The $149.99 House of Marley No Bounds XL is an eco-friendly Bluetooth speaker that delivers audio from a waterproof, dust-tight frame. It's capable of rich low-mids, so that deep voices sound even deeper, but it lacks the bass depth to deliver true sub-bass that would beef up the overall sound signature. It also lays on the digital signal processing (DSP) pretty thick most of the time, which can result in tracks sounding a little squashed in the dynamics department. If audio is your top concern, you can do better for the price. But if having an eco-friendly design that is also fully waterproof and dustproof matters more, few speakers can match the No Bounds XL.
Design
House of Marley is an FSC-certified brand, so most of the materials the company uses are eco-conscious. Thus, the 4.0-by-3.5-by-10.0-inch (HWD), 3.8-pound No Bounds XL, available in black or gray, is made from a mix of recyclable aluminum, recycled silicone, fabric comprised of recycled plastic, reclaimed hemp, organic cotton, and sustainably harvested cork. The bottom of the speaker has rubber feet to keep it from dancing around flat surfaces due to bass vibrations.
Beyond being eco-friendly, the speaker is outdoor-friendly, with an IP67 rating. This is just about the highest IP rating you can get in a consumer product, and means the speaker is dust-tight and fully waterproof. It can be submerged in water up to a meter, making it an ideal candidate for the pool or beach.
Behind the canvas-like front-facing grille, the speaker utilizes dual 2.5-inch 10-watt drivers and two 0.75-inch 10-watt tweeters for a frequency range of 80Hz-20kHz. The drivers aided by a single passive radiator that is situated behind the cork backing on the rear panel. They're also waterproof.
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The shell of the speaker is a mottled matte rubbery surface, with three buttons up top. A central play/pause button also handles voice assistance (when held down) and call management, while plus/minus buttons control volume (when pressed) and track navigation (when held in).
On the right side, there's a leather strap for the included carabiner, as well as the power button and a Bluetooth button. The back of the speaker has a handsome cork covering, and a snap-shut cover protecting the 3.5mm aux input (no cable is included) and the clothbound micro USB charging cable. The compartment houses both a micro port (for charging the speaker) as well as a USB port for charging your mobile devices using the No Bounds XL's battery.
The speakerphone mic offers poor intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 6s, I could understand every word, but just barely. The signal was exceptionally weak, even though I spoke loudly and from a distance of less than 18 inches from the speaker. I wouldn't describe this as a deal breaker unless you plan to conduct business using the speakerphone, but the mic makes it hard to hold normal phone conversations.
House of Marley estimates the No Bounds XL's battery life to be roughly 16 hours, but your results will vary with your volume levels and your mix or wired and wireless playback, and whether you use the speaker to charge external devices.
Performance
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the No Bounds XL delivers respectable bass thump, but there's no real sub-bass presence here. The depth of the drum hits on this track is reduced to a tap through the speaker's powerful DSP. Powerful DSP may sound like a good thing, but the drivers have their dynamic range squashed dramatically. This is all in the name of the speaker not distorting—and the No Bounds XL doesn't distort, even at top volume levels—but it also doesn't sound natural, almost as if key parts of the bass response have simply been removed from the equation.
Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the No Bounds XL's general sound signature. Here, the speaker sounds like it has powerful bass depth, but not in the sub-bass or lower bass realms. The drums here sound like tapping instead of thumping, as well, at least until you push the volume levels—at high volumes the drums gain some body that disappears at medium volume levels. It's Callahan's baritone vocals that sound thunderous through the No Bounds XL—the low-mids get some serious boosting, with the result of the vocals being pushed dramatically forward in the mix. The higher frequencies are well represented, thankfully, so there's a decent sense of balance, but the DSP is heavily involved here, as well. The dynamics of the track are again squashed, creating the sense of the volume level rising and lowering whenever it is triggered by a powerful element in the mix.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop receives the ideal amount of high-mid presence to remain crisp and punchy, and the loop also receives some added thump in the low-mids. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with reasonable depth, but again, nothing that conjures the power of a subwoofer or even a powerful woofer. Not that we should expect that from this price range or a speaker this size—but when the bass is dialed back in the deepest realms and the DSP is dialed up no matter what, you can end up with a pretty sculpted sound signature.
Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, receive some added body and depth in the low-mids. The higher register brass, strings, and vocals, however, still receive plenty of bright, crisp high-mid and high-frequency presence. This track arguably suffered the least at the hands of the DSP, but again, the result is not really a natural sound signature, it's a highly sculpted one.
Conclusions
The No Bounds XL pumps out serviceable audio, and if your main priority is being able to take it on the go and not worry about dirt, dust, or water damaging it, it's worth considering. Add in the eco-conscious, attractive design, and there's more to like about it—just not if audio itself is your top priority. If that's the case, consider the Ultimate Ears UE Blast, or if you have room in your budget, the JBL Xtreme 2. For less money, the smaller Sony SRS-XB10 delivers solid audio in a water-resistant design, and if you're interested in other rugged options, the EcoXGear EcoSlate is also a winner.
The House of Marley No Bounds XL is an eco-friendly Bluetooth speaker with a waterproof design that offers average audio performance.
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About Tim Gideon
Contributing Editor, Audio
