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Anything that makes it to the charts hasn’t really interested me since Now! 72, but Meghan Trainor definitely made me look when she released All About That Bass. Metaphors aside, all bass and no treble sounded alright to me – but then, who didn’t want to drown out the mid-2010s with heavy grunge?
Whether I’m older and wiser (doubt it) or we’re all just ready for a bit more balance, it’s clear that the latest speakers are striving towards the best overall sound. But, in the cruel, competitive world we live in, almost all of them also fight for the most cutting-edge features.
That’s where the Klipsch Heritage Groove doesn’t just stand out from the crowd but leaves it entirely behind – the cool kid of the portable speaker world. Made of real wood and – gasp – tweed, there’s seemingly no plastic in sight. In fact, the Klipsch Heritage Groove has taken some of the best of modern tech – being wireless and compact, for example – but rejected the rest.
But does the Klipsch Heritage Groove’s sound make up for its lack of features? There was only one way to find out: queue my secret boogie playlist on Spotify and put it to the test.
Klipsch Heritage Groove: Design
The Klipsch’s “mid-century modern design” is truly classy, with the sturdy, stylish air of an old-fashioned radio. It easily blends into any room, whether on a bookshelf or coffee table, with its reel wood veneer, woven tweed grille, and metal button panel. Not many speakers don’t look techy: this doesn’t, and all the better for it.
The Klipsch Heritage Groove is small and very portable (you can carry it in one hand), with a nice weight to it (1kg) that would make it great for a picnic, but a bit heavy for a hike. The metal brand badge finishes the design off with an American hipster edge – you can imagine it fitting in well in a bougie barbers or guitar shop.
Klipsch Heritage Groove:Features
When it comes to features, the Klipsch Groove seems to put more focus on the simplicity of good sound than all the bells and whistles. It’s not a speaker that will read you your texts or flash in time to the music, but perhaps for the better.
This little speaker has a solid battery life at eight hours, meaning you can easily forget when you last charged it. That said, when it comes to the battery running out, this may not be such a good thing.
In fact, a major flaw of the Klipsch Heritage Groove is that there is no way of telling (on the device or on your phone) how much battery there is left. Granted, it will start bleeping warning signals when it gets close – but, with these interrupting your music at 10-second intervals, it may as well be out of juice at this point.
The speaker does have a microphone, which not all speakers do, for when you’re grooving away and someone phones you. The microphone works well.
The most I dared to test the speaker’s water-resistance was playing music in the bathroom while in the shower. It got a few water droplets on it, but everything was fine (phew). The Heritage Groove is not advertised as water- or dust-resistant, so beware.
With two side-firing passive bass radiators and a three-inch full-range driver, the features that boost sound quality are awesome for something so small. That’s where Klipsch have focused their attention.
Not on fancy lights. (Only a flashing Bluetooth LED to see here).
The easy Bluetooth connection is a breath of fresh air compared to speakers and headphones that you have to go through an app to get to. That said, the lack of an app means there is no way of controlling levels for, say, turning that bass down a bit.
When it comes to the Bluetooth range, the Heritage Groove has separation issues. I live in a small house and, even so, the speaker can’t handle my phone being two rooms away from it.
The speaker has an impressive volume range for something so small – easily able to reach unsociable levels (sorry to my neighbours for briefly testing this out) without losing sound quality.
However, it sounds best when it’s facing you – which is not a problem if you plan to have this semi-permanently situated at the side of a room in your house. But if you want to put it at the centre of a room or in the middle of an outdoor gathering, the people behind it are going to hear a sound lacking in the rich depth you can hear in front.
Klipsch Heritage Groove: Sound
Queue your favourite Arctic Monkeys tracks. The Heritage Groove is very bassy – and some higher-frequency tunes can be lost.
The overall balance of the Klipsch Heritage Groove is pretty good, covering all frequencies. It can be a bit heavy on the bass and percussion sounds, which sometimes means that vocals are lost.
Midrange voices can be a bit thin and tinny at times – especially if there is a lot of bass in the song. If there are harmonies it will pick up the lowest and highest, but likely lose those in the middle. If you’re listening to Meghan Trainor you’ll have no trouble, but if The Staves are more your jam then you might miss some of their sublime subtlety.
The Klipsch Heritage Groove is perhaps a bit skewed towards the bass, but that’s great if that’s what you like: it picks up deep tones and runs with them.
It also does treble tones quite well, with amazing clarity on some tracks – but not as well as bass. This means it can lose a bit of the detail in the mid-ranges, leading to a messy sound on some tracks.
The rhythm and timing and dynamic range are both great.
Klipsch Heritage Groove: Verdict
If you’ve been wanting to try a Klipsch product but have been put off by the prices, the Heritage Groove is a good place to start. It has all of the class of their larger kit without breaking the bank – and does its best to match the sound quality, too.
But while the Heritage Groove sits in line with many portable speakers of this size and status, it lacks some of the features that generally follow other products in this price range. Most notably, this is not – I repeat, not – a dust- or water-resistant speaker. So don’t try.
If you’re just looking for something that not only sits in your house without drawing too much attention but actually makes your house look nicer – and sounds great while doing so – then features-smeatures.
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Alternatives
Sonos Move
If you need your portable speaker to be weatherproof, then the Sonos Move might be your new best musical friend – but at over triple the weight of the Klipsch Heritage Groove, it’s probably not the one for a trip to the beach.
It’s also over triple the price, but does have all the extra features that the Klipsch Heritage Groove lacks, including an app where you can control bass and treble levels, household compatibility, and wireless charging.
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Minirig 3
The other end of the price range, the Minirig 3 is – as its name suggests – even more portable than the Klipsch and a bit cheaper. It boasts an amazing 100 hour battery life and can be linked up with other Minirigs to produce a bigger, more social sound.
With only one driver on a solo ‘rig, you might worry about sound – but the Minirig 3 has wowed listeners with its sound quality and volume. And if you’re impressed by Klipsch’s functional aesthetics, the Bristol-produced Minirig might also be your thing.
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Marshall Emberton II
The Marshall Emberton II is around the same price as the Klipsch Heritage Groove, yet has a lot of the features the Klipsch lacks. Aside from that desirable dust- and water-proofness (IP67), the Marshall Emberton II also has a sound that packs a punch for its teeny size.
It’s more (Gen Z-infused) noughties in its design than the classic Klipsch look, but still a good-looking speaker. It also has a 30+ hour battery life and weighs a mere 0.7kg.
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