Urbanista Sydney is a small Bluetooth speaker with remarkable attention to detail from a technological and construction point of view. We tried it for a few days between music, movies and phone calls with Teams, to better understand its nature and use.
What more baby you can't
With its 13.7 × 10.3 × 4.4 cm it is clear that the Urbanista Sydney is one of the smallest portable speakers ever, particularly due to its rectangular shape, like a pack of cigarettes, which can be placed without problems anywhere, in a handbag or even in a trouser pocket.
The weight, 324 grams, is also very low, and for a product like this a lower weight would have led to serious compromises from an acoustic point of view.
Urban planner Sydney in its four colors: in the photo near the water but do not worry, thanks to the security guaranteed by IPX5
The surface is covered with a fabric covering, in our case military green, while on the two sides the plastic caps bear the Urbanista logo.
The commands (in relief) are few and relegated to the top: two buttons regulate the volume and playback, one for pairing and another for switching on and off. There is also a small white light that indicates operation, but which is partially covered by the fabric mesh and is practically only seen in the dark. On the back, a rubber flap covers the analog output jack and the MicroUSB connector for charging.
As R2-D2
After about an hour and a half of recharging, we turned on the Urbanist Sydney: the little one, not finding any bluetooth reference, automatically went into Pairing mode, from which we proceeded to immediately associate it with the iPad. Bluetooth 5.0 works very well and even pairing with a Mac mini and an iPhone went very quickly.
The way in which Urbanist Sydney signals the various Bluetooth states is through sounds, which are different from each other; reminiscent of those of the famous R2-D2 robot from Star Wars (C1-P8 in the Italian version of the original trilogy and in related works), offering little Sydney more or less the same intriguing look that the incredible little robot of the seventies saga had .
Unlike the presumably very long autonomy of R2-D2, however, the battery here lasts only five hours: however, an important distinction is needed, the total charge is understood as playing time, because in the absence of signal after a while the Urbanista Sydney goes paused on his own and recovers as soon as he feels he is being called into question again.
The small speaker also has the possibility of being combined with other identical speakers, to produce stereo sound, a feature that unfortunately we have not been able to try.
How does it work
As is our custom, we have used the Urbanist Sydney in various situations: the first, and also the most obvious, was that of music reproduction.
Here the small speaker offered a good musicality in the medium and high frequencies (thanks to the frequency response of 80 – 20.000 KHz, on 40 mm drivers), but the lack of deep bass is felt, especially in the songs for the younger ones, where these shades are often highlighted.
In “Brass Monkey” by Beastie Boys the response is good but the bass is not present enough, while in “Englishman In New York” by Sting the result is better, however much a speaker of this size can give. We also liked “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Queen's 2011 remastered version.
It must be said that he performed very well on songs that were not at all easy such as “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole or “Axel F – Beverly Hills Cop Soundtrack” by Harold Faltermeyer in addition to the beautiful “Tell Me Now” by Hans Zimmer with the voice of Moya Brennan.
With “She Wolf” by David Guetta (with the voice of Sla) the dynamic range of the bass is missing a bit, but strangely the Technotronic track “Pump Up The Jam” defended itself well, compared to other models where the bass tended to pollute the intriguing voice of Manuela Kamosi.
Instead, we really appreciated the support of the speaker in the funny film “Wonder Woman 1984”, not as beautiful as the first but still an intriguing film, especially thanks to the charismatic presence of Gal Gadot, or in the recent “Godzilla Vs. Kong” where we had fun a lot of cheering for the big gorilla against the presumptuous “almost” dinosaur.
Finally, we used the Urbanist Sydney also as a terminal for some calls through Microsoft Teams, thanks to the built-in microphone: clearly the microphone offers a full value of the same compromises given by the compactness of the device, however we liked the audio response during calls a lot. and, as in the examples above, we think that this device has been built to improve above all the speech response (Netflix, Amazon Prima video, Sky, Youtube, Podcast, Audiobooks, phone calls) rather than that of a distinctly thought-out speaker for the dance music of the youngest.
Considerations
Considering the very low cost, the practical form that fits everywhere and the excellent performance in speech and good in music, the Urbanista Sydney is a speaker in our opinion designed more for adults, who are looking for something with which to listen to the audio better. iPhone or computer, rather than a terminal to use at a teen party.
The possibility of being used on the move, together with the IPX5 protection that protects it from splashes and sand, are factors that add to the possibility of choosing it in different colors at an undoubtedly affordable price.
In a very fierce market, especially in the same price range, we appreciated the specificity of the audio response, which obviously cannot satisfy everyone, but will make those who buy it happy with this attitude in mind.
Pro:
• Convenient shape to carry • Microphone included • IPX5 protection against splashing water
Cons:
• Sags a bit on the bass
Price:
• 39.00 Euro
Urbanista Sydney is available starting from the website of the parent company or you can find it more conveniently also at Amazon.it in the colors Green, Rose Gold, Black and White.
