Phorus PS5 Speaker Fills Up The Room With Surprisingly Deep Sound. And That’s Just One Of Them.

I’ll just say that setting up new speakers is usually a nuisance, yet still gives me excitement. I felt that excitement recently when I found my new Phorus PS5 sitting in a box at my front door. As it turns out, the excitement of anticipation was rather short-lived, because setting it up was really easy. Sooner than expected, I was listening to my music.

My goodness, the quality of the Phorus PS5 speaker is good! Such a small package, but it made me fall in love with my music again. In fact, it reconnected me with my music in a way that I didn’t expect for two reasons.

First, it just sounds so good! It fills the room with the depth and texture of the music.

Second, most of my music library is on my desktop computer. As a result, I usually listen to only a small percentage of it because that’s all that fits on my phone. But the Phorus PS5 speaker connects to my Wi-Fi, so I can play the music from my desktop iTunes to it.

What’s more, if I’m away from my desk, I can control my iTunes from my iPhone using Apple’s Remote app. So I get my entire music library on a speaker that just blows away what I have coming from the desktop.

Something that is really appealing is getting two or more of these speakers. Just one produces a great sound, but two will not only bump that up, but can actually be made to produce stereo sound. Really easily, too! I didn’t realize that fact until I was setting this up, and it asked me if I wanted to pair it with another one for stereo playback. That would be awesome!

After getting it going, I’ve spent some time with many of the different ways to connect to it. This is what I found.

Connecting with the Phorus App via iOS

When setting it up, I was required to install the app to my iPhone (this can also be done to an iPad, Android device, and to a Windows computer). As a result, the first way I tested the speaker was through that app, simply called Phorus. As it turns out, and much to my surprise, using the Phorus app on my phone is my preferred way to use the speaker! The Phorus app is free for download and optimized for customized sound.

I don’t know what they do different than when I use Apple’s AirPlay, but I could control the volume of the speaker using the phone’s volume buttons on the side of it. Likewise, when I change songs, the responsiveness is so much better. That’s not to say everything was better, as it was missing the quick alphabetical jumping feature on the right of the artists list, but I didn’t find this to be much of a bother.

Connecting With AirPlay via iOS or iTunes (Mac and PC)

The second way I connected was using AirPlay on Apple devices and software, such as iTunes. Again, I don’t know what is done differently between the two options, but AirPlay had a significant lagged response time when I changed songs. Moreover, I couldn’t control the volume from the phone itself, necessitating I change it on the speaker itself. I suspect that this is not an issue with the Phorus PS5 itself, but rather a software issue with Apple AirPlay.

Connecting With Bluetooth

Connecting with the Bluetooth was surprisingly easy, although I found the connection to be a bit choppy at times. I expected this because Bluetooth simply doesn’t transfer as fast as Wi-Fi. And similar to the AirPlay, the phone itself couldn’t change the volume, making me need to change the volume on the speaker itself.

The audio quality was quite good, however. I was genuinely surprised at how good it was. If for any reason I had electricity but not a Wi-Fi network (such as a cabin or beyond Wi-Fi range in the house), I would definitely use the Bluetooth as a way to connect and get my tunes!

This @PhorusAudio Speakers Are Powerful to Fill the Room with Deep Sound And Stereo Play https://t.co/IEI9hpSXtT pic.twitter.com/vEZ3OXDSje

— Celebrate Woman (@DiscoverSelf) February 22, 2016

Negatives As I See Them

There weren’t many things that I found to be annoying. If fact, only one thing. On the back of the speaker, there is a mini-plug port (headphone sized). To test this out, I actually plugged in my TV to it because at this point my TV’s built-in speakers are all I use for audio. So I thought I’d test how it worked for my TV.

Turns out that it was lackluster. While it sounded great sitting directly in front of it, you could notice a clear difference when you weren’t sitting there. Strangely, this wasn’t a problem at all when using wireless connections.

The other nuisance in this regard is that while the mini-plug is in the speaker, it seems to disable to Wi-Fi connection. So I couldn’t choose between where I wanted it to pull audio, as the default was the mini-plug if a cable was in it. I had hoped that it could do both.

My Overall Assessment

I have to say that I really like this speaker! I’m going to be listening to much more music now, because it’s so great to use my full library on excellent speakers! If you are thinking of upgrading your sound system, I highly recommend the Phorus PS5. A feature that I couldn’t use with just one, but I think is absolutely awesome, is that if you have these throughout the house, you can effortlessly switch your music to a different one, to groups of them, or to all of them. I’m seriously thinking about getting more.