Jam Rhythm - Review 2022 - Monroy Afterely

The Jam Rhythm is a modestly sized, modestly priced multi-room wireless speaker that uses Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth. It also supports the use of Amazon Alexa vocalisation commands through an app, which is intriguing. Unfortunately, the $99.99 speaker doesn't sound especially good, with digital indicate processing (DSP) that sculpts audio into unpleasant sound signatures at higher volumes.

Design

Measuring vii.5 by 8.iv past 6.iii inches (HWD), the Rhythm is a relatively compact wireless speaker. Its black-and-grey build has a front panel that is by and large speaker grille, and the plastic elements elsewhere expect a little cheap. Behind the grille, dual forepart-firing drivers deliver the sound, aided by a unmarried driver treatment the bass.

Up top, a rubberized console houses controls for playback, volume (or, if held for longer, rails navigation), and presets. We're non huge fans of combining volume and track navigation on the same buttons, equally information technology makes the likelihood of accidentally skipping a track when you meant to only accommodate the book much college. The superlative panel as well has a status LED that is crucial in setting up Wi-Fi streaming.

The dorsum panel houses a port to let for efficient air movement from the speaker's drivers, a Wi-Fi push, a 3.5mm aux input (no cablevision is included), and the connection for the included power adapter. Other than the adapter, at that place are no included accessories.

The Rhythm works with the gratis Jam WiFi app for Android and iOS. This is how y'all fix upwardly Wi-Fi streaming, install firmware updates, and handle the basics of speaker positioning, such every bit whether yous will apply information technology in horizontal or vertical mode (there are condom feet on both the lesser and left side panels).

Within the app, you can also stream audio from streaming music services like Spotify, Tidal, and Napster. There's also the aforementioned support for Amazon Alexa. Using the Jam app to ask Alexa a question, nevertheless, adds an actress step that makes using the voice assistant less magical—you can't use it without opening the Alexa section of the app and speaking while the microphone push is enabled, unlike the Echo, which is ever listening. Information technology takes about equally much effort as just doing the task yourself once you've opened the app, navigated to the Alexa icon, and pressed the mic push button.

Jam Rhythm inline Once connected over Wi-Fi, you can also stream sound from your device outside of the app—on an iPhone 6s, the speaker showed upwardly in the music app's AirPlay menu of speaker options. The app besides allows you to connect up to eight speakers in a multi-room setup—speakers can exist grouped, and each tin can play in stereo way, or deed equally the left or right channel in a group. They can be controlled individually, or book and other parameters can be adjusted as a group, as well.

It would have been useful to accept a Bluetooth pick for streaming, but at $99, nosotros're not going to knock the Rhythm too much for this—delivering a adequately seamless Wi-Fi audio experience at this price is impressive.

Performance

On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Pocketknife's "Silent Shout," the Rhythm delivers decent bass depth. Y'all wouldn't wait a speaker this size or price to reproduce seriously deep lows, and the Rhythm doesn't. At pinnacle volumes, the digital indicate processing (DSP) employed by the speaker kicks in and by and large prevents distortion (we heard a smidge here and there), while at moderate volumes, the bass depth sounds more full, but the speaker just isn't that loud. In fact, for a powered speaker, the Rhythm delivers less volume at maximum level than what nosotros were expecting—and the audio thins out then much from the DSP, it sounds completely different than it does at half book.

Bill Callahan'southward "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the Rhythm'southward overall sound signature. The drums on this rail can sound overly thunderous through speakers that are as well bass-forward, only the Rhythm delivers them without much fullness in the lows. Instead, information technology's Callahan'due south vocals that seem to be the about prominent bass force, with plenty of added low-mid richness. Crank the book upwardly, however, and suddenly things audio brighter—too bright, and oddly sculpted. Again, the overactive DSP is irresolute the audio signature, presumably to avoid distortion. But when it sounds like y'all're listening to a completely different speaker every time yous adapt the volume, it's hard to get besides excited about the sound functioning.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop gets the ideal level of high-mid presence, assuasive its attack to punch through the layers of the mix with force. But the rail sounds tuckered of bass depth—the sub-bass synth hits lack their deep fury (through a modest speaker, nosotros wouldn't actually await much here), just even the drum loop sounds thinned out. The vocals are delivered with strong clarity, but also some added sibilance.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, get some added depth to the lower annals instrumentation, merely the college register brass, strings, and vocals own the spotlight—information technology'due south a vivid audio with some richness in the lows. In fact, this rails sounded more natural than any of the pop, hip-hop, or rock music we tested.

Conclusions

If $100 is your ceiling, we suggest you lot avoid the Wi-Fi multi-room space and check out the portable Bluetooth options. Our favorites in this price range include the Bose SoundLink Micro and the JBL Accuse 3. For more money, the JLab Block Party is a multi-room speaker that uses Bluetooth instead of Wi-Fi and delivers a powerful audio experience for the toll, while the less expensive Ultimate Ears UE Wonderboom packs some surprising punch for its size. Information technology's difficult to expect too much from a $100 wireless speaker that uses Wi-Fi as its sound source, simply the Rhythm'due south sound output feels similar an reconsideration.