Gadgetory

hello and welcome, today I wanted to present you the Dockin D Mate a bit more in detail some of you can maybe remember that I already unboxed it together with my son sime time ago we had a short listen and telling the truth the disappointment was quite big so I put it away and completely forgot about it as in my case the very first impression counts most but in the meantime I have read some reviews like this from Lowbeats here and they seem quite impressed they award it 4.4 points out of five, also their conclusion is nice to read: high maximum volume, bass adjustable in 2 steps, a well rounded tuning with great timing and decent dynamics the only negative point: a bit flat with vocals when looking on amazon it's the same story: all reviews mostly positive "top speaker with minor flaw" "meets all expectations" "much allaround sound for little money" "tip top" "cannot be any better" "outstanding bluetooth speaker" blah blah blah... so I had a listen again, did some comparisons back and forth, but I am really not able to relate to this maybe my hearing is bad, I am not sure it reminds me of a UE Megaboom, but somehow worse I already coudln't start up with the UE Megaboom the Dockin D Mate is similarly built and should offer omnidirectional sound the drivers aim to the sides, so depending how you turn it it either sounds better or worse particularly if you know the Dockin D Fine which definitely belongs to the top products within its class which also manages to outclass the JBL Xtreme easily which is even more expensive the expectations for a successor model become quite high you can see size wise the differences are not that huge, it's also just a 40€ difference in price but I really cannot quite follow, I cannot account for all this as I really think it's bad and for a comparison I selected a new product here yeah I cannot show it yet, the manufacturer asked me not to show it, it will be released to the market in August now it should cost around 60-70$, thus quite a bit cheaper you can see it's also smaller, feature-wise exactly the same, it also has stereo wireless pairing like the Dockin D Mate, it's completely waterproof but sounds way better but I have to mention that I assisted a little bit. they had sent me a sample in advance I had a listen and told them, it doesn't sound great, you need to improve more one week later I got a new firmware from them, I could easily update it on my own it already sounded way better, but there was still some peak which I asked them to reduce, also boost bass a bit here, take a bit away from there 3 days later again a new firmware asking me if this can be final I told them: yes quite amazing that some companies really listen to an amateurish opinion like from me and now I think it sounds really great of course later I will reveal what exactly this was when it comes to the market, now I cannot tell you I will just name it with some question marks and we will compare these 2 but there is also the Sony XB30 I think in the meantime you can already get it below 80€ although it is not an omnidirectional speaker, it also sounds much better also has the same features like stereo pairing also a kind of party mode where you can pair it with an XB20 and so on it also has these funny lights but what it misses is, that it's indeed a bit directional, so those omnidirectional speakers definitely are better in this regard you can of course already listen to it from my database and you can hear it simply doesn't sound good, regardless if with this bass mode or without it doesn't sound right and you never know if you should aim it towards you or listen from front I recorded it from front, how you would usually listen although I think it sounds a bit better from the side I also tried measuring it, here with the measuring microphone aimed directly at the drivers and you can see this is some up and down, such a response is unacceptable particularly the upper bass area around 200hz is much too pronounced while there is not much below 100hz if you switch on this extra bass this peak becomes even higher this results in more than 12dB boost in the 200hz region although I usually say that a bassboost above 100hz is not supposed to be there everything should happen below 100hz there is some response at around 80hz, but above is just way too much then there is again something missing in the lower treble, while upper treble has some peak at 11-12khz overall the frequency response is totally off it also changes depending on how you turn the speaker yeah, and I thought we will listen together as always I will wear my headcam and my binaural microphones of course you have to listen with headphones, this is the most important premise for binaural recordings so please put up your headphones and let's have a listen first I will turn it on, the status tones are already known from the Dockin D Fine and immediately some music volume is synced with iphone and speaker but the Dockin D Mate cannot play really softly this is the first volume step, it doesn't go any lower if I turn down volume even more you get this tone I want to listen to music softly but get annoyed by such a loud tone I really don't know what went wrong in the development department the speaker should offer 360° sound you can hear, there is something playing out of here, and out of here but from front it becomes a bit muddy then it also has this bass mode, which we will add now but then everything starts to drone doesn't really sound great but let's try it against this,... I will simply call it prototype and let's check which one sounds better this also has 360° sound it's in fact the same, but you can hear... the difference is huge I am not quite sure if it won't sound better without bass but then the sound becomes too thin so I will simply play it with bass, in order to make it more comparable to the others otherwise it will sound like nothing but you can hear it is just some droning maybe something else you can hear some real lower bass here, although it is half the size I think everyone can hear this, something is not right here, I mean this is not a sound I can take seriously you can here some bass, treble, also mids are alright I tried tuning it in such a way that it sounds acceptable from all angles not too piercing, not too muffled but here, something went wrong obviously something else this is something completely different let's listen also from here, if it becomes better like that from the side treble becomes a bit better, but anyhow you can hear it's not really great another track loudness wise the small one cannot keep up of course, so I will turn it up the Dockin D Mate louder indeed, but... nevertheless it sounds worse, it is a.... it's a... in English I would have said: "a mess" thus a chaos let's try something else and I will turn it to maximum again you can hear it can play loud, but... here the small one becomes pretty lost but it still sounds better I mean, I wouldn't like to listen to music like this let's try something else maybe this here I will maybe try to match both, so the small one plays at maximum now the Dockin D mate a bit below here you can also hear some limiting it had to be done, as the small drivers cannot do more but this here is unacceptable so let's try the Sony XB30 now it is also cheaper, in the meantime I think available below 80€ and we will save us the Dockin D Fine everyone who wants to compare both tries my database and let's listen to these 2, I mean I like the sony although it also gives a muffled impression especially if you don't sit exactly on axis otherwise it sounds quite convincing let's try this track I will try to reach a higher loudness again the Sony it has to sound like that we are already hearing with bass, I will turn it off for now yeah... those who find this sound great... I am not sure maybe my ears are damaged I am not sure now to tell the truth, I cannot be the only one who finds this weird sounding let's try this also sounds a bit strange the Sony I think it won't even sound much worse from behind than the Dockin, although it is quite directional you can hear, even from behind quite OK sure, it's a bit better now with treble it's not an omnidirectional speaker, so you have to sit in front to get the best sound but then it also sounds good I'll try this also sounds way more convincing I will again go a bit farther away and turn both to slightly higher levels this is the Sony it plays at around 3/4 sounds still OK I would have said the Dockin I'll go farther away and turn both to maximum this is the Dockin Sony to tell the truth, I am not sure which one is louder now, but the Sony still sounds normal it is almost a bit louder, but you can hear, it is again such.. mess a.... a... how do you say? Sony no, no, no, this is a mush, a sound mush not really listenable I played around with an EQ a bit if you can get something more out of it, if you can rescue it a bit turth to be told, it's really hard where do I have my equalizer app? all are always asking, it is simply a parametric equalizer I personally use EQ10 and I have prepared an equalizer curve it looks quite wild, but it needs this, because there is so much failed I take a look, without EQ a track from Soulpersona and Princess Freesia I like to use them often, because all frequencies are always represented well I'll turn it up this is without EQ now maybe this volume level and then I will turn on the equalizer and you will hear if it sounds more normal or not now with EQ it's not perfect but you can hear it sounds considerably more normal now again without yeah does everyone hear this? again with now I won't say anything, you simply watch my thumb this is now with EQ so what did I do here? first I reduced this strange 200hz boost then at 2-3khz it also has some weird bump which makes the sound quite hollow generally it lacks treble overall, this means I boosted everything starting at 5khz with a high shelf and at the same time reducing this strange peak at 10-11khz I think in my case it is even at 12khz completely with a narrowband notch filter and then it sounds acceptable although bass is already now a bit uncontrolled this is with EQ now but like this it sounds.... to forget there would be some potential... and this tone! which comes everytime when you turn volume down also this completely unacceptable what we could also try is this stereo pairing which I didn't quite manage after my unboxing so we will turn on this one too and this is the actual pairing button ah, they already connected to each other, really nice! and let's try another track, what do we have here? maybe this here oaahhhh, what the f... was this? help! wait a minute oh my god, this scared the hell out of me even the recording was distorted now we have them in stereo unfortunately this doesn't make the sound any better we could also try how something like that sounds against the Dockin D Fine I'll stop the music, not that it also starts scraming, no idea at which loudness level I left it that's true, this one has completely different tones, she is blabbing here I think the new one doesn't blab like that I'll turn it to maximum I mean, these are 200€, and this 140. Let's see which one sounds more convincing I think in this case I'd rather do without stereo and take something like this! telling the truth, I have no idea what to say to this it can make some noise, can play quite loud but also starts to distort then for really listening to music it's not suitable especially this droning upper bass, this doesn't even sound good outdoors sure you need more bass outdoors, so that the sound can unfold but other companies have understood this better like JBL with the Xtreme they rather boost the 70-80hz area it's really kicking then, you can still hear it from 50m away also Sony with the XB30, they rather boost the lower bass with the XB3, the predecessor it was also such a strange 200hz droning and here neither mids nor treble match it does not fit at all maybe I am hearing wrong, I don't know but I cannot follow all these positive ratings here in fact it's loud, maybe this is the only important factor nowadays: loud, loud, much noise I am not sure, but it isn't sound for my ears and for 100€ you can get much better, even if it looks quite nice add 40€ more and get the Dockin D Fine my hope was, that this would be at least some downscaled version but it's far away, not even comparable this little bogey speaker here also outclasses it, although it cannot play that loud but instead it can be used for serious music listening I can put it here, or outdoros on the floor although not suitable for a party, but it simply sounds decent listen again through my database and you will hear that even a UE Megaboom sounds better it's not even much larger, no... I think it is even smaller than this yeah, I hope you liked this video but I cannot give a positive rating I am really disappointed here with some additional equalizing there could be squeezed a bit more out of it maybe but it already plays now so uncontrolled with bass even when I take down this upper bass you can hear some strange droning, scratching, I don't know some things went wrong here also that it cannot really play softly, those strange tones,.... no! maybe there will be a firmware update, who knows of course quality is nice the material sensation, it's also water proof etc, this is nice, but... the sound is completely off again thanks for watching, and see you in the next video bye, bye