Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Blueshift’s bamboo Bluetooth speakers charge in five minutes, welcome new models

By

There are so many wireless speakers on the market, we barely get out of bed these days unless a speaker offers something truly revolutionary. Such was the case last January, when a small startup introduced the Helium, a beautiful Bluetooth speaker set in a bamboo box that ditches wasteful rechargeable batteries for ultra-fast charging supercapacitors. Unfortunately, the Helium also tops out at $550. Now, Blueshift has offered up a smaller, more affordable addition to its product line, aptly named the Hydrogen, which premiered today on Crowd Supply.

Supercapacitors are expensive — like 10 to 15 times rechargeable batteries expensive — but they allow Blueshift’s speakers to do some very cool things, including coralling a full charge in about 5 minutes. They also offer a ridiculously long lifespan of up to a half a million charges, which is around 500 times what a lithium ion battery can do. And of course, supercapacitors aren’t loaded with chemicals, keeping them inline with Blueshift’s sustainable philosophy.

Sustainable is a big deal in Portland, OR, where Blueshift makes its home ( it’s also where DT’s headquarters are located.) That’s why the Hydrogen, like its larger predecessor, uses an environmentally-friendly bamboo cabinet for its chassis. Bamboo also sounds good, and happens to look pretty awesome too, giving each speaker its own unique aesthetic, and blending in nicely with both modern, and classical decors.

Related

The Hydrogen is a compact speaker, measuring 9 x 8 x 4-inches, and weighing four pounds. Inside its ported bamboo cabinet rests a single Fountech FE85 3-inch driver, which is powered by a Class-D amplifier to reach a claimed 100Hz-20kHz frequency response. While the speaker charges in minutes, it does have a more limited battery range than the Helium’s 6 hours, lasting around 3-4 hours per charge. That’s fine if you’re sticking around power sources, considering its lightning fast charge speed, but not great if you’re off the grid. As one might guess from the company name, the speaker connects to your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth.

As for the sound, we were able to spend a short time with the Hydrogen, and walked away fairly impressed. It offers a clear, smooth sound signature focused roundly on the midrange, and it gets loud enough to keep the party going for a moderate crowd, inside or out. Pricing for the Hydrogen will begin at $300 for those who get in early on Crowd Supply, rising to $330 as orders stack up. The speaker is expected to have a retail price of $400 when it hits the open market. If successful, the first Crowd Supply orders are expected to ship to backers in January 2015.

For those looking for a bigger sound, Blueshift has other options in the works as well. The company is still a growing operation, so the Helium is on pre-order as it ramps up production, available in a dual driver design for $550, and mono for $440, with new features including on-board volume control, and stereo pairing of two of the speakers. Blueshift is also working on a wall-powered subwoofer that pairs with its regular speakers called the Iron, a $240 preamp that allows users to run a turntable, or even a guitar through its speakers, and 5 audiophile-grade sets of limited edition wireless stereo speakers called Argon, which will run you a cool $3,500.

If you’re interested in checking out any of Blueshift’s new projects, you can back them now on Crowd Supply, or check out more about the brand on its website.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Ryan Waniata
Ryan Waniata
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…
Bluetooth on Sonos’ new Era speakers isn’t what you think – it’s better
Sonos Era 300 close-up of Bluetooth button.

When Sonos recently debuted its two newest wireless speakers -- the Era 100 and Era 300 -- it broke with years of precedence by adding Bluetooth, a connection option that has never been offered on the company’s non-portable speakers. At the time, I thought Bluetooth on an Era speaker worked the same way as it does on the Sonos Move. I was wrong.

It turns out, the Era speakers use Bluetooth in tandem with their Wi-Fi connections, as opposed to the Move, which treats Bluetooth as a completely separate mode. That has some profound implications for what you can do with one of the new Era speakers within a Sonos system, as well as a few caveats about what you can’t do.

Read more
Sonos’ new Era 100 and Era 300 wireless speakers go all-in on spatial audio and Bluetooth
Sonos Era 300 and Era 100 side by side.

Sonos has officially unveiled two new wireless smart speakers -- the $249 Sonos Era 100, and the $449 Sonos Era 300. While the Era 100 is effectively a new version of the aging Sonos One, which it replaces, the Era 300 is an entirely new type of speaker for the company, with six drivers (including an up-firing tweeter) and compatibility with spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos.

The leaks pretty much nailed it. Both speakers will be available on March 28 in 26 countries including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, and Australia, with preorders beginning March 7.

Read more
New Sonos speakers apparently confirmed by accessory company
Rendering of a reportedly unreleased Sonos speaker created by The Verge.

If a document published by accessory maker Sanus is accurate, Sonos' next speakers will be called the Era 100 and Era 300, according to a report from Chris Welch at The Verge. Welch claims that The Verge had already learned from its sources that "Era" will be the public-facing name of the as-yet-unreleased smart speaker that he had previously reported on under the code name "Optimo," and that the Sanus document offers further evidence of this claim.

Sanus is a company that makes a variety of mounting solutions for AV products, including many Sonos models such as the Sonos Beam, Arc, and Sonos One. The discovered document, which was posted to the site device.report, is entitled "Sanus Elite - Adjustable Speaker Wall Mount for Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 Speakers."

Read more