The C. Crane Senta Ally Speaker
[October 2017] Looking for a lightweight Bluetooth speaker that is versatile, sounds good, yet will not cost an arm and a leg? Try the C.Crane Senta Ally speaker.
Each year at the International CES, as you walk among the thousands of booths, it seems that usually one or two products really catch the eye, but there are scores, even hundreds of booths displaying one or another version.
In my view this year it was wireless Bluetooth speakers. I actually started out looking for Bluetooth headsets that might be useful in broadcast use, but it was wireless speakers that stuck out wherever I looked. There were big and small versions, with various features, priced anywhere from $19.99 to $599.99.
The chore then is to determine what features, at what price point, meet your needs. The more I looked, the more I found the C.Crane Senta Ally speaker was just what I was looking for.
The Senta Ally
As we all know, speakers and audio quality are very personal things. So what makes the Senta Ally a good choice?
First of all, what good is a Bluetooth speaker if it takes three people to move it? The Senta Ally weighs 10 ounces, battery included. The speaker is 9 inches long and about 3 inches along the triangular sides. This means you can carry it in many ways to many places and it will not burden you down.
Now that it is convenient to carry, how does it sound? Quite nice for what it is: not a boombox, designed to emphasize a thudding bass, but a speaker designed to deliver crisp, easy to listen to wideband audio. With virtually no (less than 0.7%) distortion and an 80 dB S/N ratio, it would seem the objective is achieved.
After running it for hours in the home, office, and back yard, either for myself or to share with others, the Senta Ally seemed to handle the task well.
Setup
Pairing the Ally with your Bluetooth device is quick and easy – all you have to do is turn the speaker on and complete the pairing from any Bluetooth enabled device such as your cell phone, tablet, laptop or other MP3 mobile device. A takes just a few seconds and you are on!
If a phone call comes in, you can even use the Senta Ally as a speakerphone.
A small LED screen and four buttons provide a versatile way for you to play audio from SD cards, line in audio, the built-in FM radio, or via the microphone. An earbud jack is provided if you want to listen to something privately.
An included cable allows recharging from any computer or other power source. The average run time is somewhere around 8 to 10 hours at medium volume in a medium to large roomsized area. You can also buy some (at this time) economical spares to flip in during any potentially long remote, demo, or picnic.
The FM Radio is, like the entire package, midrange, and is neither super-sensitive nor deaf. It does have room for virtually as many pre-sets as you could want – as many as 99 pre-sets – or let the radio scan the dial for you and set the presets automatically.
Good Value
The Senta Ally benefits from the same careful attention C.Crane pays in designing products that meet the needs of its customers. Help from the Support team is pleasant and quick to answer your questions or solve a problem.
Looking at the cost vs what it will do, the Senta Ally is definitely a good value. You can pay a lot more for a Bluetooth speaker, but for most everyday uses, you do not need to do so. BDR
For more information, you can find it over on the C.Crane site, here.