Dali Katch G2 and Bang & Olufsen A1 Gen 2 are my favorite and best in their price range Bluetooth speakers!

I had this deep resentment towards Bluetooth speakers.

As we know, Bluetooth music has a serious bottleneck, as it is Bluetooth-transmitted music. The file size on a transmission gets seriously compressed. Yes, advancements in APTX have brought better music via Bluetooth, but it is far from perfect.

Yada, yada, the audiophile snob in me cries himself to bed over how poor Bluetooth audio is.

Well, that was true until I wanted a small portable speaker that I can take to the kitchen when I cook, to the car when I drive, and to picnics when I enjoy a good wine. I need a Bluetooth speaker!

And in time, I grew to love two small portable speakers so much that I decided to do reviews on them. They are masterpieces of art and function, and just simple enjoyment.

Those two are, at the same time, the best value Bluetooth speakers you can acquire—not the best, or certainly not the best budget picks. But they are on the verge, close to the red line, in terms of what they ask for and what they give.

Those two are the Bang & Olufsen A1 2nd Generation and the Dali Katch G2.

Bang & Olufsen A1 2nd Generation

I am a huge fan of the design, function, and form of Bang & Olufsen. I think they are the Porsches of the audio world. And just like how I will probably never own a Porsche, I will never own something like the Beolab 18 or 28. But it would be great if I could, haha.

And I am not the only person who thinks so; at least the Oslo National Gallery thinks so, since I recently visited their permanent exhibition, and there was an Electrocompaniet amp and a Bang & Olufsen A1 in blue color present for everyone to admire its simple and elegant functionality.

It truly is a small device, albeit far heavier than it looks at 600 grams. But its size compared to the Katch, for example, is perfect for me for its mobility. I think its circular design fits really well in bags, and you get it with a really quality leather strap for tying it to bags or other objects.

That is all complemented very well with the industrial precision of the aluminum shell and soft dome, which shows years of craftsmanship they have in creating great products. We also have a typical set of buttons, tucked at the corner: play/pause, volume up and down, power on/off, Bluetooth pairing, and a smart assist button.

Yes, as this speaker has microphones inside, you can pair it with Alexa and Google Assistant. It is good if you are part of those ecosystems; as I don’t use that a lot, I don’t have much of a comment there.

The Bang & Olufsen application is also really great; it is not super rich, but it has a real good user experience, providing a small personal touch with colors you choose, a direct connection and integration with Tidal, and most importantly, EQing. I will touch a bit more on that later.

As far as connectivity, it is a 5.1 Bluetooth connection with APTX Adaptive. Every device that has APTX to send a signal to the A1 will get a significant boost in quality. The sound goes up to 92 dB, which is loud enough for most cases, unless being used as a party speaker or something. I found the loudness to be pretty impressive for such a small speaker.

The great thing about this speaker is that it does not use full-range drivers but manages to separate the woofer and tweeter for far better clarity and separation. And it is evident. It is also powered by Class D amplifiers, 30W each, for that typical clinical transparent sound of Class D.

Regarding battery life, they say 18 hours, but you know in reality it is not that. To be honest, the battery life is super great. While not advertised as 18 hours, I managed to get a solid 10-11 hours of continuous listening, which is honestly more than enough. And it charges fast, so you will have another cycle very quickly.

And how could I forget the one aspect that fits my needs very well—that this device is IP68 certified, which means it is water and dustproof. Why is this a great point for me? I carry this device with me outside and even use it in the kitchen while I cook. So one less worry is always a great thing.

You can also pair this device very simply with the Bang & Olufsen application, which is a great thing to get that full stereo imaging, and it works seamlessly.

Finally, let's speak about the most important aspect, and that is sound. There is a lot to like here, and a few things they need to iron out for the 3rd generation. Firstly, all the praise I had for separating the woofer and tweeter helps with clarity and transparency. It truly allows you to crystallize the picture enough to pick instruments' positions on a dynamic scale.

It is nice to have these glimpses of more mature sound on a device like this. It helps clearly distinguish the sound properties of drums that lie in treble, vocals and guitars in mids, and bass in bass. I think going with Class D is smart here, as it truly helps the sound have transparency, and yet this sound is big, which is a wonderful and great point coming from such a small speaker.

The sound is truly dynamic, but it also heavily depends on the source. Better production and APTX connection will significantly dictate how clear or dynamic your sound will be.

Bass is probably the strongest point here, as the woofer is 3.5 inches, which is far larger than the tweeter, which is a small 0.6 inches. That big woofer for such a small device creates a lot of air and weight. It truly thumps and has a sense of scale, which helps this device feel bigger and to have a larger scope.

But the problem with that—especially how much smaller the tweeter is—is that it veils the sound too much when there is a lot of bass present or when the production of the track is subpar. It is a big, sprawling bass indeed, but it just does not allow mids or treble to shine enough. This is a common problem with many wireless speakers in this price range. They boost bass like it is the biggest selling point in the world, which makes every speaker suffer and veils the talents of the speakers. I just wish they lowered the bass by a few dBs to create a more even sound and make it more neutral; right now, it is definitely warm.

One way to mitigate this is by using the great EQ in the application that Bang & Olufsen provides. It allows you to make the sound brighter or more neutral; it is a great way to tweak the sound to match your needs.

In the end, I really enjoy my time with the A1. It has become one of my essential travel partners. I always admire the pure form and function it has, but also I admire how sonically talented it is. With its water and dust resistance, I honestly don’t care where I take it. It has good separation and transparency, coupled with very good mids and incredible bass. It is something you will want to listen to day and night. It is certainly the best you can buy in this price range, only bested by the sonic talents of the next wireless speaker I am going to talk about.

Pros:

1. Design and Build Quality: The speaker is praised for its elegant design, lightweight yet sturdy build, and high-quality materials like aluminum and leather.

2. Portability: Its compact size and included leather strap make it easy to carry around.

3. Sound Quality: Notable sound clarity due to separate woofer and tweeter, delivering a dynamic audio experience. The bass performance is especially strong for such a small device.

4. Connectivity: The Bluetooth connection supports APTX Adaptive for enhanced audio quality, and the ability to connect with Alexa and Google Assistant is a plus.

5. Battery Life: While not as advertised, the real-world battery life of 10-11 hours is still impressive, with fast charging.

6. Water and Dust Resistance: IP68 certification makes it durable for outdoor use and resistant to spills and dust.

7. User-Friendly App: The Bang & Olufsen app enhances the experience with EQ options and seamless connectivity.

Cons:

1. Price: The high-end design and features may make it inaccessible for many potential buyers, likened to luxury brands like Porsche.

2. Bass Overemphasis: The bass can sometimes overwhelm mids and treble, causing sound to be less balanced; this might not appeal to everyone.

3. Dependence on Source Quality: The overall sound quality is highly dependent on the quality of the audio source, which may limit performance with poorer tracks.

4. Room for Improvement: Suggestions for a more neutral sound profile indicate that there is still room for enhancement in future iterations.

Dali Katch G2

Dali Katch G2 is the best sound-to-value wireless speaker on the market. I might have praised Bang & Olufsen, and rightfully so, but this wireless speaker delivers better sonics, though at a higher price.

But let’s first start with design and features, as there is a lot to discuss. These Danish industrial designers are doing an amazing job. It is a really nice-looking device. It has a metal body, with a patterned grill and gold accents. The leather strap is massive and firm, giving a strong impression of excellence and that someone cared when designing this device. It is just a gorgeous piece of equipment.

There is a lot to love when it comes to features, as it provides a variety of connectivity options and functions. I have to start with a button, or a function that I found ultra useful: a physical button on the speaker that changes different sound profiles. So you can do equalizing with just a tap of a button. While the Bang & Olufsen equalizer is a bit better, as it allows deeper granularity, I used Dali's equalizer much more often since it is just one click, rather than going into the application to set it up. It is something that I think many wireless speakers just need to have ASAP.

There are the typical buttons such as Bluetooth pairing, volume buttons, power button, etc. But there are also a few surprises. You can charge this device with a power cable—which is faster, but not my favorite way of doing so—but also with a USB-A cable, which is far more convenient. There is also a stereo mini input jack to connect headphones.

You can also connect two devices at once to work together as stereo speakers, but it is not as seamless an experience as with Bowers, as it requires a somewhat complicated procedure. While it is possible, it can be a hassle, so unless you want to keep them in stereo pairing mode all the time, you will usually just use it as a single source.

Unfortunately, there is no IP rating here. The manual states that prolonged exposure to sun can damage this device, so it is not very outdoor-friendly.

The battery is 3300 mAh, which is great. It claims to last for 30 hours; I doubt it, but honestly, I never tried to listen to it for 30 hours straight, so I can only speculate about that. The frequency response is a bit better than Bang & Olufsen, but it is not something you will notice so much. With 95 SPL, it is quite a loud speaker.

Bluetooth, which is most important in the end, is APTX 5.0 with APTX HD. If your source supports APTX HD, it is essential to get the best sound possible, as it dramatically improves the sound quality. I’m still waiting for cheaper wireless speakers to have APTX Lossless; that would be amazing, but it might appear in the near future.

It uses similar Class D amplification, but it has two low-frequency drivers and one high-frequency driver—one tweeter and two woofers. This thoughtful implementation is very beneficial to the sound. It really helps deliver detailed and substantial low-end frequencies from these small speakers. It has a thump, and the sub-bass has a sprawling effect all over the soundstage. Still, I have to mention that with any wireless speakers, I always feel that bass is just not well controlled. It can easily overpower and veil the other aspects of dynamics, which some people might enjoy, but yes, the bass is powerful and detailed and actually very good; sometimes, it’s just a bit too strong for the rest of the audio companions on the dynamic scale.

Now let’s talk a little bit about mids and treble. The high-frequency driver uses a soft textile dome, paired in crossover with a metallic aluminum cone in the woofers. This combination creates a delivery of mids that is a bit smoother but still capable of having a presentation that is detailed and spreads out nicely in the soundstage. This is important to me, as mids and treble could easily get overwhelmed by this deep bass. They do not—it’s clear that vocals maintain presence and inflection, which is good for the emotive weight of sound. The vocal reproduction is really good, and that’s a big plus.

The clarity and separation in the treble are also very impressive. I think both wireless speakers do well here, but Dali is just a notch better. It excels in separation, and instruments have weight and their own lane on stage. The dynamic expression in the treble is commendable. You can easily separate guitars, pianos, violins, etc., in your head and appreciate their defined edges moving from mids to treble. There’s just a very nice and defined dynamic range from mids to treble, demonstrating that these are mature devices.

The thing is, the Dali Katch G2 is a 5/5 wireless Bluetooth speaker. It truly is—a very well-balanced device with not much to critique, except of course the lack of water and dustproofing. The sound could be more balanced, less warm, and have less emphasis on bass. However, for this price, the overall quality is exceptional. You get a great massive bass, along with mids and treble that are clean and well-separated, delivering enough details to make this whole setup much more enjoyable. With numerous features, inputs, and outputs, this is indeed the speaker you want if you have the budget for it.

Pros:

1. Sound Quality: Excellent sound-to-value ratio with better overall sonics compared to competitors. Strong bass with good clarity in mids and treble.

2. Design: Aesthetically pleasing with a metal body, patterned grill, and leather strap, showcasing quality craftsmanship.

3. User-Friendly Features: Physical button for easy sound profile changes, making equalization convenient. Multiple connectivity options, including Bluetooth APTX 5.0 and USB charging.

4. Versatile Connectivity: Ability to connect two devices for stereo sound, though not as seamless as some competitors.

5. Battery Life: Impressive battery capacity (3300 mAh) and potential for long playback time (up to 30 hours, though not verified).

6. Dynamic Soundstage: Good separation of instruments and detailed sound presentation, allowing for an enjoyable listening experience.

Cons:

1. Price: Higher price point compared to some other wireless speakers, though justified by sound quality.

2. No IP Rating: Lacks water and dustproofing, limiting outdoor usability.

3. Bass Control: Bass can overpower other frequencies at times, leading to a less balanced sound for some listeners.

4. Complex Stereo Pairing: Setting up stereo mode can be complicated and less user-friendly.

5. Limited Outdoor Use: Manual warns against prolonged exposure to sunlight, making it unsuitable for outdoor conditions.

Conclusion

Comparing these two devices helps you understand that they are great choices in their respective price ranges. I think Dali is the better option, but it comes at a higher price. I believe it has superior sonic performance, including a bigger battery and more connectivity options and features. But that is on paper. In reality, I tend to use the Bang & Olufsen more, as it is lighter and more portable. It is fully water and dustproof, which is one less worry on my shoulders when carrying it with me. The battery life is really great, and you can easily charge it with USB-C. I often take my speaker with me on trips and to picnics while I cook. At home, I have a great Hi-Fi system, so I rarely use a Bluetooth speaker indoors.

To put it simply, if you plan to listen to your Bluetooth speaker at home and want it to be one of your main speakers… yes, Dali is a better choice. However, if you intend to carry your speaker with you everywhere you go, and want it to be more mobile without worrying about water and dust damage, then Bang & Olufsen is your choice. Plus, Bang & Olufsen is the cheaper device, so that is another advantage.

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Keep daydreaming, and see you next time!