Bluetooth speaker Nubert Nugo One in the test: DAB +, deep bass and 24 hours of battery

Nubert wants to be the expert for good and affordable (appropriate designation: upright) speakers at home – whether in the living room or on the PC. With the NuGo One you can now also use Nubert speakers on the go, for example in the outdoor pool. Then the portable Nubert should run at up to 55 Hz for up to 24 hours at a time. Nothing for Japanese apartments with paper walls, leading to immediate, irreversible expulsion. However, radio reception will also fail there without a separate FM band and DAB+.

Radio reception? Yes, the NuGo One is a portable stereo active speaker with battery operation, an analog input, Bluetooth, and an analog and digital radio receiver. It is a mix of a high-quality Bluetooth box and a mobile battery radio. WiFi only and multiroom are not offered.

In terms of size, the NuGo One is almost reminiscent of the Leica 35mm camera, only it is noticeably larger and the lens is missing. There is a telescopic antenna at the bottom on the back, next to it is a 3.5mm stereo jack socket and a USB charging socket.

When you switch on the device, a previously invisible display between the power switch and the rotary knob activates and immediately after that the speaker has no other connections or controls. For testing, the model was available in black, which is the only color currently available. The Nugo One, including antenna and rotary knob, measures approximately 250 x 90 x 141 mm and weighs 1.6 kg.

The speaker is charged via a USB-C port. A two-way USB-C cable is included, as is a USB power adapter. It delivers 15 watts (5 V with 3 A), 19.98 watts (9 V with 2.22 A) or 20.04 watts (12 V with 1.67 A). In testing, the loudspeaker charged the same way on a regular 5 V/2 A power supply, just a little slower; using the included power supply, the 7.25 V and 4.9 Ah battery will be replenished in 2.5 hours.

One push button and one rotary knob The only controls are the volume control. Even though you can press the rotary button additionally, even multiple times, it’s pretty minimal. Even the “program buttons” for saved radio stations are located entirely on the display and must be controlled by rotating and pressing the volume control – the IPS LCD is not a touch display. Also, it doesn’t get very bright and is still in “dark mode” with light text on a dark background.

The speaker is splash-proof with IPX5 and can therefore be taken to the outdoor pool, but should not be dropped into the pool. It can also survive light rain. Waterproofness is also the reason for inconvenient operation: originally, six real mechanical program buttons were planned, but these are not so easy to get waterproof. The power switch and the rotary/push button, on the other hand, are waterproof.

The NuGo One acts as a Bluetooth box, DAB+ and FM receiver. There is a 3.5mm jack socket for the analogue input. It also acts in reverse as an output, but then optical-digital (SPDIF). This means a larger amplifier can be connected with less loss, and the NuGo One then acts as an FM or DAB+ tuner or Bluetooth receiver. The device can also decode the American HD Radio method for FM stations.

Setting up the NuGo One is quick: no app is required and there’s no need to install anything. For Bluetooth operation, pair the box with your smartphone or tablet as usual, perform a station search for DAB+ and then select the desired station. The telescopic antenna only needs to be partially extended for good reception with DAB+, for FM it should be fully extended. For Bluetooth operation it can be pulled out to the back of the device.

Bluetooth connection to a smartphone or other sources takes place in high quality thanks to aptX-HD. AAC is available for Apple devices. With DAB+ and FM you rely on sufficient bit rate and signal strength.

An alarm function is also provided with an alarm tone, DAB+ or FM. However, you can’t wake up to your favourite Spotify song as you’ll need to select it on your smartphone first.

As good as the “intrinsic values” are, the operation is sometimes a bit bumpy. The volume control is very finely structured, from 0 to -60 dB in 0.5 dB steps. Here you don’t have to be satisfied with just 16 levels like on Android. Disadvantage: If you want to turn the volume down in radio mode, the cranking starts. On the other hand, the advertisement can still be heard clearly at the minimum setting (-60 dB); one step further is complete silence, so you don’t even know when the advertisement is over. The reason for the slow volume setting is the dynamic loudness sound correction, which reacts with a delay and thus slows down the change.

To turn on and off, press the second button for three seconds; if the device ever hangs, you don’t have to look for a separate reset button, just press it for 20 seconds. A brief press has the function of returning from the menu. This multiple occupancy is not a problem.

The multiple assignment of the large rotary/push button is tricky. You have to press it for three seconds to access the main menu. You can then choose between analogue input, Bluetooth, DAB+, FM and basic settings. The fact that the NuGo One turns on relatively slowly is not noticeable; but if you switch to DAB+, the wait time until reception begins is disruptive.

Station selection in radio mode (DAB+ and FM) is complicated and can be handled using a button and by (sometimes 3x) long or short presses. A few more buttons would have been very beneficial here – quick program changes are not possible even between saved favourites. Also, turning on and changing channels is slow with DAB+; an ARM7 instead of an ARM4 would have been better here. Reception itself is excellent with Silicon Labs’ automotive chipset instead of the usual Frontier silicon chipset.

The NuGo One can get the time from a radio signal and set it automatically, but it must be turned on first—it is turned off at the factory.

The strange thing is that the 3.5 mm jack socket can only work as an analog input and digital output. There is no analog output for headphones and Bluetooth headphones cannot be connected either because Bluetooth is only intended to input from a smartphone to the NuGo One. This is because an analog and electrical connection to the amplifier often leads to interference from ground loops and interference from the power network or power supply, and optical-digital (SPDIF) was therefore considered more advantageous. But there are no headphones with such a connection.

The NuGo One’s sound has always been inspiring in the past; here, too, the manufacturer gets clean bass from a fairly compact housing. The NuGo One only weakens when it comes to balance in every listening position. Many multiroom speakers offer an equalizer via an app. This option is not available for Bluetooth speakers due to the lack of an app, but there are no adjustment options on the device itself.

If the NuGo One is on the floor next to the listener on the balcony lounger, the treble only reaches partially and the whole thing becomes bass-heavy and low in treble. You can’t adjust this – just activate louder volume to reduce noise and set the “warmer” sound for poor FM reception conditions. However, none of that helps in this situation because it goes in the wrong direction.

Where Sonos pushes the heights and neglects the bass, Nubert has taken exactly the opposite approach here: two full-range speakers plus passive radiators with a diameter of 6.6 cm ensure good sound in the bass cellar, but the additional, wide-beam tweeter for the heights is missing. Here, Nubert sticks very closely to the usual Bluetooth speakers, aiming to surprise with roaring bass à la Hans March, just like grandma’s expensive Bose Wave radio once did. Unlike these, however, they are neutral, clean bass.

You don’t expect Bose or DeVille sound from the Nubert. It would still have been nice to offer a more neutral option or sound setting, even though this is hardly common with Bluetooth boxes. If the speaker is not placed in an optimal position, the bass will have an edge over the treble for acoustic reasons.

With currants 265 euros Nugo is one One of the cheapest Nubert products and offers remarkable performance, which is unique in this combination (mobile operation, stereo playback, digital and analog radio reception). However, the price is quite high for a Bluetooth speaker with radio function.

Overall, the NuGo One comes equipped with several exceptional features such as up to 24 hours of operating time on a single battery charge, aptX for Bluetooth, a battery that can be replaced at least at the factory and an impressive 2 x 21 watts of continuous power per channel.

Nubert has thus created a unique product which, contrary to the promises of many multiroom speakers, can replace larger systems in a small space and offers an excellent price-performance ratio.

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