Creative Muvo 2c ultraportable speaker: sound performance too good

Ergonomics

As for the practical aspects, let us announce at the outset that we will have almost nothing to say about this Muvo 2c that we have not already said about the Muvo 2. The two models fully share their design elements, their materials, and even their connections.

So here we find a rubbery plastic construction with a simple but rather successful aesthetic effect. This material allows the IP66 certification of the enclosure: "splashproof", it is not immune to immersion, but will however be able to resist any kind of splash.

We would like to be able to say that the Muvo 2c, like its sister, inspires us rather confidence as for its robustness, but that would be to omit a problem far from being anecdotal: the passive bass radiator, at the rear, has the bad taste of being absolutely unprotected against impact. Whenever you want to transport the speaker in a bag or pocket, you run the risk of this radiator being pushed in during transport, and potentially damaged. It did not take long for one of our two test models, however treated with care, to start to fail (radiator clicks). We of course have no way of accurately determining the probability of this problem occurring, but in any case, it necessarily compromises the portability of the speaker ...

This single point alone costs the Muvo 2c a star on its ergonomic score. It's a shame, because apart from that and as we implied above, the speaker can boast the same extraordinary functional versatility as the Muvo 2. To Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity is added a player microSD card, via which it is possible to play audio files in MP3 , WMA, WAV and Flac formats.

An auxiliary input on 3.5 mm stereo mini-jack is also present. Finally, the micro-USB port can be used not only for recharging the speaker, but also for plug & play connection to a computer (Windows 10 or macOS) or to a PlayStation 4. Thanks to this connection, the The speaker can be used not only as a broadcasting device but also as a hands-free kit. The possibility of associating two Muvo 2c in a stereo pair is still there - but here again, such a pair can only work with a Bluetooth source.

The autonomy of the Muvo 2c is promised at 6 hours, and our measurement confirms this value with a sound volume set to 50%. We have seen better, but it remains honest for a speaker of this size.

The microphone of the hands-free kit offers excellent voice capture in absolute terms, but unfortunately very variable depending on the type of connection used. When the speaker is connected via USB to a PC or PS4, no processing is applied to the captured sound, and the latter is therefore rendered perfectly clear and natural. On the other hand, in Bluetooth, an overly aggressive noise reduction is implemented, which significantly reduces the intelligibility of speech. Pity.

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Audio

The sound quality was already the Achilles heel of the Muvo 2, and it is unfortunately the same with the Muvo 2c. Its low price and small size are no valid excuses: several competitors are doing significantly better.

It is mainly the balance that is lacking in this enclosure. On the one hand there is bass that does not do much more than what is expected of them - that is to say that they do not reach 100 Hz - and on the other a leaning very clear towards the high frequencies: the result is a very piercing sound, and particularly not very musical.

Note that the very clear highlighting of the 9-13 kHz band is not linked to any directivity peak in this region; it is really an excess of energy emitted by the speaker on these frequencies. Small parenthesis: when using two speakers in a stereo pair, the low directivity of the treble, precisely, results in stereophony of a very surprising quality, tremendously precise! A good point which will certainly only concern a small part of the users, but which still deserves to be mentioned.

For the rest, the sound produced is of a correct cleanliness, although in no way remarkable. The level of detail offered is modest, but the relatively contained distortion of the midrange and treble avoids at least any sibilance and any megaphone effect. The bass radiator, on the other hand, barely succeeds in doing its job: from the low mids, the rendering is extremely indistinct. Nothing fundamentally unexpected for a speaker of this size anyway.

However, the Muvo 2c pays dearly for its disproportionate ambitions in terms of power. At maximum volume, the small is able to balance a number of decibels certainly relatively impressive, but it can only reach them at the cost of a fairly violent dynamic limitation applied to the signal. On songs with an already weak basic dynamic, this treatment quickly translates into an extremely unpleasant pumping effect. "What does it matter," you might say, "to avoid this problem, just stick to a reasonable listening volume!" Think again: for a reason that is perfectly impenetrable to us, this limitation never actually disengages, whatever the level of listening. Incomprehensible, and obviously very frustrating.

In the end, there remains a use in which the Muvo 2c provides really satisfactory benefits: the hands-free kit mode. In addition to its very recommendable voice capture (at least in USB), it also provides a fairly pleasant reproduction of voices: clear, natural, and perfectly respectful of timbres. We obviously hoped for more, but that's always taken.

Latency in Bluetooth is around 210 ms with a single speaker. It's too much to be able to watch a video comfortably without compensation for the image / sound offset, but the speaker allows this compensation to be done automatically with compatible applications - such as YouTube on iOS and Android. When using two speakers paired in stereo, the latency increases to 290 ms; the conclusion remains the same.

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Conclusion

Small size and low price are not everything: little musical, the Creative Muvo 2c ultraportable speaker ultimately brings full satisfaction only when used in hands-free kit. Still, in this use, it can at least highlight the remarkable versatility of its connections.

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