AIWA RS-X 150 Natsukasii Pro Review : Leaves a solid mark

It won’t be wrong to say that there is an abundance of Bluetooth speakers in the Indian market. With brands like AIWA, Marshall, JBL, Sony, LG, and the like bringing in offerings across budgets, it can be really tricky for buyers to make the right choice that would get them the best for their money. Even inside a budget segment, the positioning of products is so different that, at times, it becomes really difficult to pick the right one.

When the AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro speaker showed up at the Digit Test Centre, I wanted to know what the positioning of the speaker was. This is because even AIWA has offerings across budget segments. I spoke with Mr Ajay Mehta, Managing Director at AIWA India, to understand what the brand has been gunning for in India. With some clarity after the discussion (Read here), I dived into our testing, putting the speaker through our test process to see if it lives up to its price tag of ₹27,990. The speaker is priced pretty close to some offerings by brands like Sonos, LG, and Sony, which have fared pretty well in our testing in the past. So, the competition was going to be stiff for the Natsukasii Pro.

Here’s a look at how the AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro fared in our testing and whether it was able to live up to the expectations set by its pricier cousin, the MI-X330 Meteor, which had won the 2022 Digit Zero1 Award for being the Best Bluetooth speaker –

AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro: Build and Design

The AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro’s design can be described in a single phrase – all that glitters is not gold. When you look at the speaker from afar, you will instantly draw parallels with offerings by a closely competing brand *cough* Marshall *cough*. If you were to slap the other brand’s logo onto this, you could easily pass this as that brand’s product. I love the retro look it sports, and the colour choices made by AIWA’s designers fit in perfectly!

But, on closer inspection, you start to see the differences. Let’s start with the control cluster at the top. To my disappointment, it is made of plastic and the kind that doesn’t fit into the premium build and design of the speaker. The dials have a nice step-by-step tactile feel to them, but apart from that, there’s nothing to write home about. For the price that one is paying, even a polished stainless steel casing for the dials and buttons would have been adequate. It is not like AIWA could not do this. The on-off flick switch that is there in the same cluster is metallic. And the difference in feel is very apparent. If you look past it, the control cluster has a solid selection of things that you can alter from there. For someone like me, who is a stickler for physical controls, this is a huge win!

As for the rest of the speaker, on the front, you get a small AIWA logo on the fabric front of the speaker, which looks and feels great! The body of the speaker is covered in a leather-like material. Such materials, in my experience, are prone to fraying if you don’t take good care. So, keep that in mind. The included handle also has the same material on the top, with the inside being velvet. It hooks onto the speaker using the two metal studs, which are sturdy, and you never feel that they’ll detach from the speaker.

Sometimes in speakers, the lack of robust feet can be a killer for the overall experience, especially for something that can get as loud as this one. However, when I was playing the speaker at about full volumes, there was minimal rattling. Props to the engineers at AIWA for that!

What you are getting for the money that you are spending on the AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro, in terms of the overall build and design of the speaker, is adequate for the price. Nothing out of the ordinary. I would have loved it if the speaker had a metallic control cluster. But the fact that it is plastic was a bummer for me, especially given that the rest of the speaker was solid!

AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro: Features

As was the case with the last AIWA speaker I tested, the features on the AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro are limited but robust. Let’s start with the connectivity and related features. One of the best things about this speaker is the ample amount of ports and connectivity options that it comes with. On the speaker, you will find – AUX-IN, USB, micro-SD and Bluetooth connectivity. Many Bluetooth speakers these days are limited to two connectivity options, AUX and Bluetooth. So, having an additional USB and a micro-SD card slot is always nice to have. Some of us still like to load up some of the classics on our USB drives and micro-SD cards and jam to them!

Additionally, with the TWS functionality, you also get the luxury of daisy chaining multiple speakers to create a stereo setup, which with this speaker, would be awesome! And, if you are connected using Bluetooth and are worried about the sound quality, then you can stay assured that you will not have to worry much. In addition to SBC and AAC, the speaker also supports LDAC codec.

Natively, the speaker can play the following four audio formats – MP3, WMA, FLAC, and WAV.

Given the popularity of smart assistants, most speakers these days come with support for them. However, this speaker does not have that. One of its closest competitors, Marshall Acton II comes baked in with the support for voice assistant, albeit Amazon’s Alexa specifically. I would have personally loved to see that included in the speaker. It is a quality of life addition, which many appreciate.

There’s not much that I could find to fit into this section. As I mentioned earlier, the speaker has a limited selection of features. However, those features have been implemented well. And where this speaker shines is what we will talk about next.

AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro: Performance and Battery Life

AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro lives up to the expectations set by the MI-X330 Meteor in terms of performance, in my opinion. The speaker has a three-diver setup – 5”x1 (woofer) and 2”x2 tweeters. There are louder speakers that you find at this price. However, finding something that sounds as crisp and detailed as the RS-X150 is rare. This is where the speaker gains the most amount of lost ground from the performance section.

We have a selection of tracks that we play when testing Bluetooth speakers. And, with every track that I played when testing this speaker, I could see heads peeping from across the office to see what monstrosity had walked in. The balance in the bass was shown when I played Uptown Funk and Hump de Bump. The champion-like performance of the speaker, with the balanced mids, shone through when I played Skyfall by Adele. And the speaker’s sparkly highs were put to show with utmost pride in tracks like Selkies by Between the Buried and Me. 

When pumped to full, the bass was enough to cause the objects around the speaker to rattle. I also tried watching a couple of videos when I was connected to the speaker, and the balanced mids and highs made sure that the vocals were always reproduced with ease and were clear at all times. There was no noticeable latency between the audio and video as well. 

If the out of the box, balanced sound, which is our benchmark here at the Digit Test Centre, is not something that you are fond of, then you can adjust the bass and treble on the fly. Whether you are a fan of pop, rock, hip-hop, or some niche genre of music, I am sure with some minor tweaks, you will find the sound signature that is perfect for you! I was also blown away by the connectivity of the speaker. There’s a long story how I discovered its range for the first time, but I can tell you this much the speaker was connected to my phone with four walls and a good 30ish feet of distance.

At the maximum volume, there was almost no distortion in the audio, which is also a rare find these days. There are some speakers which perform well up to the 70 per cent mark, but as soon as the audio peaks beyond that mark, there’s noticeable distortion. The 60 W sound output of the speaker is enough to fill a large room. And, if you are having to push the speaker to its limits, at max volume levels, then I don’t think that will be an issue as well. 

As for the battery life, AIWA claims that this speaker can last for 11 to 12 hours at 50 per cent volume. In my time with the speaker, I found that the speaker missed the claimed mark of 11 hours by one hour. It lasted for 10 hours. Now there are a ton of factors that could affect the battery life of the speaker so that you could still get the claimed duration of playback, possibly even higher with this speaker. When the speaker is out of charge, you can juice it up using the USB-C cable that is included in the box.

AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro: Verdict

The AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro is a great speaker in its own right. AIWA has positioned its speakers as premium offerings in this space, and this speaker stays true to that philosophy. Like its pricier cousin, the MI-X330 Meteor, the speaker boasts great sound quality with a fixed set of well-implemented features. The build quality also adds to the experience of owning the speaker, with control-cluster being the only let-down there.

If you are looking for a hassle-free and great audio experience, then the AIWA RS-X150 Natsukasii Pro should be on the top of your list of considerations. However, if you are looking for a similar experience, with some added features, then the Marshall Acton II should be your choice. And, if you want a middle ground between portability, outdoor use, and features, then Bose SoundLink Revolve+(Series II) and Sony SRS-XP500C should be the speakers that you look at.