It is summer! And if you're anything like me, that means barbeques in the sun, garden parties with friends, and loads and loads of outdoor music. After all — you can't have fun without blasting your favorite summery tunes and annoying the neighbours with your own rendition of "Summer Time."
The latest addition to my summer time arsenal is one that's likely to stick around for a little while at this point as well. It's this, the Rocksteady Stadium 2.0. In my case, that's a set of four speaker units and subwoofer, but as we'll find out, it can be a whole lot more than that. Here's how it's made partying outside even better for me and my friends.
Spreading the sound around
Summer garden parties used to mean one thing — a massive speaker playing noisy music at top volume, while a garden full of people shouted, danced, and screamed away for hours. Things are different now, though. More refined. More mature.
We don't want to use a single speaker pumping out a single, loud volume that slowly gets quieter depending on where you are in the garden. We sit down around a small fire now, or next to a grill. I want music that's loud enough that I can hear it, without dominating 'interesting' conversations the group is having.
That's just what the Rocksteady Stadium is all about. Essentially, you have a group of speakers that can connect together and play music nearer to groups of people, reducing the need for a single, louder speaker. We all get tunes, but the neighbours aren't disturbed.
How simple is it?
Connecting everything together is actually super easy. First off, you'll want to connect your first speaker. Turn it on at the back, wait for the Bluetooth pairing light to start flashing, and then find it in the pairing menu of your phone. You can now actually use this speaker as a standard Bluetooth speaker, if you'd like.
But we want the whole setup working. Turn each speaker on, and then press the little antenna logo on the top of the unit. It'll sound a tone, search for a bit, and then connect to the waiting primary speaker. Do this one by one, including the subwoofer, and you're away.
I've had one or two connection hiccups with the Stadium speakers, but overall connection has been relatively stable. There's no app to control everything, mind you.
Once connected, you'll be in stadium mode — that means everything plays exactly the same thing, perfect for those chilled out parties that don't want tons of volume, just some nice musical accompaniment.
There is a stereo mode if you want something more 'cinematic'. It's changed with a switch found under the charging door, where you choose the left or right channel for the speaker. This works best with two speakers, although you can use (two per channel) if you want more volume. There is, however, no spatial audio component — only stadium mode and stereo.
How is to use?
So we're all connected up and listening. I placed the speakers in a kind of square around our garden seating. There were five of us, although we were all relatively separated. I hit play on the playlist, set the volume to a level we were all comfortable with, and then just... left it to play.
It was super cool. We're generally used to me carting some enormous Bluetooth speaker to functions, and then setting it a louder volume so those further away from the speaker can hear the music. With the stadium we were able to keep the volume fairly low without worrying it wasn't audible throughout the garden or that it was annoying the neighbors.
As for the sound quality, things were pretty good too. I'm not sure I'd go quite as far as Rocksteady, which calls them 'HiFi sound", but they're more than adequate for the job they're supposed to do.
The speakers themselves a mids-driven, and lack a little bass. Add in the subwoofer and things become a whole lot better.
On the note of the sub — I think it might be the most impressive part of the package. Without getting too loud, it was perfectly hearable throughout the yard, effortlessly enhancing our listening with some extra low end. If you're thinking of getting a stadium system, it's a great addition. You can even add more for larger yards.
The elephant in the room
While my Stadium package came with a carrying case, I'm not sure they're quite as portable as Rocksteady would like you to believe. Fill that case with the four speakers and the subwoofer, and you've a package that weighs around 13 and a half pounds in total.
That's a lot of weight to be carrying for any amount of time, and despite the padded carrying handle, I still struggled to keep the whole thing on my shoulder while transporting it from my house to my friends garden.
Then there's the price. For the same price (if we take the $799 full price as a guide), you could get a pair of Sonos Move 2 speakers, or a few Ultimate Ears speakers in party mode. That could do a similar thing, and provide app support for different speakers.
I'm not saying this is for everyone, but for me and my summer use case? I think it's great, especially with the subwoofer. Each speaker is compact and well made, and the whole ensemble does feel like it's worth the relatively lofty asking price. It's even better at the $599 you'll currently find it for.
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