SuperTooth released the first and original Disco speaker last year and it received massively mixed reviews. I never had the opportunity to use the previous generation, so the SuperTooth Disco 2 is fresh new product for me.
The first thing to note about the Disco 2 is it's a very minimal size and it really isn't very well represented from the photos. To get a visual understanding it measures 180mm in height, 108mm in width and 70mm in depth. The materials used for the construction aren't cheap though. Hard matte plastic is used on the base and top. And all sides where the speakers sit, are wrapped in fabric, available in black, blue, red, green and pink.
The location of controls keep the design simplistic by locating them all on top. Six buttons are here, the top middle button turns the unit on and off, upon booting and shutting down, a nice little musical jingle plays. The middle button below this pauses/ plays the audio, either side of top button, the volume up/ down controls are located. And finally the track controls to skip and go back are located either side of the lower middle button. They're all immediate in response over Bluetooth and light up and beep when pressed, great in low light.
You can connect to the SuperTooth Disco 2 via two different methods. The first being an auxiliary input, recessed on the back of the unit. The second method and the one this speaker was designed to be used with is Bluetooth. It supports Bluetooth 4.0 which is backwards compatible with previous iterations of Bluetooth. The Disco 2 remembers up to eight devices over Bluetooth but can only connect to one at a time. Pairing is very simple, turn the speaker on, select it via a Bluetooth enabled device and your paired. Whenever you turn the speaker on and bring a remembered device into range it will automatically connect, no delay. The range is around 17 meters using my iPhone 5, which uses Bluetooth 4.0, but when using devices with 2.0, the range was around 10 meters. Either way the range is very strong and doesn't break up when moving the speaker or device playing the audio.
Because the Disco 2 Speaker is light and compact, I find myself moving it around the house with me. SuperTooth know users will use it such manors and have included a carry bag for traveling. The battery life suits this sort of usage too, getting around eight hours with audio cranked a little over half way. If you crank it near to fully up, it drains exceedingly quicker. I didn't notice any difference in battery life over different version of Bluetooth either. Charge times are around two hours from flat.
Getting onto the primary purpose of this product, sound quality. The most confusing element that SuperTooth claim the Disco 2 has is stereo, when it's most definitely mono. Audio travels through the speaker, as the front and back are open but because the channels aren't separated it's not stereo. This doesn't really impact audio output quality and individual elements within songs don't sound on top of themselves, like you'd expect. The first word I'd use to express my original impression of the sound quality, was startling. I did not expect to hear such loud sound from 16 watts, which is overpowering for personal listening when fully cranked and also fills a room with ease. Reverb rarely ever occurs and when it does it's caused by very bass heavy songs. The bass is exact, the treble is generally rather literal but does under perform on occasion, especially with busy pop songs. The overall audio output is rich and pleasurable, a noteworthy performer across all genres of music. On a side note you cannot link the Disco 2 with other speakers, not a huge concern.
To sum up I cannot fault the SuperTooth Disco 2 Speaker on its Bluetooth performance, audio quality or unit controls. But the biggest shock is the price, available for £75/ $91.99 on Amazon at the time of writing, it seems like an amazing translation of bang for buck.
