Kitsound Hive Bluetooth Speaker Review

A Closer Look

The Hive is made of plastic but the quality feel of it is very welcoming. It is matte textured and rubberised in feel. It has even more rubbery feet to stop it slipping and everything has a high quality fit and finish from the honeycomb vent design to the buttons themselves which have a very tactile feedback when pressed. There is a single LED which blinks blue or red to indicate its current status and when music is actively passing through to the speaker wirelessly it will be a steady blue.

The top of the Hive has 3 buttons. The left controls the call or media functions of whatever device you’re paired up to via Bluetooth. The remaining buttons control the volume. At this point it’s worth noting that depending on what device you’re paired with you may want to check the output volume controls on that first before adjusting the volume on the Hive – In fact this applies to all Bluetooth speakers. In my case I have been testing this on Android devices and as such once you pair a bluetooth audio device you can independently control just the bluetooth media volume as well as the volume on the speaker unit itself. By default the bluetooth volume is set quite low so it’s worth increasing this to the maximum to really get the best out of the Hive.

The left side of the speaker is blank and the right side contains the business end, from left to right: 3.5mm audio in, power switch and USB power in.

The underside contains the bass radiator vents.

Android sees the speaker as a communications and media device, the Hive has a built in microphone so you can take calls with it as well.