Blaupunkt Velocity 2Go 5

Blaupunkt, the car audio people, recently released their hybrid, stumpy piece of audio gear in India, and the minute I covered it I requested a piece for review. Why? Because the Velocity 2Go 5 looked interesting: a powered subwoofer meant primarily for your car, though it comes with a full range option that makes it a portable player as well.

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Design and Features
The device is quite medium-sized for a powered sub, and it is also lighter than regular subs – though way heavier than a boom box. That’s the case in point here. This should not be confused solely as a boombox, as that's just a mode of operation in this unit.

The exterior is faux aluminum, with a very Euclidean smooth shape consisting of semicircular sides and flat parallel top and bottom faces. These faces are broad, so they give the piece considerable depth. Having said that, I still feel this unit is very nice and compact for a car boot. You have to properly fix it though, with the help of external straps provided. The multiway car cable is provided, along with an AC adapter and a 3.5 mm jack both-ways cable.

The front is a glossy black hard plastic surface with the Velocity 2Go label etched on it, and a blue backlight illuminates it nicely when the unit is turned on. There is one input called MP3, and there is a pair of RCA at the back. The switches are in the form of cool three-way sliders on the top panel, with an auto mode. This mode turns the unit on when it detects a signal – typical car audio stuff.

The rear panel has flush-mounted dials for volume and subwoofer controls, something that irritates me, as we have to use our fingertips and move it awkwardly. Regardless that this is meant to be used in a car boot, the fact that it also serves as a boombox should have persuaded the designers to make a better volume knob.

There are 2x130 mm polypropylene cone woofers, with 2x19 mm silk membrane tweeters, attached on braces that extend out of the rim of the body into the front panel frame, thus covering the woofers slightly. The woofers are exposed (not good) while the tweeters are nicely housed within a grille (good).

The unit works on batteries for portable operation; and you'll need eight AA batteries. Special rechargeable batteries can be used too, which get charged when AC power is connected, or the car engine is on. The power output is 80 watts RMS.