Expert's Rating
Pros
- Compact and attractive
- Lots of volume
- Surprisingly good sound
- Dust and water resistant
Cons
- Monophonic
Our Verdict
If you want a loud, sonorous, compact speaker you can strap on your bike or backpack, you won’t do better than the affordable Tribit StormBox Micro 2.
Best Prices Today: Tribit StormBox Micro 2 Portable Speaker
The overriding lesson I’ve learned from reviewing Tribit products is that you don’t need to spend a fortune to get good sound. Case in point: the StormBox Micro 2, a portable personal Bluetooth speaker that is IP67-rated, ruggedized, sounds good for its ilk, and will set you back only $60.
Design
The Micro 2 measures 4 x 1.7 inches (WxH) and houses a single 1.75-inch speaker. The 4700mAh battery delivers around 10 hours of sound from the 10-watt amp, and takes 2.5 hours to charge.
On the “front” of the Micro 2 are the power and Bluetooth pairing buttons, indicator lights (power/battery level), mic pinhole, and one end of the captive rubberized strap, which can be used to hang the unit from your handlebar, backpack strap, or whatever else you have handy. A speaker port on the bottom of the housing adds some oomph to the sound.
Tribit says the Micro 2 is IP67-rated, meaning it should be able to resist intrusion of particulate matter and survive in 3.3 feet of water for 30 minutes. Given the IP rating, you might be surprised by the bare USB Type-C charging port on the right side of the speaker (a USB-C-to-USB-C charging cable is included in the box). While most water resistant speakers cover the USB-C port, I have seen them open before in weatherized speakers.
Residing on the fabric-covered top of the speaker are the three main controls: lower volume; multi-function (pause, play, next, previous, Siri, answer, reject, and switch calls), and raise volume.
Performance
I can usually, if not always, tell how a speaker is going to sound simply from its startup tones. The Micro 2’s dulcet tones were promising, indicating that the $10 increase in price over its predecessor was likely money well spent. Of course, said tones are monophonic, which limited my joy, but that’s par for the course in this form factor.
For a mono speaker, the Micro 2 rendered my suite of test tunes (everything from movie tracks, to heavy metal, to hip-hop) very well. There’s decent clarity (high and high-mid frequencies), and good delineation of instruments and voices.
Remarkably, the Micro 2 even delivers a fair amount of thump for its size, and sub-bass (below 60 Hz) is hinted at, if not exactly realized in full. Even a minimal about of sub-bass is quite an accomplishment for a speaker this size.
Where the Micro 2 will likely surprise you is with its volume. I was able to crank the sound uncomfortably loud sitting on my desk, and annoyingly loud (for others) when I was outside. To boot, the audio doesn’t noticeably distort at higher levels. All in all, for a small monophonic speaker, I’ve never heard better. It’s predecessor was good, but this iteration is a clear cut above.
One aside: With the speaker being just 1.75 inches in diameter, Tribit could conceivably have fitted two drivers for a touch of stereo separation. Just saying.
Nice bang for the buck
The Tribit StormBox Micro 2 is as good a speaker as I’ve heard in this diminutive form factor, and it’s affordable. Enough said.
Best Prices Today: Tribit StormBox Micro 2 Portable Speaker
Author: Jon L. Jacobi, Freelance contributor
Jon Jacobi is a musician, former x86/6800 programmer, and long-time computer enthusiast. He writes reviews on TVs, SSDs, dash cams, remote access software, Bluetooth speakers, and sundry other consumer-tech hardware and software.