Sound quality: Bluesound's Pulse Mini had good overall sound quality. Bass has good impact and goes fairly deep but is somewhat prominent and boomy. Midrange is fairly even but is a touch muffled and slightly grainy. Treble is extended but lower and mid treble is subdued. Does a so-so job of recovering room ambience and is somewhat congested. Provides a decent volume level in a small to medium sized room. No significant difference between Wifi, Bluetooth, Optical and wired sound quality. When two units are used as a stereo pair it can get louder, but since two separate speakers are used the sound stage can be made wider depending on placement and sound quality takes on an echoey quality and bass becomes more prominant and tubby - score remains the same - good.
Ease of use: We found the Bluesound Pulse Mini ease of use to be very good overall. WiFi setup requires an app downloaded to a device, easy but not intuitive - needs instructions which are included in app, requires selecting WiFi network and entering password. Bluetooth setup is dependent on WiFi setup being completed first - then it requires selecting the Bluetooth source from the app then the selection of unit from Bluetooth selection list on source device; unit did not provide an indication that the unit was in pairing mode as well as when pairing had actually occurred. The volume controls are high contrast buttons, backlit (+/-) but lacks a indicator when max volume is reached. Play/Pause used as mute is well marked, well placed, but no indication on unit when muting is engaged. Switching inputs: Requires app to be installed, app installation is somewhat straight forward. Once the app is installed switching between inputs is fairly intuitive.
