Simple Audio Go review

While many portable Bluetooth speakers are designed to stand out, with bright colours and outlandish designs, the Simple Audio Go looks like a particularly compact centre speaker from a home cinema system. It’s only a mono speaker, about the size of a pack of Hovis biscuits. It feels quite sturdy, although it’s not as rugged as some alternatives such as the Scosche BoomBottle.

At the back you’ll find a 3.5mm stereo port, so you can connect non-Bluetooth audio sources, a Micro USB port for charging and an on/off slide switch. The latter is particularly handy if you’re planning to stick the Go into a bag and cart it around with you, as it’s less likely to be accidentally turned on than a push-button power control. At the top of the speaker are volume controls and a Bluetooth pairing button. The Go’s connection status is indicated by a light behind the speaker grille.

Many portable Bluetooth speakers, particularly mono ones, are designed to emit sound across as broad an area as possible, often using an upward-facing speaker driver to help. By contrast, the Go is more directional, with a forward-facing speaker driver. It’s obviously designed to sit on a desk, and a pair of rubbery feet help to keep it from slipping or being nudged out of position.

When you power the speaker on, it chimes to tell you it’s awake. It’s not the best first impression, as the pre-recorded chime is oddly hissy. That seems to mainly be a characteristic of the recorded alert sounds, but listening closely, we could hear a little hiss in the background when we listened to acoustic tracks. It’s usually drowned out by our music, though.