Kitsound Hive Bluetooth Speaker Review

Final thoughts

Price

This is indeed a very special product and in my opinion, punches way above its £60 asking price and that makes it excellent value for money in my opinion.

Overview

It outputs a sound signature that will make people look twice when they first see it in action and some may still be unconvinced thinking there’s a bigger speaker hidden somewhere.

I was not the only one amazed by the Hive either. At one barbecue a guest was so impressed that they bought one for their barbecue several weeks later, it just really has to be heard to be believed.

Kitsound have managed to do what many other manufacturers could not. They’ve packaged big sound into a small speaker and priced it at a point where nobody will raise an eyebrow once they hear what it is capable of. I found the design very appealing and it’s a sort of timeless one too. I cannot see it looking dated in 3 years time, for example.

Pros

• Excellent build quality.
• Logical layout of buttons and connections.
• Excellent sound quality, I have not heard a better speaker in this class.
• Long battery life.
• Quick and seamless Bluetooth pairing.
• Included wired conectivity.
• Ability to handle calls via built in mic.

Cons

• If connected via Bluetooth and you plug in a wired media player then the wired player will take priority. Would have been nice to have a source select button.
• At very low volumes there is an ambient hum output from the speaker. This goes away at higher volumes.
• The included pouch fastening strap buckle broke within a week for me.
• Only volume control. Would have been nice to have playback controls as well to skip tracks.

While there are a few things I’d like to have seen featured on the Hive I understand that having them would also increase the price in most cases and the lack of them isn’t a huge issue for most. This is more of a personal preference than a widespread problem and because the Kitsound Hive excels everywhere else and leaves the immediate competition standing I am very pleased to give it the Editor’s Choice award.