Hercules WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM Bluetooth Speaker Review – Just Unbelievable

I kind of got bored with testing speakers from new audio brands since most of them are mediocre. The Hercules WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM Bluetooth Speaker was sent to my office for a while and I didn’t want to try it until now. I thought it is just another low-quality product as this is the first time I heard about the Hercules brand.

However, it is quite expensive for such a small Bluetooth speaker. Is this worth your investment?

Unboxing

Design & Features

In terms of design, the WAE 04Plus FM speaker doesn’t really look interesting. It comes in black and has the shape of a triangular tube with rubber covers at the two ends. We have the drivers on the front underneath a metal grill, the volume up button on the front and volume down button on the back. On the bottom, you can find a standard-size screw thread so that you can attach the speaker to your bike, tripod or a suction cup mount. Unfortunately, the manufacturer doesn’t provide any mount inside the box.

On the right side, there are an auxiliary port are a microUSB charging port under a plastic flap. Right above, we have the power button and a hidden FM button. I didn’t know that FM text is pressable.You can press the FM button to switch between the built-in FM radio and Bluetooth.

You can press the FM button to switch between the built-in FM radio and Bluetooth. I don’t know why there is no manual guide inside the box, so I had to figure out how it works by myself. You can long press the FM button for auto tuning, then long press the volume up/down button to change channels. The FM tuner works really well and you don’t need to install the WAE music app to use it.

I really love that the speaker has a rugged design. It features an IP67 rating dust proof and water submersion, besides, the reinforced rubber ends make it shock-resistant as well. I actually dropped the speaker on my wooden floor once because the speaker vibrates too much at a loud volume level. Fortunately, the speaker is still working perfectly fine. I really hope that the speaker is a little heavier so that it could stay steadily on my desktop.

The battery life of the Hercules speaker is quite good. It could last up to 18 hours when you use it as an FM tuner, it is shorter at 10 hours when you play music via Bluetooth.

Audio Quality

I didn’t expect much from a portable speaker at this size, especially when it comes from an unknown brand. However, the sonic characteristics of the tiny speaker are amazing. I was so surprised once I turned it on. The speaker with 10W peak power manages to deliver a room-filling sound and it is not distorted like other portable speakers. It’s been a long time I didn’t have goosebumps when testing a speaker and the sound really makes me excited.

I really enjoy the rich sound with a respectable bass, a well-presented mids, and moderate treble. When I closed my eyes and listened to the music, I couldn’t imagine such a spacious sound could come from that tiny body. You can check out a sound test below.

Conclusion

Pros

• Rugged design
• FM tuner
• Good battery life
• Great sound

Cons

• More expensive than non-FM version

If you don’t need the FM tuner, you can buy the non-FM version which costs about $20 less. That’s a much better deal in my opinion. Anyway, the Hercules Bluetooth speaker is a great product and we at TechWalls highly recommend it.

Buy Hercules WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM Bluetooth Speaker on Amazon