Hi I’m Gidon from thetechnologyman.com. The Tribit Stormbox Micro is a true mini portable
Bluetooth speaker with the footprint of a drink’s coaster. It’s waterproof, supports
stereo pairing and has a handy rubber strap that provides flexible mounting options.
I’ll be running through all its features before comparing how it sounds to other popular
compact speakers: the UE Wonderboom 2, the Anker Soundcore 2 and the LG PL2 I recently
reviewed. I’ll also compare to its larger sibling the Tribit MaxSound Plus. So let’s
take a closer look. Overview
Inside the box you get the speaker itself, a USB-C charging cable, and an instruction
manual. There’s no included travel pouch. This is one of the most compact Bluetooth
speakers I’ve tested, measuring just 98mm x 98mm and 35mm thick. It weighs 292g, making
it smaller and lighter than all the speakers I’m comparing it to.
The build quality of the speaker is excellent for the price. The bottom half of the speaker
has a rubberised matte grey finish and the top half including the speaker grille is wrapped
in fabric which feels nice to the touch. It’s solid with no creaking and I like the design
with it’s soft rounded edges. It looks very similar to the Bose SoundLink Micro, which
also has the rubber mounting strap. The top of the speaker has raised rubber control
buttons and the Tribit logo. The volume controls can be held down to continuously adjust volume.
A double press of the middle Pause | Play button skips forward a track and a triple
press skips back. The button also answers and ends phone calls.
The side of the speaker has the USB-C charging port with no cover. The front of the speaker
has the slightly recessed power and Bluetooth pairing buttons, either side of the status
LEDs and microphone. There’s no 3.5mm audio-in port which is usually the norm on these speakers.
The bottom of the speaker has the rubber mounting strap, 4 soft rubber feet, and the passive
radiator grille. To charge the speaker you need to use a USB-A
to USB-C cable like the one supplied. I’m pleased to see USB-C charging, unlike on the
more powerful MaxSound Plus which uses micro-USB. Like many other USB-C speakers I’ve tried
it won’t charge with a dual-ended USB-C cable.
The right four white status LEDs indicate the current charge level with one of the LEDs
flashing to indicate charging is in progress. They all turn off when the speaker is fully
charged. The integrated 2600mAh or 9.6Wh battery takes up to 3.5 hours to charge from completely
flat, charging at a respectable 1.1A. A short press of the power button turns the
speaker on and off. When you turn it on for the first time the status LED flashes blue.
Tap on Tribit StormBox Micro in your Bluetooth settings. There’s an audio prompt and the
Bluetooth LED goes steady. You can pair to a maximum of two devices simultaneously,
although it can remember up to 8 devices. To pair to a second device press and hold
the Bluetooth pairing button for 2 seconds until the LED starts flashing and connect
your second device. If you have a second Tribit StormBox Micro
you can set them up as a wireless stereo pair. Press and hold the Bluetooth button on both
speakers for 5 seconds until you hear the prompt. This puts the speakers in Party Mode.
To enter Stereo Mode with the two speakers playing the left and right channel separately,
short press the Bluetooth button on either speaker. You should hear confirmation audio
prompts. Another short press reverts back to Party Mode and pressing and holding the
Bluetooth button for 5 seconds will disable the pairing. Unfortunately I don’t currently
have a second speaker to test this feature. If you want to factory reset the speaker and
remove all Bluetooth pairings records, with the speaker on press and hold the Bluetooth
button for 10 seconds. You’ll hear a confirmation sound and the speaker will re-enter Bluetooth
pairing mode. Sound accompanies turning the speaker on and
off, Bluetooth pairing and reaching maximum volume but with no break in music playback
just a slight reduction in volume. Unfortunately you can’t turn these audio prompts off.
With two connected devices you can pause playback on one device to play from your second device.
The speaker turns off automatically after around 15 minutes with no playback which also
can’t be disabled. There’s no accompanying app to adjust EQ,
configure audio prompts or setup stereo pairing. Sound quality and performance
The Tribit StormBox Micro has a single 42mm 9W mid-range driver and a passive radiator.
I’ve been genuinely surprised with the sound it produces considering its diminutive size.
It sounds full bodied and with Tribit’s XBass technology it has a lot more bass than
I was expecting, but doesn’t bounce around like some lighter speakers.
Unlike the larger Tribit MaxSound Plus you can’t turn XBass off, but I tend to leave
that feature on most of the time anyway. It doesn’t have quite the clarity of the MaxSound
Plus as you might expect, and busier tracks sound better with the volume reduced slightly.
But maximum volume is also louder than I was expecting - considerably louder than the LG
PL2, and a lot of tracks can still be played at maximum volume with little distortion.
I still slightly prefer something like the less bassy LG PL2 for playing back podcasts,
TV shows and YouTube videos with lots of speaking. By default, you’ll have the StormBox Micro
on its rubber feet with the speaker pointing straight up. It is a directional, not 360
degree speaker though, and I preferred the sound with the speaker pointed towards me,
using the rubber strap to mount it vertically, but this isn’t always practical and it’s
a shame it's not really possible to stand it vertically on its own.
You can listen to a comparison between the Tribit Stormbox Micro in it’s default and
vertical positions, the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 with Outdoor Mode off, the LG PL2 with Sound
Boost on, the Anker Soundcore 2 and the Tribit MaxSound Plus with XBass on. So you can decide
for yourself which one you prefer the sound of - let me know down below in the comments
which is your favourite! I also have full reviews of many of these speakers playing
various tracks, so take a look at the links below or the on-screen cards if you’re interested.
I’ve recorded the sound test with binaural microphones that capture stereo sound, to
try and provide the closest representation of what I’m hearing. Please listen with
headphones for the best experience. Use the video chapters in the timeline or the timestamps
below to skip ahead if you like. There was a slight delay in audio playing
back YouTube videos on iOS but Netflix was ok as was YouTube and Netflix on Android.
The 8 battery life is probably the most underwhelming feature of this speaker, less than all the
other speakers I’m reviewing it against. Tribit don’t mention what volume this is
measured at but I still got a good day’s usage out of it, generally at around 75% playback
volume, before the status LED started flashing red, indicating the battery was low. You’ll
see the battery status when you first turn the unit on as well as when it’s charging.
The speaker uses the latest Bluetooth 5.0 but range was slightly worse than average,
just making it to the end of the next room of my brick built house less than 10m away.
But I didn’t have any connection issues in general use.
It doesn’t support any of the higher quality codecs like AAC and aptX - just the standard
SBC codec, but this isn’t really of any concern for a small speaker like this.
Although the speaker has a built in microphone for voice calls, it doesn’t have the greatest
pick up, sounding a little quiet and muffled even speaking less than 30cm away. Received
phone calls sounds ok though. This mic is also used if you activate your voice assistant
with a one second press of the Play | Pause button, but you’ll need to get quite close
for Siri or the Google Assistant to understand you.
The speaker has an impressive IP67 water and dust proof rating, higher than all the other
speakers I’m testing it against. The first digit 6 means it’s meant to be dust-tight
which is not something you usually see in a Bluetooth speaker. And the 7 means it can
be fully immersed in water, like any other IPX7 speaker. It stood up fine in my testing
even with the uncovered USB-C port and fabric cover.
I tried attaching the speaker with the rubber strap to various objects, including the handlebars
of a bike, a backpack, a tree branch, a metal gate and even the belt of my trousers working
out in the garden and shed. I found it could be attached to objects up to around 35mm in
diameter. It does feel fairly secure, but I’d want
some sort of twist lock mechanism if I was someone who was going to ride my bike around
with it attached. It’s still a very simple, yet handy feature.
Conclusions If you’re after a mini Bluetooth speaker
which sounds good and doesn’t cost too much the Tribit Stormbox Micro has to be on your
shortlist. I was impressed with the sound quality, build, design and feature set - particularly
the rubber mounting strap and rugged IP67 dust and waterproof rating.
It’s still a small speaker and obviously has limitations. It’s not as loud as the
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 or Tribit MaxSound Plus and midtones can sound a little swamped
by the bass with some tracks and you can’t turn the XBass off. If you’re after a compact
speaker for podcasts or watching TV shows and YouTube videos, the LG PL2 and Anker Soundcore
2 sounded a little clearer to me. If you don’t need the compact size or mounting options
with the handy rubber strap, the MaxSound Plus and substantially more expensive Wonderboom
are a step up in sound quality, with improved clarity particularly in the midtones. And
much better battery life too - which is probably the StormBox Micro’s weakest feature.
I have reviews of most of the other speakers I’ve compared the Tribit StormBox Micro
to, which I’ll link to in the description below and via the on-screen cards if you’re
interested. I’d love to know whether you like the look
of this speaker, or what you think of it if you already own one. Or if there’s another
speaker I should take a look at. Let me know down below in the comments.
And as always, if you have any questions, please ask - I read every comment and will
do my best to respond. I do hope you found this video useful. Please
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