspond to shortcuts you can specify in the app – radio stations, favourite podcasts, a playlist, whatever you fancy really.

Features

• 21mm tweeter and 102mm mid/bass driver
• 24-bit/192kHz and DSD256 compatibility
• Bluetooth 5.3 with aptX HD support

Bluetooth was quick out of the blocks with wireless support for truly Hi-Res content – so naturally the Pulse Flex 2025 is compatible with DSD256 and can natively support PCM up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution. Which really should be ample in any realistic scenario.

Getting audio content on board in the first place can be done in a number of ways. Bluesound’s BluOS operating system has been around for more than a decade now, and has been adopted by quite a number of third-party manufacturers thanks to its combination of stability and usability – and given that it supports, among many others, Qobuz Connect, Spotify Connect and TIDAL Connect, it’s the simplest way of getting some genuinely hi-res audio happening. The Bluesound is Roon Ready, and also compatible with AirPlay 2.

The Pulse Flex 2025 features dual-band Wi-Fi, which is the most convenient way to get app access – and there’s Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity, with aptX HD codec compatibility, available too. But naturally you also have some options where physical connections are concerned.

The rear of the Bluesound features an Ethernet socket for ultimate network stability, with a figure-of-eight mains connection below and USB-A and USB-C slots above. There’s also a hybrid 3.5mm socket, which can either be an analogue input or a digital optical input – Bluesound supplies a Toslink/3.5mm adapter in the packaging.

Once the audio information is on board, and once the digital stuff has been dealt with by the Pulse Flex 2025’s high-achieving DAC, it’s delivered by a driver array consisting of a 21mm tweeter and a 102mm mid/bass driver.

Bluesound is coy about the composition of the drivers and the frequency response they’re capable of delivering, but is prepared to divulge that the forward-facing driver line-up is driven by a total of 50 watts of Class D power (40 watts for the big driver, the other 10 for the little ‘un) augmented by Bluesound’s Smart DSP. 

The BluOS control app is thorough in the extreme, so everything from EQ adjustment and volume adjustment for each individual input to setting up a stereo pair or multi-room system is easily accessed and just as easily accomplished.

Voice control is available too, provided you have the patience to integrate the Pulse Flex 2025 into Amazon Alexa Skills.

Sound Quality

• Great balance and insight
• Nicely neutral and convincing tonality
• Can lack a little energy and attitude at times

I may as well get right to it: if your listening preferences involve lots of music that relies on attack, attitude or, to a lesser extent, energy, you may find the Bluesound Pulse Flex 2025 is curtailing your enjoyment just a little. There’s a stack to enjoy about the way it goes about things, as I am about to explain – but it’s not the most passionate or engaged speaker I’ve ever heard.

In every other respect, though, this wireless speaker is as good as anything at the money.

It has the confidence to get out of the way of a recording like Oh! Darling by The Beatles (as a 24-bit/29kHz FLAC file) and let the original tonality express itself, rather than sticking its oar in and trying to impose itself.

It has the sort of even-handed frequency response that gives every area of the frequency range a very similar amount of weighting – and while it doesn’t dig as far down as some price-comparable rivals, its control of bass sounds is such that rhythmic expression is good and momentum levels never sag.

Listening to Catfish by Doechii allows the Bluesound to demonstrate just how attentive to detail, both broad and fine, it is. No element of the recording is too minor, no event is too transitory, to evade it – and the speaker’s clear, open overall attitude means the details are easy to follow even though they’re not overstated.

This tune also allows the Pulse Flex 2025 to demonstrate its even-handed and revealing way through the midrange – you have to go a long way to hear a more mannered, more idiosyncratic vocal performance than this one, and the Bluesound makes every tic and every inflection absolutely plain.

Add in a fair amount of headroom where dynamic variations are concerned and you’ve a presentation that’s clean, confident and direct – even if it can be better where simple attack and drive are concerned.

Should you buy it?