We’ve reviewed many Bluetooth speakers on the market, but none quite like the Mars Levitating Bluetooth Speaker, and that is actually a good thing.
Created by Crazybaby, the Mars speaker is the world’s first and only levitating speaker that not only looks cool, but it’s pretty damn impressive in terms of audio quality as well. Originally an Indiegogo project that was successfully funded back in 2014, the Mars Speaker arrived in beautiful fashion to my doorstep, and from setup to use, everything about the Speaker has been excellent, minus one or two things.
Retailing at $329, the speaker is by no means cheap, and this is evident in its packaging, which is beautifully done. Encased in an all-black box with subtle details such as the company logo and the name of the Mars itself, it’s very protected when it gets to you. I received the Piano black color, but there is also a silver version, which is less likely to be a fingerprint magnet.
Here are a few specs of the Mars by Crazybaby:
- Acoustic feature
- 360 degree surround sound
Crazybaby EQ
AptX® audio coding delivering CD quality sound
AAC audio decoder
Built-in high sensitivity wide range microphoneMars Craft rated power: 4W THD=1%
Signal to noise ratio: 75DbMars Base rated power: 10W THD=1%
Signal to noise ratio: 75DbFrequency Response (Hz): 50Hz~10KHz - Connectivity
- Bluetooth low energy (BLE) 4.0
USB Charge Out (charge up to two external devices)
After unboxing (which is about thirty pounds) you are left with the craft, which is the floating discus that you’ll see first when you open up the box, and the bass, which is the larger unit that sits underneath that.
The setup for the Mars itself is actually very simple, you simply sit the craft on top of the bass unit and press on from the rear, which not only houses the power button, but the USB port for charging, is an additional port available to charge your devices as well so if you are showing your Mars off while hosting a party, your phone battery will not die. When going without it being plugged into an outlet, it will honestly last you about six full hours of listening without needing it to charge. Also note that both outputs are 1.0 mHz so charging devices will be a bit slower on larger devices, especially tablets.
There are also four indicator lights to the Mars speakers dictating how much battery remains. I personally always keep my Mars speaker plugged up due to audio, which I will get into a bit later.
Once powered on, you will be greeted by a pleasant sounding chime, as well as another sound once the Mars has actually been connected to your Bluetooth device. There is also a companion Crazybaby app that is available for iOS and Android, but to be completely honest, the app never worked for me on iOS 9.3.1. I attempted to follow up with CrazyBaby in regards to this and there was simply nothing that they could do to stop the app from crashing once I attempted to sync my iPhone and the app to the Mars itself. Almost to the point I just got frustrated and deleted the app and just used the Mars like I would any other Bluetooth speaker on the market. So hopefully after this review is published there will be some future updates that might change the frequent crashes.
When the Crazybaby app did not crash, I was able to change things like the Brightness of the glowing light on the craft discus that floats above the bass unit as well. This is a niche feature that I never changed because I personally enjoyed seeing the white LED flight chase its own tail going around the floating device. Also included is the levitation control where you can control which position you want the craft discus to sit on. If you have more than one Mars speaker, you can even pair them together for multi-room listening. The only thing I would change here is possibly adding the option to turn the Mars speaker on directly from the app so you do not have to physically turn on the speaker, pair it, and then open the app itself, but who knows, maybe in a future update.
In regards to audio quality I will start by saying this; I wish that the Mars was a BIT louder. You’d think that for such a heavy and large Bluetooth speaker (where the audio comes from both the Subwoofer, as well as the floating discus) that the audio would actually get to be a bit louder. This isn’t the case as I felt like turning my volume on my iPhone all the way still didn’t do the Mars any justice. For $329, I was certainly wishing that the audio quality was a bit better. This is both with and without the Mars being plugged into the wall. Since the Mars speaker comes with its own power brick that allows you to plug into the wall, I figured the Mars wouldn’t compromise audio quality for battery if it’s consistently getting juice, but this wasn’t the case at all. Now I’m sure if the Crazybaby app for iOS worked, I would be able to use the “Auto Volume” feature which gives you the ability to adjust the volume to your liking but this has yet to work as I stated earlier.
I was also told by CrazyBaby that audio quality is also gauged by how far you are from the speaker itself. So I tested. There was absolutely no choppiness going between 15 feet from the speaker, including through walls. I actually didn’t even have problems 20 feet away either. It wasn’t until I actually left my apartment’s front door at around 25-28 feet where the audio started to become choppy. Saying that to say this: You can easily go from room to room without a hitch.
The Mars is pretty flashy though, as when the speaker is on, the speaker does float as expected, and yes, I even made it a mission to wave my hand under for confirmation. The levitating speaker is best on a flat, non-glass surface in terms of listening though, due to the fact that the bass sitting under the discus will cause the actual floating device to shake a bit, and the last thing you’d want is for Mars to have a crash landing (see what I did there?). At $329, I was hoping for a more crisp listening experience as certain tracks sounded muddier than others, but the price you pay is in the coolness of the speaker itself to be completely honest.
Source: Manufacturer supplied Review Unit
What I Like: Overall coolness of the speaker and the sleek black is nice; The smell of the boxing (weird I know).
What Needs Improvement: The App needs significant updates; Audio quality (bass wise) is nice, but mids are a bit low; very heavy.
