GravaStar Venus never looked impressive in product pictures. Dwarfed by the GravaStar Mars Pro series, the smaller Bluetooth speakers always looked underwhelming compared to their bigger siblings. Now, that I have them in my hands, I couldn’t be further from the truth, they do deserve your attention, and here is why…
I also discovered a “secret function” of the Sirius Pro earbuds! Now available in sexy Matt Black.
GravaStar Venus & Sirius Pro (Matt Black)
After seeing my rather juicy b-roll for Mars Pro and Sirius Pro, GravaStar reached out to me directly (previous reviews were arranged by the 3rd party) and asked me to look at their newly released Sirius Pro earbuds in Matt Black and GravaStar Venus Bluetooth speakers. As I already covered the earbuds in my review, I thought it would be nice to colour-match that new Matt Black paint job with Venus speakers in Shadow Black and Aurora.
Gravastar Sirius Pro have one more secret to discover
I still use GravaStar Sirius Pro (in power-loader yellow – if you saw Aliens you will catch the reference) on daily basis. Looking at the product page of the new paint job I quickly discovered that there was one more “secret” feature I never covered in my original review. If you pay closer attention to the metal charging case, you will find three familiar tabs. I can’t believe I missed that earlier – this is a bottle opener! A must-have item in your pocket besides your trusty earbuds.
Now that we know all the secrets of GravaStar Sirius Pro, it’s time to examine their portable Bluetooth speakers.
Gravastar Venus
I have one complaint to make about GravaStar Mars Pro. As fancy as they are, these are not portable Bluetooth speakers. Their portability ends inside your household. As soon as you try to take them with you, the size, weight, and shape make it rather awkward. I don’t think the product pictures of the GravaStar Venus showcase this well, but these speakers are perfect to take with you.
They balance the size, weight and appearance well. You don’t have to take my word for it either as I took these with me to work and people were genuinely curious about these little robots on my desk. Each made of Zink alloy feels solid in hand while hidden underneath the rubber user interface works well without breaking the artistic vision. Just like with Mars Pro – aesthetics is a big part of GravaStar Venus.
It’s bonkers and I love it.
Boxed!
While the box contains just the speaker and the charging cable (thanks for the USB-C), it was made with the unboxing experience in mind and I’m genuinely thinking about re-using these for something. I have two Venus speakers, as you can link them into a TWA pair and enjoy the true stereo sound on your desk. Anyone opting out for a single speaker will have both channels mixed together instead.
Even my pictures can’t convey how nicely Venus feels in my hands. It’s meticulously designed with intricate details. Every texture feels satisfying under my fingertips. The design has just enough visual clues to figure out all functions of the hidden in plain sight controls. While GravaStar Venus lacks touch controls each input is well thought through and pleasing in control.
There is a hidden ring LED light which you can set to a couple of colours by pressing both volume buttons at the same time. Once set to a favourite colour, the light adds to the visual aesthetics.
Just like Mars Pro, they share sci-fi power up/down sounds with voice guidance letting you know about the status of the speaker and connection mode. Sounds are cool, but they are always set at the volume level of the speaker – which means when the speaker is about to shut down after a period of not being in use, it will make this noise. Not ideal if you were listening to the tunes while trying to fall asleep.
Design from Venus, sound from…
This is a speaker, and cool design aside, no one (but me) buys it for looks only. When it comes to sound, all that weight comes in handy. The speaker stands firmly on its three robotics legs padded with rubber and even when cranked to the max – the sound is vibration and artefact free.
The membrane at the back starts oscillating like crazy each time I hit something more upbeat, but GravaStar Venus holds the ground despite being rather small. I think I’m painfully aware of what a device of this size should produce, but the speaker outperforms my expectations each time. It will never beat the sound definition of big speakers but put two of them paired as TWA and it will turn your head.
The sound is punchy, without the low tones overtaking the music. There is just enough bass to keep you happy and high frequencies are sharp and clear. The speakers are not loud. They will fill a room with sound without a problem, but in the great outdoors, the volume is lacking. It’s not a complaint, but an acknowledgement of the fact that GravaStar focused on music delivery over blunt decibel delivery.
Single vs TWA
If you buy a single GravaStar Venus speaker, you will deprive yourself of true stereo, but your bank balance may be more thankful. Going back from TWA pair to a single speaker is definitely noticeable, but not tragic. The speaker still performs just as good but the lack of depth, channel separation, and the highly localised music source are very apparent.
Unfortunately, running it solo will also make it sound quieter. It’s not the speaker’s fault, it’s how physics works. It’s noticeable, but not deal-breaking.
Battery life
As the speakers are small, I’m often playing my music at higher volumes. This in turn lowers the battery life of the speaker. In my tests, I found the battery life to be closer to 5-7h from the advertised 10h, but these estimates are usually calculated based on a volume setting of around 50%. It’s more than I need for a single session and with the USB-C cable at hand, I can always extend that.
Missing?
There is one little disappointment. The LED colours on GravaStar Venus add charm to it, but the music-sensitive illumination that looked so cool on Mars Pro is sadly missing. It’s a shame, it is the most used by me illumination mode on the other speakers. After all, the RGB LEDs are already there – the only thing that is missing is FFT enabled driver.
GravaStar, don’t forget that in the design stage of your next product (Jupiter?). Oh and while at it, could you do something about the placement of the USB-C port? It would be nice to have it charging with any cable without tipping it over. Don’t look at Mighty Mouse for inspiration.
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Final thoughts
GravaStar Venus is just good. It may not be the loudest, but it’s cheaper than the Mars Pro without looking any less ridiculous (in a good way). It’s a head-turner not just thanks to the design but also sound, so if you don’t mind paying a little extra for a truly spectacular speaker, you won’t be disappointed. Having seen all GravaStar has on offer, I can’t wait to see their next product. Let me know what you think about GravaStar Venus and what are your favourite paint jobs in this Reddit thread.
🆓📈 💵- See the transparency note for details.
