Teufel Rockster Air Review: Bluetooth Speaker with a Great Bass

With the Teufel Rockster Air Teufel has brought the little brother of the Rockster onto the market and thus offers a “portable” Bluetooth jukebox. We tested the little devil for you.

Even though the Rockster Air is only the little brother of the Rockster, the loudspeaker still weighs a respectable 14.5 kilos. However, the practical wheels of the Rockster are no longer required with the Rockster Air and a detachable carrying strap remains for transport. You don’t want to cover long distances with the loudspeaker, but a short walk from the car to the party area is definitely possible.

The Rockster Air radiates an uncanny massiveness. This is not a filigree Bluetooth loudspeaker, but really a device that can also survive a tipping over or a minor “accident”. The knobs of the Teufel loudspeaker are protected under an acrylic glass plate. The Rockster Air has no water protection certification, but if a beer is dumped over the loudspeaker, the flap will effectively protect the keys.

The Bluetooth pairing process with a speaker should be quick and simple. And this is exactly the case with the Rockster Air: Once switched on, a longer press on the Bluetooth button is all it takes for the loudspeaker to appear on the smartphone among the available Bluetooth devices. We can already connect and play our playlist.

Teufel promises a clean and stable connection of at least ten meters. We can confirm this distance on the open field with the mobile phone in our trouser pocket, but the connection becomes quite unstable from about 10 meters. But with the mobile phone in your hand, you can also get a good 15 meters away from the Bluetooth speaker. However, if walls stand in the way of the Teufel’s loudspeaker and smartphone, reception becomes poor even over short distances and even breaks off.

In addition to Bluetooth, the speaker has a 3.5 mm AUX input on the back, a 6.3 mm input for instruments and an XLR input for microphones. The audio signal from all these sources can be played back simultaneously, or you can mix it using the knobs on the top.

Rockster Air with shoulder strap | © Teufel

Sound

When it comes to sound, the manufacturer promises a stunning sound with impressive bass. According to Teufel, the Rockster Air achieves a sound pressure level of around 112 decibels. And in operation, the speaker has a lot to offer and is convincing. Teufel uses a tweeter horn for the high tones, which is also used for the sounding of larger halls or even stadiums. The manufacturer uses a 25 centimetre woofer with four bass reflex tubes for a supportive effect for the powerful and deep bass.

In our test the Rockster Air convinces with a powerful bass, but the Teufel Rockster Air is not a classic “Hifi” loudspeaker, which can be noticed in the highs and mids. The mids tend to be rather weak, just like the lower heights. This may be due to the tweeter horn, which is needed for level stability, but cannot quite keep up with classic hifi tweeters.

However, we can make fine adjustments at any time via the mixing console and adapt the sound well to the respective conditions. All in all, we like the sound very much, although in larger rooms and especially outdoors the Teufel loudspeaker really comes into its own. Here the balanced and powerful music can spread completely. In smaller rooms, on the other hand, the sound seems rather depressed and dull. The device is therefore more suitable for larger rooms or outdoors. The alignment of the speaker is comparatively important on the Rockster Air. It’s not a speaker with surround sound, so it should always point to the crowd.

In idle mode, the Teufel Rockster Air has slight interfering noises, which can be attributed to Bluetooth interference. This “crackling” is not amplified and can only be heard if you are about one meter in front of the loudspeaker and no music is playing.

In our test I took the Rockster Air to a solstice fire. There the loudspeaker was in use for about 6 hours to sound an open area of 150-200m² with background music. There the Rockster Air made a good impression and attracted attention. The battery also held out perfectly for the entire 6 hours. For a party with a large area, the Rockster Air is therefore quite suitable and can be seen.

Conclusion

The Teufel Rockster Air is loud, strong bass and generally just mighty! With a maximum of 112 dB, the Rockstar can easily handle volumes that are uncomfortable in smaller rooms, but this is meant positively here.

The bass is powerful enough to get walls to shake. Only at extreme levels do you notice that the bass is somewhat reduced. Until then you have a lot of power to sound large rooms properly. But the most amazing thing is, that the Teufel Rockster Air can do this also in battery mode! Especially since the battery can really last quite long. According to Teufel, quietly up to 30 hours are possible, in party suitable volumes still two-digit values.

In addition, there is a large variety of connections, which allows, among other things, the connection and mixing of instruments, microphones and other devices that use 3.5 mm. And of course Bluetooth. The Teufel Rockster Air only really feels comfortable if you operate it at room volume. If you are the right user for the Teufel Rockster Air, then there is nothing that speaks against the purchase, because the little Teufel is really fun!

But if you want to have this fun, you have to have 599,99 € (currently: Product) for the Rockster Air. So the Bluetooth speaker is not exactly cheap, but also offers a lot for its money.