Unleash The True Sound with the powerful and portable StormBox Pro from Tribit.
The Tribit Stormbox Pro arrived in an attractive 5 7/16 inches wide by 7 5/8 inches tall by 5 7/16 inches thick retail box. While rotating the packaging, my attention was immediately drawn to the pristine white surface and their use of highly contrasting accents. Starting with the cover panel, I was pleased to find the “Tribit” company name within the negative space of a vibrant emergency-cone-orange rectangle atop the panel. The visual appeal of the orange-on-white broke up the monotony of the panel. Just beneath the company name, they provided a vibrant, bolded StormBox Pro product name. You will find the phrase “Portable Wireless Speaker Unbox the Storm” in the same orange font as the company name along the bottom edge of the panel. My favorite feature was the glossy, slightly raised, cowbell-like image of the Tribit StormBox Pro speaker along the middle of the panel. I loved that the cover panel was not bogged down with extraneous information/imagery and allowed the speaker’s image to self-advertise. My only complaint was that the cover image did not truly represent the size of the speaker. Instead, I was rather surprised to find that the speaker took up most of the space within the box.
Moving on to the other panels, the top panel provided a centered, shimmery-silver “Tribit Unleash the true sound” accent, while the right-side panel provided the same accent along the lower edge. The opposite side panel proved to be quite educational; it provided six labeled speaker icons: 1. IP67 Waterproof. 2. Bluetooth 5.0. 3. Stereo/Party. 4. Superior Sound. 5. Long Battery Life. 6. Qualcomm aptX. Like the left side panel, the orange-colored rear panel provided quite a bit of information for the end-user. The white-colored company/product name was displayed along the top left of the panel. Beneath the title, you will find an ink outline of the Model BTS31 speaker, product compatibility list, product manufacturing labels, a thank you message, links to the support@tribitaudio.com and www.tribitaudio.com websites, and two QR codes (Facebook, tribitaudio.com). Each of the panels added to the overall positive unboxing experience for the Tribit Stormbox Pro. I liked that they left some space relatively unused on the packaging. This showed some respect and control and was much appreciated.
To access the product, I slit the tape along the top of the package, opened the flaps, and removed a 74-page multi-lingual user manual (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese). Beneath the user manual, the company included a business card sized Thank You, Support (support@tribitaudio.com, tribitaudio.com/support, 1-888-234-5138) and Warranty card (30-Day money back, 18-month replacement, Lifetime support). The last item within the upper plastic tray was a 20 1/2 inches long USB-A to USB-C cable. When I removed the black plastic cap, I found a well-packaged 2 lb 2.2 oz, 7 inches tall by 3 3/4 inches square (base) by 3 1/4 inches square top speaker resting within a lower black plastic cap. I removed the thin opaque bag from the StormBox Pro, lifted the charging port on the speaker’s back, plugged the USB-C prong into the port on the speaker, and then the USB-A prong into a standard 5V USB-A adaptor. It was during the charging process that I thumbed through the English section of the instruction manual. The first two panels provided ink outline drawings of the speaker, listed the package contents, and provided feature labels. The speaker’s top panel had a centrally placed 1 5/8 inches diameter multifunction button and flanking volume – and volume + volume buttons. You will find a Bluetooth button, a centralized power button, and an XBass button along the front row. Lastly, just in front of the power button, you will find the battery indicator LEDs.
The instruction manual did a great job navigating the setup and use of the speaker. I liked the general flow and the overall layout but would have preferred the specification table to reside within the manual’s first few pages. Instead, skipping to the end, the specifications were listed on page 12/14 of the English Section (BT 5.0, 40W output power, Frequency 60Hz-20Khz, Battery Type 5000mAh LiPo, Charging time 7Hours 5V/2A, Dimensions 96x96x180mm, IP67 Waterproofing). The third panel detailed the rear power port and the ability to charge the speaker and other devices. The fourth panel provided a useful battery indicator table: 1 LED 10-30%, 2 LED 30-50%, 3 LED 50-70%, 4 LED 70-80%, 5 LED 80-100%, and Fully Charged (all LED off). The subsequent panels detailed the mechanism to power on/off the speaker and the steps to pair it with another Bluetooth device. When I pressed the mechanical power button, the speaker played a pleasant little jingle followed by a water droplet sound. The Bluetooth indicator automatically flashed blue and entered into Bluetooth pairing mode without the need for any additional intervention. I navigated to Settings on my iPhone 12 Pro Max, then to Bluetooth, selected Tribit StormBox Pro from the list, and the speaker played another jingle. The speaker can be paired to several devices (up to 8) and, if able, should auto-connect to one of the last two paired devices. The smart tech within the Tribit speaker will reinitialize the pairing sequence if unable to pair with a device and can connect to two devices simultaneously. This feature was rather unexpected. I found it quite convenient to be able to stop playing a song on my iPhone seamlessly, and to then play a movie or another song from my iPad Pro 11”. I did not have to disconnect the device, nor did I have to forget the device to get it to work between the iPad and iPhone.
The instruction manual’s subsequent panels detailed the mechanical volume up/down buttons and the multifunction button. To increase or decrease the volume, you can press the corresponding button and let go. If the buttons are held, you can continuously increase or decrease the volume. A short press of the central MFB button will have a differing affect whether you are in music/movie playback mode or phone/conversation mode. A short press will play/pause a track, a double press will advance to the next track, a triple press will return to the prior track, and a long press will activate Siri. During a phone conversation, you can press the MFB button to answer/end a call; you can press and hold the button to reject a call or short press to answer a second call or change between calls. Honestly, these controls were rather intuitive and properly utilized the available buttons/space. If desired, you can press the XBass button to activate the white XBass LED and an upgraded bass experience. Personally, I do not know why anyone would want to deactivate the feature. It provided a palpable increase to the bass and enhanced the listening experience.
Testing
Each of the lantern-esque speakers provided a plethora of sound and proved to be incredibly fun. Over the last week, my family and I have stayed in a cabin at the Jellystone Park Camp-Resort near Mammoth Cave. My children played Gaga ball; we have gone on golf cart rides, played some mini-golf, jumped on air pillows, and relaxed on our deck. One speaker was enough to provide entertainment to the family and others in the area. When ready to move, we grabbed the speaker handled and repositioned it where we wanted it to be. Beyond a simple carry hook, we found that the speakers worked well, hanging from shepherd hooks. The design provided near 360 sound, the shape was perfect for on-the-go sound, and the weight was remarkably light for the degree of sound output. My 12, 9, 6, and 2-year-old kids loved jamming out to Kids Bop while also enjoying the camping amenities. The XBass boost provided a noticeable increase to the lower range, and we found no reason to remove the speaker from that mode.
As noted above, the pairing process could not have been easier. Basically, power on the device, navigate to Settings, Bluetooth, and grab the speaker from the list. Once connected to the speaker, I never had to reconnect it. When I powered up the StormBox Pro, it paired automatically with my iPhone. For those times that my wife sat with the kids and I went back to the cabin to prepare food, she could press the Bluetooth button once to transfer the connection to her phone. By holding the Bluetooth button for 2 seconds, I was able to pair my iPhone 12 Pro Max, my wife’s iPhone 12 Pro, my iPad Pro 11”, and my MacBook Pro 15”. Beyond the pairing process, we could not have been more pleased with the speaker. The buttons were intuitive, had a pleasing click-feel, and responded to every button-press.
The included 5000mAh battery may take ~6 hours to charge, but it will provide an entire day of music. We have used the speaker ~4 hours a day over the last 5 days and have not had to charge the speaker beyond the initial out-of-the-box charge. I packed extra batteries and did not need to use the speakers’ charging feature/backup battery feature. However, I did test the output and found the DROK USB-A Multimeter read 4.78-4.85V/1.05-1.16A. Over the course of about 30 minutes, my iPhone 12 Pro Max increased roughly 10%. As an emergency feature, I am pleased that they included this option. As a stand-alone battery charger, there are better options on the market, and I would not use that feature as a deal-or-no-deal decision point. The USB-A 5V/1A output was not strong enough to charge my iPad Pro 11”. I plugged a USB-C to Lightning cable into the USB-C “Input” port and can attest that the device did not provide outgoing power through the USB-C port. When done, make sure to close the posterior rubber port plug to maintain the IP67 waterproof rating. Thanks to the waterproof status, we were able to leave the speakers outdoors during a short-lived rainfall. The speaker continued to function appropriately after an hour outside in moderate rain.
A single speaker’s sound output was more than enough for a medium-size room indoors and a deck outdoors. For added sound, we obtained a second speaker to test the stereo and party modes. To activate the Party mode, power both speakers on, press the Bluetooth button on one of the speakers for 5 seconds, and then repeat the process with the other speaker. The speakers will announce party mode. In that mode, both speakers played the same signal. If I pressed the Bluetooth button, the speakers entered into stereo mode and played separate left/right channel data. Using the audiocheck.net website Left/Right/Center feature, the speakers repeatedly played the same left or right signal. This allowed songs like Bohemian Rhapsody to give the expected call/response left-to-right experience that many of us have come to love. Using the Low-Frequency Response and Subwoofer Audio Test (10-200 Hz) to test the bass, I was happy to hear the rumble at 30Hz instead of the 60Hz mentioned in the instruction manual. Using the High-Frequency Response and Hearing Audio Test (22-8 kHz) to evaluate the high end, my children could hear sound at 18KHz, while my wife and I were able to hear the sound at 15KHz (upper range for most adults).
Throughout the volume ranges, the speaker never got tinny or harsh. When indoors, I found that 30-40% volume provided the most pleasing sound output. Outdoors, we cranked up the volume to max and enjoyed the output. The codecs allowed me to listen to music, to watch movies/TV on HULU, Amazon Prime Video, and Movies Anywhere. Excitedly, there was no lag between the video/sound. To summarize my experience, the StormBox Pro speaker was well worth the $119.99 price. Like the speaker itself, the packaging was well designed, attractive, and provided an enjoyable experience. I loved the highly identifiable emergency-cone orange color. Additionally, the company was confident enough to leave open space on the packaging instead of filling every available space. The speaker volume, the color, the shape, the layout of the buttons, the carry handle, the waterproofing, and the TWS pairing features all led to an outstanding portable speaker. I liked that the speaker could be used as a portable emergency battery but preferred the USB-C port to be an input/output port.
If you are looking for an amazing portable speaker, look to Tribit’s new flagship product the StormBox Pro.
Learn more about the StormBox Pro
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