Aiwa Exos-9 Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Product Information

AIWA is actually a pretty well established company with a large product offer, which includes headphones, like the ARC-1 Bluetooth headset that I reviewed before, and the pretty new EXOS 8 Party speaker, and the Prodigy Air TWS Earbuds. They are quite reliable and will provide proper warranty and support for you, although they are also sold a lot in stores that aren’t necessarily audio stores. Those stores should also offer a pretty excellent overall warranty and support, and you won’t have to rely on Aiwa alone, so if you see them being sold in your favorite electronics shop, you should totally go for their products, as they are quite reliable. I should also mention that after having had their ARC-1 Bluetooth headphones for almost a year now, I can confirm that they didn’t break so far.

Exos-9 is also louder but you can only pair two Exos-9 speakers together while you can pair up to 100 JBL Boomboxes. Exos-9 features EQ settings and JBL Boombox doesn’t. AIWA offers one year of official warranty for EXOS 9, but if you’ll be taking care of it, I would imagine it will survive way longer, the only part that you’ll need to eventually change being the battery, which can be found online for a few dollars. Given the 300 USD price point of the speaker, this is a good deal, and if you plan to hold a large party, having spare one or two spare batteries should get you through the night even if listening at full volume. The most amazing part of music is the emotional response it’s able to trigger. With that being said, feeling the power and dynamics of the music seriously helps with that response. That’s probably why you’re here in the first place. There is NFC as well built in the speaker, which helps you connect your source without having to search for the bluetooth, if your smartphone or source is NFC enabled.In terms of desktop usage, you have a nice combination of factors that make EXOS 9 a really amazing speaker to use while sitting at your desk, or while having a party in your home. The JBL PartyBox 300 is a semi-portable PA system made especially for large parties and outdoor gatherings. It is a large wireless speaker from JBL that streams high-quality sound from your smartphone or Bluetooth devices at a touch of a button, with roaring acoustic drivers that pump out deafening sound quality. You should keep in mind that the speaker has a beautiful bass, but also has very good punch and dynamics, and although you won't be able to ever take it for a trip in the park, you will be able to turn virtually any room into a true dance hall, the volume is really good, and this comes from someone who likes to listen pretty loud.

This being said, there's a lot more to talk about before we get to the sound, and one of the most important questions is about the input(s) of EXOS 9, and well, you have your selection of AUX and Bluetooth. In terms of sonic quality and performance, you won't feel a big difference between AUX and Bluetooth, and you will be able to enjoy the speaker regardless of whether you're using the bluetooth or the Aux input. Since the Exos-9 is the product that pulled Aiwa from the ashes, maybe they should have named it “The Phoenix” instead. Either way, the Exos-9 is a dynamite speaker that sounds great, especially outdoors. If Aiwa can add some built-in water protection and some additional smart connection options like Alexa, AirPlay or Google Play, the Exos-9 could come close to that perfect all-in-one speaker. But if you want to become nostalgic, you’ll have to take a little hit: The original manufacturer was sold to Sony in 2002 and ceased operations in 2006. In 2013, the brand rights were sold to “River West Brands”, which cooperated with “Hale Devices”. The latter company subsequently renamed itself “Aiwa” and is responsible for the device we tested. AIWA offers one year of official warranty for EXOS 9, but if you'll be taking care of it, I would imagine it will survive way longer, the only part that you'll need to eventually change being the battery, which can be found online for a few dollars. Given the 300 USD price point of the speaker, this is a good deal, and if you plan to hold a large party, having spare one or two spare batteries should get you through the night even if listening at full volume.The sound of the Aiwa Exos-9 is powerful and very clear. Five integrated loudspeakers, including a 6.5-inch subwoofer with an output of 200 watts, ensure this. With the help of the equalizer, it was possible to adapt the AUX mode to one’s own wishes to a great extent. Everything is possible with the Exos-9, from balanced to bass-heavy to high-frequency sound. We were very satisfied with that. We noticed particularly positively that the settings are consistently maintained even at high volumes – even bass-stressed sound is still perfectly reproduced at high volumes. Conclusion

Spoiler alert... the Exos 9 sounds significantly better. I have not found a portable, battery operated speaker that comes close. It’s easy to wonder why Aiwa hasn’t updated the speaker, but honestly it just sounds ridiculously better than all of its competitors. The dynamic range is fantastic. The sound is very powerful and natural. It gets significantly louder than the hyperboom with zero distortion and much more humph. Because of the subwoofer, the bass remains neatly beneath the mids. Also, because the mid’s aren’t responsible for pushing any passive radiators — they’re able to handle more of the vocals without relying on the tweeters (more on this later). With that all said, it isn’t water resistant and less portable than the hyperboom .

Final Thoughts

AIWA EXOS 9 is in a class of its own, being a bluetooth speaker, but not a very portable one, thanks to its weight, which is almost funny high, of about 7 KG, but it has a lot going on for it, including APT-X, a battery of about 15600 mAh, and even built-in EQ. Since it is a bluetooth speaker, it won't have any pairings, and there are no actual comparison point for it at the moment, but don't worry, as soon as I'll be reviewing a speaker that matches its description, it will get compared to Exos 9. This being said, the Yamaha WX-021 Music Cast 20 is similar in concept and price, and Edifier Luna also works as a comparison point, and to make it three, I will also add Edifier S1000DB to the comparison list. Also, SoundTouch 30 has to be plugged in all the time while Exos-9 is battery-operated and portable. The speaker is built like a tank and comes with a 20,000mAh battery that can deliver a whopping 24 hours of continuous music playtime so you never have to miss a beat. It also doubles as a power bank for you to charge your external devices on the go. The speaker is designed to be tough and rugged and is rated IPX7 waterproof, which means that you can bring it outdoors under the rain without any issues. The PartyBox 300 speaker provides JBL signature sound with an immersive audio experience at home that brings to live audio experiences with extremely loud sound. If you are looking for one of the loudest Bluetooth speakers that can produce a tonne of volume for party events, the JBL PartyBox 300 is a great choice. Sound Performance