Tronsmart Halo 300 Review

Design

• Pull-out handle and roller wheels
• Multi-zone reactive RGB lighting
• IPX4 splash resistance

The Tronsmart Halo 300 has a typical party speaker aesthetic, and as mentioned, it’s pretty similar to JBL’s PartyBox 320, aside from the figure-8 lighting bar. It’s mostly constructed from a rugged textured plastic, and the speaker grille is made from metal. There’s a chunky carry handle on the rear, along with a telescopic suitcase-style handle for use with the built-in wheels.

The speaker stands about 2 and a half feet tall and weighs 16kg. It’s lighter than a lot of similarly sized speakers, and it’s possible to lift with one arm as you’ve eaten your Weetabix. That said, you certainly wouldn’t want to carry it for long, but you don’t need to, as there are convenient wheels built into the rear.

The wheels are larger and softer than the ones I’ve tried on other speakers of this size, and that means they’re much better at rolling on rough surfaces. You also get three different heights for the handle. If you’re shorter, you can use the sculpted one on the rear, and if you’re taller, there are two locking positions for the telescopic handle.

On top of the speaker, there are chunky controls for almost every function, including a big volume knob in the centre. Most of the controls are rubberised backlit buttons, and they allow you to control your music, change lighting effects, EQ and even trigger sound effects. Towards the back, there are a series of control knobs for adjusting the sound of your microphone or guitar inputs.

Around the back, there’s a large rubber bung covering the rear IO. Underneath, you’ll find an XLR input, two 1/4-inch sockets for microphones or guitars, a 3.5mm AUX input, a USB-A that supports music playback, dual 3.5mm daisy chain connectors, and both AC and DC inputs for charging. You should be able to hook this speaker up to just about anything.

The speaker is only available in black, and the only other colour you’ll find is a splash of purple on each of the handles. It’s a fairly understated look when the speaker is off, but that quickly changes when you turn it on.

Two large diffused LED rings encircle the large woofers on the front, while white LED strobes flash along with the beat from the top and bottom. Again, it’s quite similar to JBL’s lighting configuration, it’s just lacking the individual strobes behind the grille, but it looks great, so no complaints from me. We’ll discuss the effects more in the next section.

The speaker is IPX4 rated, which means it can withstand splashes of water from all directions, but it’s not tested for dust resistance. This means it’ll be fine if a light rain shower interrupts your party, but you’ll still need to remain somewhat cautious of water ingress.

It feels pretty durable overall, but it’s worth noting that the speaker grille on my test unit was dented during shipping. Thankfully it’s very minor, and you probably wouldn’t notice unless you were looking for it, but despite having exposed screws on the front, the grille isn’t easily removable. You’ll want to be careful with the front to keep it looking pristine.

Features

• Tronsmart companion app
• TWS stereo pairing and daisy chaining
• Dual mic/guitar inputs

The Halo 300 works with the Tronsmart app, which is available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. It’s a pretty barebones application, but all the important functions are included, and you can also use it to update the speaker’s firmware as new versions become available.

The app gives you six total EQ modes to choose from, including a customisable option with 5 bands to tweak. You can also set up a wireless stereo pair with two compatible Tronsmart speakers or use “Broadcast Master+” mode to wirelessly link multiple Halo 300 speakers.

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Of course, you can also control the lighting effects in the app. There are five modes available; they’re all music-reactive and they all use their own spectrum of colours and different animation styles.

The current selection offers a decent amount of choice, but I was hoping for more options here. For instance, with my other speakers, I often like to select a specific colour, and that’s not an option here. I’ve got my fingers crossed that Tronsmart will allow for more customisation in future updates.

There are also three sound effects built into the speaker, each with its own dedicated button. There’s an applause sound, a cheering sound and a stereotypical air horn. I expected there to be more options in the app, but there’s not, which feels like a missed opportunity.

Another oddity is that it feels like the sound effects trigger as quickly, if not quicker, when using the app. There’s a slight delay when using the physical buttons, when logically, you’d expect the opposite. In any case, I can’t imagine these being used too often, so it likely won;t matter to most buyers.

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Another key feature of the Halo 300 is its compatibility with microphones and guitars. This means it could be a nice, affordable option for karaoke parties, busking or small-scale live events. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an appropriate microphone on hand to test it out with, but easily accessible bass, treble and reverb controls for the mic input should make it easy to get your voice sounding its best.

The large built-in battery means you can take this speaker anywhere and immediately get a party going. Tronsmart claims it’ll last for 20 hours with the lights turned off, so it’ll outlast most party animals. I’ve been using it with the lights flashing away at every opportunity for the past week, and I haven’t needed to charge it so far.

Sound Quality

As the looks suggest, the Tronsmart Halo 300 is extremely powerful, and it has a bass-forward sound signature designed to get the party jumping. At home, I never really exceed 50% volume, and even that felt pretty boisterous – it’s safe to say this has the power to soundtrack even the most rowdy house parties. The power on offer here easily keeps up with similarly sized speakers from Sony, JBL and Sharp.

The default profile sounds excellent for all genres of music, with deep bass that you feel in your chest, and clean, clear and detailed highs. My only criticism is that the vocal presence is a little lacking. That said, if you turn on Tronsmart’s signature SoundPulse EQ, things change quite dramatically.

That powerful low-end gets even more thump, and the vocals are much more pronounced. It sounds amazing with R&B and Hip-Hop, but the low-end punch can be a little overpowering with certain EDM tracks. Of course, you can play with the custom EQ to dial it in to your specific tastes, but personally, I just flicked between default and SoundPulse 90% of the time, as they’re both very solid profiles.

The speaker does a great job of spreading the sound out; the spec sheet claims it has a 270-degree sound stage, and that seems accurate. I could stand anywhere in front of the speaker without a noticeable loss of clarity; it’s only when you walk around the back that you lose some of the high-end detail.

Of course, being a single speaker, you don’t get a proper stereo effect from your music. You’ll need to shell out for two and link them together for a proper three-dimensional sound. That said, this kind of speaker isn’t often used for a serious listening session; it’s supposed to soundtrack a gathering, and it’s perfect for that.

As I’ve found with most party speakers, while the bass is extremely powerful, it doesn’t extend too deep into the sub-bass frequencies, bottoming out at 40Hz. In the vast majority of scenarios, that doesn’t matter at all, but if you’re used to a dedicated sub, you may find yourself wanting.

Should you buy it?