Conclusion

Conclusion

I am rather savvy with the Wavemaster CUBE mini, as it is a win in many scenarios. Now, you need to understand that I am the type of guy with the most expensive Onkyo receiver and Bose Acoustimass 15 speakers. Clearly I am a movie buff. That doesn't make me an audiophile per se. Also back in the days when house music was starting to become a thing, this guy used to be a DJ and later on a VJ. Yes, yours truly did raves with 10,000 people. Again, that doesn't make me an audiophile whatsoever, but I do know my skill-set when it comes to audio. With my audio experiences painted we can start concluding. 

The Wavemaster CUBE mini is targeting an incredibly difficult end-user base. I mean, is this set competing with SONOS with its wireless functionality? Is it a speaker-set to be used with a PC for tunes and gaming, or should you use it in the living room next to the TV? The real answer is all of these options as it ticks all the right boxes. Compared to any SONOS kit the Wavemaster CUBE mini will easily be better when it comes to audio quality. Where Wavemaster loses is the SONOS APP functionality. SONOS offers tremendously extensive APP control where you can even mount your NAS and tie it into the APP. From every position in the house you can access your music and control it per unit. The Wavemaster CUBE mini offers none of that. As such, SONOS is more advanced from the application side of things and next to that, it binds into your LAN/WIFI making it less susceptible to interference, bitrate and ranges. That said, over Bluetooth we still got a good 15 meters range and if using Google Android headphones or any APP of your preference, you still can do 80% of the features Sonos offers, but it is directly over Bluetooth. Realistically though, the Bluetooth solution is not at all a hindrance, sound was of high quality and responsive, and not once did we have a lost signal.
 

Speaker positioning

We mentioned in the article already that this kit is rather susceptible to proper positioning. On a small desktop you will lack some sound, mostly bass becomes an issue. You really want the bass-reflex system to bounce off the wall in front of you. Keep your space and clearances as described in this article. It really is best to have the speakers a meter or two away from you and sit in front of them. In such a setup you will benefit the most from the audio quality the kit offers, and that audio quality can be pretty darn nice for a 2.0 kit in this price-range. 

Controls

The Wavemaster CUBE mini is as easy as it gets to control. Though not wireless, from speaker to speaker the control, are simply on/off/volume and treble/bass. All that you need really. Bluetooth pairing is easy enough, you seek the device on your Bluetooth enabled device and bind it. It is not protected with a password though, this would be one recommendation for Wavemaster. If you have no link connection setup with the speakers, your next-door neighbour could easily bind to it and scare you with 'Miracles' from the Insane Clown Posse (2010). Music control, playback and tweaking is all done on the client side (your smartphone/tablet/tv or PC).

Power Consumption

You are on Guru3D, we measure anything at any opportunity. Now the Wavemaster CUBE mini is rated at 36 Watts. You'd expect the quality and volume to match your laptop eh? Make no mistake, this kit can go fairly loud up-to the point you need to turn it down before your ears start ringing. With that said, it almost makes no sense how it is as loud as it is compared to how little power the kit consumes. I placed an energy-meter in-between the speaker kit and wall power socket, this kit on average uses 15~20 Watts and on its most loud volume level we noticed a peak at 34 Watts. So again let me be clear here, make no mistake, these speakers can be loud! Yes, they do not suck in heaps of energy, that's commendable and considered very energy friendly. Once you halt playing music or whatever and the speakers do not measure any audio throughput, it will activate an ECO mode. According to Wavemaster the kit then uses a maximum of half a Watt. Our energy meter reported 0 Watts, as it could not measure the power draw. Again, this is very nice to observe.

Final Words

If you see 36 Watts on any speaker system, honestly you might walk away from it as you figure, that can't be offering much in terms of audio quality and volume. The Wavemaster CUBE mini makes all the difference. It is by far loud enough. Next to being an incredibly energy friendly 2.0 kit it simply amazed by the sheer quality of the sound. Key here is that you position your speakers properly as described on page six of this article. In more confined setups the audio quality will disperse quickly. I really enjoyed all the music for hours at a stretch. Details can be found in fine differences. I think we can sum up the Wavemaster CUBE mini sound as dynamic, detailed, with a good stereo field. The bass is rich and dynamic which makes this kit stand out from many others. You need to position it properly, and place yourself in the right spot (in front of the speakers with reasonable distance). Otherwise the bass will sound a little shy. The sound overall is neutral sounding, most of you will be after that, others will need to use a little tweaking on your smartphone/tablet with the EQ. Obviously treble and bass can be adjusted at the speaker. Adding bass was a must for me personally. In closing, the Wavemaster CUBE mini is no match for SONOS when it comes to their APP functionality and WIFI/LAN access. However, in matters of sound, this kit offers by far the better quality. We do need to place it within its price-range, but this kit sounds as good, likely even better opposed to any 400 EURO SONOS product. And remember, at just over 100 EURO the CUBE mini is available.

Closing thoughts - the speaker units are a symbiosis of the right drivers, tweeters, wooden materials and then a properly implemented bass-reflex system. These things combined easily make it sound better than even a high-end PC speaker system. I guess ultimately it remains to be a choice in budget versus needs. Bluetooth does come with a few quirks as you might need to re-bind your device every now and then, but other than that the Wavemaster CUBE mini comes recommended as audio wise it really is impressive for that kind of money.

+++BAM

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