F&D A180X Review - Bargain Bluetooth Powerhouse!

F&D is one of the less popular brands for audio equipment in the market today but with their new A180 which is priced affordably could potentially shake the market!

Hmmmm! Sexy!

From the box itself, a Bluetooth speaker with a subwoofer for less than PHP 3K is astounding.

F&D A180X Specs

Satellite driver size: 3 Inch full range

Subwoofer driver size: 5.25 Inch bass

Satellite frequency response: 170 Hz - 20 kHz

Subwoofer frequency response: 35 Hz - 117 Hz

Satellite: 14 Watts x 2

Subwoofer: 14 Watts

Connectivity: Bluetooth, RCA

Price: PHP 2,650

Disclaimer: A180X speaker was seeded by for our unbiased review.

Unboxing / Accessories

The box

The A180X comes out under a lot of Styrofoam for logistics protection. Inside you'll find  two speakers, a sub-woofer, AUX cable, remote control and several RCA cables.

Dual speakers, remote control, batteries, AUX and RCA cables!
They even added batteries!

Lastly, the documentation and the subwoofer!

Build Quality / Design

Easy to learn ports and switches!

The subwoofer and the speaker are lightweight but they feel solid. This is the same with the build quality of the stock cables.

Rubber made buttons with USB port

The outer plastic shell of the subwoofer and the two speakers however don't look too premium. In fact we wish they would improve it. The rear wooden parts however look a lot better and they feel better as well.

Build quality is decent enough for the price, but could be better.

It has the usual play, pause, fast forward and rewind buttons and there is a USB-A port beside it. The other gripe we had are the buttons on top of the subwoofer. They are made of textured rubber that is hard enough to make it a chore whenever you press any of the buttons.

The back sides have holes for screws and mounts!

Overall, we are okay with the build quality considering it is just priced at PHP 2,650 however there are better looking speakers for this price point.

Features

User interface is easy to learn and what you see, is what you get with the button functions. You can either connect it with other devices via Bluetooth and aux cable or you can connect your flash storage USB drive and the speaker will play those tracks.

What surprised us is that it was able to play our FLAC files from the thumb drive with out hiccups. This is a testament at how competitive this product is. Most speakers need another device to play music or they can't play High Fidelity file formats. This is truly a plus given the price tag!

Devices connected via the auxiliary cable has stable connections where we never had unwanted disconnections. This is the same with the Bluetooth connection. There is no visible or audible delay when connected via Bluetooth. It however takes around five (5) seconds for when the Bluetooth connection would be established from when you press pair on your device to when the speaker pairs successfully.

The remote control with the speaker is best way to control all the functions as the buttons on the speaker itself is labelled but is not too visible under normal room lighting. The labels are visible outside when the sun is up but it would have been great if the labels lit up.

Sound Quality

The A180X can get really loud with 30 levels of volume with a noticeably, meaty, powerful, clear, distinct tones in a decent sized sound stage.

The AX180X can get really loud!

The bass and the mids are strong and somehow decent for our standards, but the highs fall a little short but most people will be happy with how powerful and how distinct the sound this speaker makes.

There was no audible distortion or crackling sounds at any volume level and though the range falls short on the highs, it is quite capable.

We used several file formats from MP3s, WAVs and FLAC files. We also used it to play our Spotify playlist and the results were consistent no matter what song we threw at it.

Pros - Cheap price, decent close to audiophile grade quality, flexible connectivity

Cons - Build quality could be better, hard rubberized buttons, no 3.5 mm headphone audio out, could use NFC for easy pairing 

Verdict

The A180X is priced at a whoppingly affordable Php 2,500 with somewhat affordable looking outside appearance, but with its incredible specifications, coupled with the high maximum volume, powerful tones, decent mids and bass with great device compatibility, this speaker is a winner!

We recommend it for those who want good level sound quality on a tight budget.

Build / Design - 3.5

Features - 4

Battery Life - 4

Sound - 4

Average - 3.85 / 5