One of the best portable speakers I've tested is a music powerhouse in a small package

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Fender Teufel Rockstar Go 2 is available now on Amazon for $130.
• This Bluetooth speaker produces huge sound with little distortion and offers plenty of battery life per charge.
• The quality of sound is midrange, lacking really deep bass and sometimes too-blended mids and highs.

Perfect sound isn’t always necessary. This is especially true when using Bluetooth speakers, which sacrifice true audiophile sound for convenience. Sometimes, however, what needs to take precedence is a lot of sound from a small package.

You might be working in your garden or the garage, hosting a small gathering, or hanging out in the woods. At those times, you need volume without the usual size associated with a device that goes to 11.

Also: One of the loudest Bluetooth speakers I’ve tested is not made by Sonos or Bose

When such times arrive, you’ll be happy you purchased a Fender Teufel Rockstar Go 2 Bluetooth speaker. It’s small (roughly 8″ X 4″) and can really crank up the decibels. No, it’s not going to fill a warehouse with glorious sound, but you’ll get more out of it than the size would suggest. Even though the sound won’t put a smile on an audiophile’s face, it will certainly do the job and do it well.

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The specs

• Wide-band driver – 50 mm
• Passive radiator – 1 @ 64 mm
• Frequency range – 60Hz to 20,000Hz
• Acoustic principle – One-way system
• Enclosure type – Closed
• Battery life – 15 hours at medium volume
• Amplifier – Class D with two channels
• Google Fast Pair compatible
• Connection – Bluetooth with AAC support
• Compatibility – Android, iOS, and Windows
• Price on Amazon – $130

My experience

Once I had the Fender X Teufel Rockstar Go 2 connected to my Pixel 9 Pro (which took all of five seconds), I tapped play on my go-to testing song, “Analog Kid,” by Rush.

Knowing this speaker’s frequency range bottoms out at 60Hz, I was prepared for the speaker to lack a good amount of low-end (especially the punch of a kick drum). That assumption was correct; the bass on this speaker isn’t exactly a pulse-racing experience. There is bass, but it doesn’t quite reach the depths some music genres demand (such as metal and rap).

Again, I expected that.

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What really surprised me was how loud this small speaker can get. It can reach uncomfortable levels of sound, especially in a small room. I had the speaker on my desk, pushed play on Devin Townsend’s new single, “Jainism,” and maxed out the volume, only to find it to be far too uncomfortable.

After notching the volume down a bit, all was good. At the halfway mark, the volume was loud enough, so the sound hit me hard, but it wasn’t uncomfortable to my ears; and even at that max volume, the speaker barely showed any signs of distortion, which is especially important for larger rooms or outdoor usage.

As I mentioned, the sound won’t impress an audiophile. Instead of a nice, smooth separation of instruments and voices, you get kind of a wall of sound that blends everything together. This makes for a very narrow soundstage.

There’s also an “immersive” mode, but I found that added a bit too many mids, which notched the sound quality down a bit. That “immersive” mode is great for things like podcasts, audiobooks, and other media where the speaking voice needs to take precedence, but for certain genres of music, it doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Of course, you have to understand that I can be a bit too discerning at times, especially when it comes to EQ curves; unfortunately, the Fender Teufel Rockstar Go 2 doesn’t have a mobile app that allows for EQ customization. You get what you get, and that’s it.

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Still, again, this isn’t a speaker you buy because you want to hear music exactly as the artists intended it. This speaker is best for making big noise without taking up too much space. To that end, the Fender Teufel Rockstar Go 2 succeeds better than most speakers of its size.

ZDNET’s buying advice

It really boils down to this: Do you need a Bluetooth speaker that can pump up the volume to decibel levels capable of filling a space without distortion? The Fender Teufel Rockstar Go 2 for $130 is a great option. Although I might ding the speaker for a lack of deep, resonant bass and a too-narrow soundstage, this speaker produces a sound that will easily satisfy most people.

So, as long as you don’t expect studio-monitor-quality sound, you’ll be thrilled with this speaker. As a bonus, if you enjoy listening to podcasts, this speaker will bring those voices to life with volume enough for you to listen in any room of your house, without missing a single sentence.