As brands go, Fender is one of the music world’s more evocative – it has stuff in common with Ford or Coca-Cola beyond an overly fancy typeface for its logo. Mind you, neither did Marshall (an equally iconic brand in guitar amplification), but that didn’t stop it from launching a range of consumer-focused products, of admittedly variable quality. The pro design cues keep coming – the top panel has three of the classic ’witch-hat’ rotary knobs for volume, treble and bass control and a hugely satisfying toggle switch to turn power on and off.
Under the skin, the Fender wireless speaker features a claimed 120W of amplification power, plus two 12.5cm woofers and two 25mm tweeters. When switched on, and also when wireless pairing is achieved, the Fender Monterey gives a little guitar-strum of acknowledgement – a pleasing touch but a little cheesy at the same time. We get underway with a Tidal-via-iPhone 7 file of Flamin’ Groovies’ Shake Some Action and the Fender immediately reveals itself as an up-and-at-‘em listen.
There’s decent detail retrieval on display, too, with background maracas given just as much attention as the echo around the edge of vocal harmonies. It’s worth noting that, although the three rotary controls are marked ‘1’ to ‘10’ in the guitar-amp manner, choosing ‘5’ as a safe middle ground is not good – it’s too loud, too bassy, too trebly, altogether too much.
It’s never less than a warm and friendly listen, but it struggles badly with fitting different pieces of a recording together harmoniously. Consequently tricky rhythms never quite flow, bass sounds disrupt rather than dictate tempos and there’s a two-left-feet aspect to much of what the Fender does.
Fender Monterey Bluetooth speaker review: Rugged, loud, and fun, but also pricey and only marginally portable
Where the Newport is a punchy, portable, battery-powered speaker that can be used just about anywhere, the Monterey is more of a static conversation piece. The old-school rotary volume, treble, and bass controls feel firmer and smoother than those I’ve had on many a real guitar amp.
Other controls nod to the modern era: There’s a small dedicated Bluetooth pair button, and a similarly small button to switch input between Bluetooth, a 3.5mm aux jack on top, and stereo RCA stereo inputs on the back of the unit.
The Monterey is at best transportable, measuring 13.5-inches wide, 9.5-inches tall, and 5.25-inches deep and weighing a hefty 15 pounds.
But it has no battery; in fact, it relies on a standard three-prong AC plug as you’ll find on real guitar amps. The 120-watt Monterey is loud, clear, and thumpy, but while it may look like what it costs, its sound is not fantastic—and that’s an adjective I’m looking to employ when someone’s going to drop this much coin on a speaker. There are any number of tricks that can be used to increase perceived separation with a speaker this size, but the Monterey seemingly employs none of them. Fun fact: you can buy a real, 100-watt, dual 12-inch speaker Fender Champion guitar amp with RCA aux input from Amazon for the exact same $350.
Fender Despite being considerably larger, the Monterey offers little more stereo separation than the Newport, which is actually a monophonic speaker. Personally, if I’m depending on AC power, I’d opt for a quality receiver and bookshelf speakers.
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Fender Monterey Bluetooth Speaker
Real Tolex and grill cover material give it that great Fender amplifier look. I was surprised when I turned it on for the first time and there was a guitar chord sound that rang out to let me know it was powered up. I synced it to my phone and started playing some Pink Floyd- it sounded beautiful! This speaker is big and heavy- it must weigh close to 20 pounds, so it will deserve a good place in whatever room you put it in.
Fender Monterey Bluetooth Speaker review: An amp-styled Bluetooth speaker with deep, amp-like sound
When Fender announced they were entering the Bluetooth speaker game, part of me was a bit surprised they already hadn’t. The wooden enclosure is covered with textured black vinyl along each side and the back, giving it a leather look. As mentioned, the Monterey is quite heavy — weighing in at 15 lbs — and the only thing that’s missing design wise would be some sort of handle on the top for easier carrying. Simply press and hold the Bluetooth button on the top until you hear the tone cue and then find and pair it with your device.
Toggling between Bluetooth, 3.5mm (Mini), and RCA is as easy as pressing a button, and the volume, bass, and treble dials are pretty self-explanatory. One thing you can’t do with the speaker, however, is control playback so you’ll have to keep your phone or other device handy to play, pause or skip tracks. The easiest way to describe the sound put out by the Fender Monterey is deep, rich, and amp-like. If you have a Fender amp, you know what I’m talking about — the first time I turned it on and the track started playing, my first thought was “wow, this really sounds almost exactly like my amp!” Being able to control the volume, bass, and treble independently of your smartphone is fantastic and lets you tweak the sound exactly how you want it.
Classic rock, metal, Top 40, dance, EDM, hip hop, classical… you name it — every genre of music we tried on this speaker sounded clear, crisp, and nicely balanced.
With a maximum output of 120 watts, the Fender Monterey Bluetooth Speaker can really rock a room or the backyard.
During our tests outside entertaining the neighbourhood at maximum volume, the sound was equally crisp and clear with the same balance and no distortion whatsoever to be heard. No matter the input — Bluetooth, 3.5mm, or RCA, the Monterey delivered nice, solid, balanced sound.
Fender has entered the Bluetooth speaker market in a big way with the classic design and deep, rich, amp-like sound of the Monterey.
Fender Monterey Review
The Monterey is the larger of Fender’s first pair of Bluetooth speakers, and is designed to look and feel like one of the company’s legendary guitar amps. It really is like a proper little classic Fender guitar amp in almost ever way, from the cloth grille to the faux-leather skin over its hefty frame. There’s no carry handle, so you’ll just want to find a suitable spot for it to sit permanently – it isn’t really meant for portability in any way.
There’s also a trio of retro twiddly knobs for volume, bass and treble, so you get a little EQ adjustment without having to fiddle around with a companion app – a very nice touch. Behind the distinctive ’68 Custom grille cloth and iconic Fender logo are a pair of 5-inch woofers and two 1-inch tweeters, driven by a whopping 120W of stereo power – 60W per channel. I settled on around 2 for treble and 3 for bass, but you’ll probably want to play around depending on your room size, musical tastes and typical listening volume. It sounds huge and even manages some decent stereo effects, plus there’s the novelty of EQ adjustment via physical controls rather than an app. Fender fans – and guitar nuts in general – probably won’t care about any of that stuff, though, because the Monterey is just so perfectly styled and sounds great.
An über-chic Bluetooth speaker with excellent sonics that will bring a smile to the faces of more than just hardcore Fender fans.
Fender’s First Bluetooth Speaker Has Classic Looks and Big, Big Sound
I didn’t have the chance to play around with it, but Fender claims it has a 12-hour battery life and built-in USB ports to charge your smartphone. The one I tested, the Monterey, is a powered (not portable) Bluetooth speaker that’s designed with the same aesthetic as Fender’s guitar and bass amps: black “Bronco” vinyl covering, silver grille cloth and vintage control knobs. Granted, it is heavy at over ten pounds, and it needs to be connected to a power source to work, so don’t expect to move it around a lot. The $350 price tag isn’t cheap, but it’s also competitive with other home Bluetooth speakers by Bose and Peachtree Audio. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses.
Review: Fender Newport et Fender Monterey
The Fender Newport Bluetooth speaker inherits its look from the amplifiers manufactured by the legendary American brand. The Fender Newport is designed for listening to music wirelessly and without the need for a power block, whether you are at home or on a stroll. Thanks to its rechargeable battery, the speaker offers up to eleven hours of listening far from all sources of power on a single charge. It indicates that the manufacturer didn’t try to save on costs by using cheap materials, components and speaker drivers.
In addition to the standard volume knob, the Fender Newport also features bass and treble controls. The Bluetooth 4.2 controller is compatible with the SBC (universal), AAC (iPhone), and apt-X codecs. A USB port and a 3.5 mm mini-jack stereo input are located at the back of the speaker which allows the user to charge a device and connect a DAP, for example. We placed the speaker on a desk in a large open-space area, then moved it to our listening room, which benefits from a much better acoustic treatment.
A short sequence of electric guitar at medium volume is played when powering the speaker. We started our listening session with Michael Kinawuka’s Cold Little Heart, which was delivered with a lot of energy throughout the entire sound spectrum.
The singer’s voice is clearly separated from the instruments and the drums are restituted with an impressive richness for such a compact speaker (18 x 13 x 8 cm). The manufacturer decided to go against the current trend of ultra-wide sound diffusion for compact connected speakers (which inevitably affects the balance of high frequencies).
The Sony has the advantage when it comes to battery life and waterproof design but the Fender speaker has the upper hand as far as sound restitution goes. An up-close listening experience ensures a splendid sound resolution, while the tone balance stays absolutely delightful at midrange. With the loudness mode deactivated, the Fender Monterey’s sound signature is a bit drier than that of the Newport. It benefits from a generous extension in the lower end of the sound spectrum and its EQ is clearly rock-oriented.
Klipsch The Three: although the sound signature of the two speakers is comparable, the Klipsch fails to reach the Fender’s high sound output without losing its composure, the low register loses its fullness and the highs become aggressive. The Marshall Woburn delivers a tremendous amount of energy in the high-bass which results in a restricted extension in the lows. Pairing big drivers with a powerful amplifier is not enough to make a great wireless speaker. The Monterey also benefits from a strong personality and the energy it displays in the mids results in a unique sound signature.
In the end, although the two speakers were obviously designed for different types of applications, the compact Fender Newport is the one that really won us over.
Fender Monterey BLK BT Speaker – Thomann UK
Its design (‘old-school’ twisty knobs for b/t/v and an on/off flip-switch and a bright blue faceted ON light jewel) and its ca.
Fender Monterey review
The cloth grille and faux leather stand out and fit nicely with today’s other speakers. The power cord is the big standard AC plug that you might see with a computer or monitor.
The Fender Monterey is a fun speaker to touch and run your fingers over, adjusting volume, bass, and treble channels our wannabe rock star. It’s also worth noting that there’s a toggle on the back that enables and disables these equalizer settings.
Were the speaker more portable we could very well see us taking it to parties or setting it up for a day in the back yard. Overall, given the lengthy RCA inputs and 3.5mm cord, this is the sort of setup that you’ll want to keep pretty permanent.
Whether it was rock, electronic, or spoken word, the Monterey delivers a natural sound, both with and without equalizer settings. At $350 the Fender Monterey prices itself out of range for casual users or those who looking for a decent Bluetooth experience. There are plenty of less expensive models that deliver a similar sound and which might also offer internal batteries or water resistance. The turntable has been moved to a more central location and we’re only too happy to bring the vinyl to work.
But, even in cases where we know that they’ll turn up their nose at the cost, we’re still eager to let them listen — and drool.
Fender Monterey Portable Bluetooth Speaker – Black Reviews Reviews
This feature is supposed to shut the unit off after 30 minutes of not receiving any audio. When I stop the audio to work out a part and then try to start the audio back and it has shut down I have to get up and go across the room to turn it back on by press one of the buttons on the unit.
I have to wonder if this is one reason the price has dropped on it several times since they first started offering these.
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