Loewe We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé

Verdict

The Loewe We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé is a fantastic wireless outdoor speaker with a funky design, excellent battery life and powerful audio with a lot of bass. Its lower water resistance or lack of app control may not be for some, but for the rest of us, this is a big, bold and brilliant speaker that’s ideal for the summer.

Introduction

The Loewe We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé’s name is a bit of a mouthful, but it’s arguably the German brand’s beefiest, and brightest, wireless speaker yet.

The collaboration with Real Madrid’s Mbappé doesn’t just bear fruit in terms of its star power, but results in a speaker that stakes a claim to being one of the best outdoor speakers in its premium price range with a bold, wide sound, excellent battery life, and design that’s perfect for summer.

I’ve been testing it for the last few weeks in the sunshine to see how well it stacks up against the competition, be it the Sonos Move 2 or the Bang and Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen, which are two of our favourite Bluetooth choices for use outdoors.

At £249 / $250 / €269, it sits between those two, and offers an excellent choice for those wanting a bright and bold outdoor speaker with marvellous audio.

Design

• Funky design
• Lots of Mbappé references
• Wonderfully intuitive controls

Against other outdoor speakers, the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé is quite large, being 28cm long, 13.8cm tall, and weighing 2.2kg. It’s no wonder that Loewe offers it with a carry strap for when you’re taking the party on the move.

In its fluorescent green colourway, it wouldn’t be seen out of place on the arm of a football steward in a hi-vis jacket at the Santiago Bernabéu. On second thoughts, maybe that’s where Kylian is going to take it for his first home La Liga fixture. Nonetheless, I love the funky looks of the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé – even the strap is hi-vis green.

There are nods to the big man himself on the metal strap ends with ‘KM’ initials, as well as on the rubberised sides, too. If you’d prefer something a little more subdued though, then Loewe offers the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé in either black or blue, although that’s nowhere near as cool.

Controls are kept nice and simple across the top side, with capacitive buttons and slidey bits for power, pairing, adjusting the bass and treble, as well as volume. There isn’t any need to faff around in an app to get the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé to work, and all the buttons feel tactile with a pleasant rubberised finish. For adjusting bass and treble, you press the relevant button, and then slide up or down on the large bar on the right. It’s that simple.

The opposite end houses a We by Loewe logo, as well as a rubberised port cover for protecting against the elements. Underneath, you’ll find a USB-C port, and a 3.5mm jack. That’s fairly standard but the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé has some clever smarts which make it more than worthwhile.

Features

• Reasonable codec support
  Fantastic battery life
• Water resistance isn’t as strong as the competition

The lack of a dedicated companion app may be a pain for some, but in the grand scheme of things is a small miss considering what else the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé can do. Connectivity is taken care of via Bluetooth 5.3, while codec support is reasonable with the usual suspects of SBC and AAC. The lack of any aptX or LDAC is a bit of a shame, considering more affordable speakers such as the Soundcore Motion 300 have it.

The We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé benefits from a powerful multi-speaker pairing, with the speaker’s pairing button allowing it to be hooked up to 13 other speakers. Of course, if you’ve got 14 Loewe speakers going spare, you may well be on a pay packet close to the big man himself.

Battery life is rated for 24 hours, which means it’ll be good for several parties’ worth of listening. My testing matched this figure, and it means the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé provides lots of endurance. In addition, it can fully recharge in just two hours, which is especially nippy, while the USB-C port can also act as a power bank for charging your phone or a DAP, for instance.

The We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé is IPX6 water resistant, offering resistance against strong water jets, although it can’t be fully submerged in water. It’s testament to its ruggedness, although falls short against the full water and dust-resistance of the B&O Beosound A1 2nd Gen, which has a stronger IP67 rating.

Sound Quality

• Powerful audio
• Robust low end
• Precise top-end and fantastic vocals

Inside the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé carries plenty of grunt, with 100W of power across dual passive radiators, a pair of woofers and two tweeters. This translates to powerful audio across the frequency range, while the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé also has a lot of volume even before you get to the top end of the scale. It’s certainly sure to drown out the noise of a party.

The passive radiators do a lot of the heavy lifting for the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé, with Loewe’s in-house tuning favouring more low-end grunt. Let’s Groove from Earth, Wind & Fire allows Loewe’s speaker to flex its muscles with a robust bass that adds oomph to the track with plenty of extension and clarity. It complements the track in a refined manner, rather than overtaking it.

In a similar vein, running the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé through my queue of rock testing tracks from Rush (Working Man) and Marillion (The Invisible Man) worked a treat with potent bottom end. Listening to The Invisible Man’s heavy introduction also reveals how well the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé handles vocals, with Steve Hogarth’s snarl coming across with clarity and precision in amongst the competing, building soundstage behind him, be it Ian Mosley’s cymbal rides or Steve Rothery’s guitar drives.

The We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé can also deal in mellower stuff too, with Jimmy Buffett’s Tonight I Just Need My Guitar offering a smooth track that’s simply vocals, acoustic guitar and intermitted strings. His vocals were at the front of the mix, while the track’s guitar was crisp, and the strings adding weight where needed.

Even with this speaker’s prominent low end, the top end it served up, such as on the competing percussion on the intro to Steely Dan’s Do it Again was precise and spacious, without being harsh or drowned out. There was also plenty of breathing room between the individual elements, reflecting the We Hear Pro x Kylian Mbappé’s excellent soundstage.

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