soundcast is a company focused on just one thing bringing music to people who
love being outside their portable bluetooth
speakers deliver the type of sound quality you would expect from high
performance stereo speakers and yet they're rechargeable they connect
wirelessly and they're highly resistant to weather
these are not just background music speakers they're designed to rock out
and to play loud and clear and even better
they don't care if they're sitting in the sand or in the snow
in this video we're going to cover some of the cool technology you'll get with
every soundcast and then we'll get into each model and discuss the benefits
hopefully this will help you decide which soundcast fits best with your
style in the great outdoors and if you want to read the full review
on the soundcast lineup be sure to click the link in the
description that will take you directly to the written review
on audioadvice.com now let's get started all the soundcast products are weather
resistant to varying degrees so here's a quick rundown on what the
different letters and numbers mean ip is short for international protection
rating also known as ingress protection the
first digit which will be a value from zero to six
is how well protected the unit is against solids
including very fine dust the second digit goes from zero to eight
and it tells you how well protected the unit is from liquids
with zero meaning no protection at all and eight meaning it can operate under
deep water for long periods of time without damaging the unit
all of the soundcast products are rated at six for solids
which means you'll never have to worry about dust sand or pollen doing any
damage to your soundcast speaker they vary a bit on the rating for
liquids but they're all fairly high i'll go over their resistance to liquids
when we go through each product soundcast went to great lengths to
design an outdoor speaker that lets you not have to worry about your music dying
when you're out and about as a matter of fact some models can play
for up to 40 hours the first two models are just shy of
three and a half pounds and they are quite easy to carry around
as you get into the bigger and more powerful models
they do get a bit more stout so soundcast ergonomically designed a great
carrying handle for the top three largest models so they're all well
balanced when you pick them up and walk around bluetooth pairing works
really well on every single one we tested and i noticed
that my phone could communicate with them
even up to about 100 feet away they all deploy
high def aac and aptx bluetooth codecs for great sound
every model except the entry level one also offers the ease of pairing with
bluetooth nfc so you can just hold your phone up to it
for pairing the basic model can remember five phones while all the others will
remember up to eight devices with any of the soundcast models you can
pair two of them together to cover a much larger area
and when you do this they will transform into true
stereo units that's a really cool feature because it lets you spread out
your music over a wider area without having to
crank one speaker up louder in every model including the smallest
one the speakers are actively amped with
separate amplifiers for the different types of drivers
this allows them to fine-tune the audio to each speaker driver's characteristics
they are all designed to throw out a very large and wide sound field and to
my ears it sounded very clear and rich from all directions
on all of them except for the entry level which basically just fires the
sound to the front the sound and the
durability is ultimately what convinced the audio advice team to offer soundcast
as a portable speaker option they sound fantastic for an outdoor
speaker and their portability makes them even cooler even our audiophile clients
who have tried them have been super impressed with their big
full sound each and every single model gives you the option to connect an audio
source with an auxiliary input on the unit not only can you control
them from your smartphone with bluetooth every soundcast model has some tactile
pushable or touchable button controls on the units
for several functions now let's go through and look at each
model in the soundcast lineup first up is the vg1 the entry level
soundcast is designed to easily fit into a backpack
it's the most weather resistant of all the models with an ip67 rating which
means it can be submerged for up to 30 minutes under one meter of water and
continue working if you drop the vg1 in the pool or if it
gets submerged in water when the tide comes in
you don't have to worry the vg1 uses a one and a half inch aluminum driver
with a rear passive radiator while it can fit in the palm of your hand it
actually goes down to about 90 hertz in low frequency range which is
deeper than other portable speakers of this size
if you connect this with bluetooth the vg1 will turn into a speakerphone for
incoming calls playtime on the vg1 is up to 15 hours
depending on how loud you have it playing
and it can recharge in about three and a half hours
i see the vg1 appealing to the person who wants music for their outdoor fun
but who also cares about portability and the price over the
ultimate in sound next up is the vg3 when you step up to
the vg3 you'll get a much bigger sound field than the vg1
provides it is still small and light enough to
fit inside a backpack but its mini tower format helps it perform
more like a home audio speaker soundcast uses the same
two drivers as the ones found in the vg1 but
they're positioned on each side of the cabinet for more room-filling sound
and they're augmented with a downward firing active subwoofer
bass goes deeper and it's much more punchy on the vg3 compared to the vg1
the vg3 can also become a speakerphone and it gives you more battery life with
a maximum play time of 21 hours this longer battery life comes with
slightly more time on the charger with 5 hours being needed to fully charge it
but if you want something very portable and yet could last for a three-day
weekend of listening around a campfire with full
rich sound the vg3 is probably the perfect choice for you
the vg5 has the same form factor as the vg3
but you'll need a duffel bag instead of a backpack to tote this around
at a little over 17 inches tall and eight inches wide and deep the vg5 is
moving into the serious speaker category of the soundcast lineup
we do really like the rear carrying handle which balances it out
but you'll probably want to find a better way to tote this 12 and a half
pound speaker if you're planning to carry it for more than a couple hundred
yards the vg5 gets its ip rating of ip64 so
like the vg3 it basically is immune to everything
except for a long dip in the pool you do get quite a big jump in the
quality of speaker components with the vg5 as you move
up to the three inch aluminum cone drivers and the separate 6-inch powered
subwoofer the configuration is the same as the vg3
with the drivers firing out to the sides for big sound you'll be
able to feel the bass with the vg5 and fill up a much bigger area than with
the vg3 play time on the vg5 is the shortest of
any model at a maximum of 10 hours which will take about 4-5 hours to fully
recharge some people may decide to make this a
flexible speaker and use it for both indoor and out which
soundcasts also realize and added an eq section that changes the tonal quality
with an indoor and outdoor setting we see the vg5 as more of an outdoor
speaker and you can take it to a boat dock a tailgate event or
out by the pool it's pretty heavy so you won't want to carry it too far
and it doesn't have the long weekend battery life of the vg3
but obviously it sounds much much bigger now we'll move on to the vg7 the vg7
is a 21 pound speaker that's 19 inches tall and 11 inches wide
and deep while the speaker is large it does balance surprisingly well when you
pick it up for its size soundcast took the 3-inch aluminum drivers of the vg5
and uses four of them on all sides of the vg7
for huge sound and they are complemented by a powered 7-inch downward firing
subwoofer they had the same great ip rating of
ip64 you get a great play time of up to 21
hours and it can fully charge in just three hours the vg7 also has a different
battery pack that can hold a charge for up to one
year this is the speaker that is impressing a
lot of our audiophile customers with a great sound outdoors that reminds them
of a nice pair of speakers bass is only three db down at 55 hertz
which outdoors sounds quite full and rich like
the vg5 it also has the indoor and outdoor eq setting
with double the battery life of the vg5 and the ability to play with an optional
12-volt adapter this is a model you could take on a long
camping trip put it by the pool or the dock or be the envy of all your friends
at a tailgate party finally we have the vg7se
take the vg7 stretch it out add more power
and a much bigger battery and you have it special edition version
the vg7se standing at over 2 feet tall and 11 inches by 11 inches and 24 pounds
you will definitely need it solid handle to move this one around
while the vg7 se has the same speaker components
and configuration as the vg7 soundcast doubled the power inside for every driver
and increase the bass driver cabinet size to provide
far more output they also doubled the battery capacity to an amazing maximum
of 40 hours of play time it will take about 6
hours to fully charge or you can get 20 hours with about 3-4
hours of charging bass reaches down to an incredible 3 db
down of 40 hertz on the vg7se which
outperforms a lot of big floor sounding indoor speakers
if you want some ambient light the vg7se has downward firing lights that you
can adjust to suit the mood i could see this feature coming in handy
for camping trips or for keeping you from stumping your toe
on this beast in the dark the vg7se is for someone who wants the ultimate in
outdoor sound and be able to rock out for hours i can
see it being used mostly for the pool or dock parties and for tailgating we
hope this overview has given you a good idea of which soundcast model might fit
your outdoor entertainment or adventure needs and if
you have any questions at all feel free to visit us at audioadvice.com
chat with one of our experts give us a call or stop into one of our raleigh or
charlotte north carolina showrooms and we'll be happy to help you add some
great music to your outdoor fun thanks for watching and if you've
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content we'll see you next time