The Brane X Portable Bluetooth Speaker Is the Final Boss of Bass

Bass: some speakers have it, and some don’t. It’s like charisma or generational wealth, except probably less important in determining your future. I’ve never personally found bass to be the most important metric for whether a wireless Bluetooth speaker is worth the money, but I’m fully aware that not everyone shares the same taste in bass as me, and even so, when it’s there in force, I can still appreciate it.

The problem is, especially when it comes to Bluetooth speakers of the portable variety, bringing the bass is harder than it sounds. There’s a reason why, in your home theater, the low end is usually incumbent on a big-ass subwoofer, which is a dedicated box kept separate from everything else. Bass is hard to generate without a large enough speaker that can move high volumes of air and generate proper low-end frequencies. It’s just physics. And as you might imagine, given what I just laid out, devising a portable speaker that can do that is no easy task.

It’s not easy, but it can be done, apparently, and the $500 Brane X portable Bluetooth speaker is living proof.

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They really put a woofer in it

The Brane X, though you may have never heard of it, is making a lofty claim. Brane claims this is the “first portable speaker with a true subwoofer built in.†If you’re like me, your alarm bells are probably going off; if it were possible, why hasn’t anyone done it before? That’s what I thought too, until I heard the Brane X for myself, or more specifically, felt how it shook the table I put it on.

The Brane X delivers on its promise, and it’s using some nifty engineering to do so. Inside this speaker, Brane says it’s using a proprietary tech called Repel-Attract Drivers (RAD), which uses magnets (however they work) to “cancel internal air pressure forces that inhibit deep bass in other portable speakers.†The result is a portable speaker that moves enough air to deliver real, woofer-level low end.

I know, you’re probably rolling your eyes again, but trust me, whatever is happening inside this speaker really works. To test the Brane X out, I connected my phone via Bluetooth and played a few different genres of music. To be honest, the speaker performed well on all of them, even genres where I don’t necessarily look for bass, like folk rock. In genres where you may want to hear more low end, like jazz, the Brane X literally shook Gizmodo’s coffee table, where I unceremoniously test lots of speakers. Again, bass isn’t the most important part of a Bluetooth speaker, in my opinion, but if it’s something you look for in a speaker, you are not going to have to try very hard to find it.

And if you somehow are still yearning for more bass, there’s a dedicated bass button on top of the speaker that lets you cycle through low, medium, and high levels. I tried all three and landed on medium as a good default since it highlighted the subwoofer without shaking my actual brain like the high setting does. The low setting, on the other hand, reins it in just a little too much, and then I feel like I’m getting just a little under what I know the speaker can do.

The best news, outside of a heavy amount of bass, is that it sounds good across the frequency spectrum, too. The Brane X feels fairly free of distortion at higher volumes, pushing 50% and above, and the soundstage (partially because of the subwoofer) registers as big and beefy. Listening to a remaster of The Replacements’ “Swingin’ Party,†I was really pleased with the ratio of vocals to music, and Magdalena Bay’s “2 Wheel Drive†really popped out of this speaker in a way I’ve not heard before, with bass blending perfectly with synths and airy, reverb-filled vocals. Seriously, if you’re often listening to electronic music, you’re going to love this thing.

Also, you’ll be happy to know that the Brane X supports hi-res formats, including SBC, AAC, aptX, and aptX HD, so you’re not always stuck streaming via regular Bluetooth, which compresses and degrades audio quality. It may seem wild to spend $500 on a portable Bluetooth speaker, and maybe it is, but in this case, at least the sound quality feels representative of the price.

How portable is it really?

You might be wondering how portable a speaker that crams a whole subwoofer inside could really be, and if you are wondering that, I don’t blame you. The answer? More portable than you might think, but also not nearly as portable as some others without a state-of-the-art woofer inside. Altogether, the Brane X weighs 7.7 pounds, which probably isn’t going to break any backs, but also ain’t nothin’ when it comes to the portable Bluetooth speaker label. For reference, the Bose SoundLink Plus, which at least makes an effort at tackling the Brane X in the bass department, weighs 3.37 pounds.

This isn’t a 1:1 comparison in a lot of ways since Bose’s SoundLink Plus isn’t using novel tech to cram a subwoofer inside, but it’s still worth noting given the fact that the SoundLink Plus does pack a pretty bassy punch. Let me just be clear here: if portability is a huge factor for you, this probably isn’t the speaker you’re looking for. If you’re okay with a bit of a hefty boy, then by all means, proceed. The good news, either way, is that Brane does a handle made from a flexible plastic that can be pushed down, out of sight, to wrap around the speaker when not in use.

On top of being heavy, the speaker is also a bit tall (about 6.1 inches high), but a fairly standard width at 9.3 inches. The design is round, kind of oval, and it looks like a little bread oven, which is neither offensive nor appealing to the eye for me. If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t necessarily want to carry the Brane X around in a backpack or a tote, but if you really wanted to transport it to a party or a friend’s house, you definitely could. In that way, it meets the definition of portable, but this is by no means the speaker that you’re going to want to bring on vacation or cart around in a backpack all day. In fact, I did actually carry the Brane X to and from work in a backpack and can attest to the heft.

The brains inside the Brane X

For $500, the Brane X should come with some nice-to-have features, and it does… on paper. One thing that might catch your attention if you have a smart home or use voice assistants regularly is that the speaker comes with Amazon’s Alexa built in. To activate Alexa on the speaker, you’ll need to download the Brane app and then link your Amazon account, and then you can use the speaker as you would any other smart speaker.

The good news is that, after messing around with the Brane X app for quite a while to get the speaker connected to Wi-Fi, it does work (pro tip: hold down the Bluetooth button on top of the speaker for a few seconds to activate the Wi-Fi pairing process). The problem is, the Alexa built-in feature on the Brane X is technically no longer supported, since Amazon has actually stopped adding any new third-party devices into the Alexa Built-In program, according to Brane. A spokesperson from Brane told me that the Brane X is grandfathered in, which means that the feature still technically works, but it’s not exactly ideal if you’re looking for feature longevity.

Another somewhat deflating realization is that, while you can use Alexa on the Brane X, you cannot sync Spotify if that happens to be your streaming service of choice, nor can you sync Apple Music. Instead, if you want to launch music on the speaker using the Alexa voice assistant, you’re relegated to Amazon Music, which is limiting. To make matters worse, a “Streaming†option inside the Brane app seems to suggest that you’re able to connect your preferred streaming service, but this, I’m told, is not the case due to “technical issues.â€

As long as we’re talking about the app, it’s also worth noting that, while there are some features that you may want to use in this speaker’s companion app, like a 5-band EQ or adjusting the LED brightness, it’s pretty barebones overall. As far as companion apps go in personal audio products, the Brane X app is not the most functional (you can tell just from how barebones the UI looks), which may not matter for lots of people, but is a little deflating considering, again, this speaker costs $500.

The rest of the speaker works just fine. There is an array of touch-sensitive buttons on top for volume, bass adjustment, Bluetooth, turning the speaker mic on/off, and activating Alexa. Battery life is advertised as being 12 hours for moderate volumes, which feels accurate based on my testing. That’s not going to win any medals in the Bluetooth speaker Olympics, but it’s not horrible considering this thing has a subwoofer inside. On the back, there’s a physical power button, a 3.5mm aux in, and an AC power port for the included power adapter. Nothing mind-blowing here, and it all works just fine.

Should you make it rain to buy a Brane?

Spending $500 on a portable Bluetooth speaker is a big ask, so you’re probably wondering if a speaker like this could possibly be worth the price. The answer is… maybe, but only for the right person. That person, in my opinion, is someone who is really keyed in on bass in particular. If you’re left feeling like other Bluetooth speakers just aren’t giving you enough in the low-end department, the Brane X may be your holy grail. This speaker delivers on its promise of shoving a whole woofer inside a relatively portable form factor, and the rest of the sound (frequencies in the midrange and high range) also pulls its weight. Sound-wise, this speaker isn’t phoning it in, which is the main thing you want in a speaker.

The downside is that, if bass isn’t your number one priority, there are other Bluetooth speakers that have great sound, cost less, and blow the Brane X out of the water in terms of companion apps, looks, and portability (Bose’s SoundLink Plus, for example). So, for the right person (bass heads), the Brane X may be the smart choice, huge price tag be damned, but for everyone else, there’s just too much competition to really make it make sense. Don’t get me wrong, actually managing to shove a subwoofer inside a portable Bluetooth speaker is cool, but at the end of the day, you might be just as happy (and less poor) with something less cutting-edge.