Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable Review

In the Klipsch True Heritage Series, the US company has a very special Bluetooth speaker ready, namely the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable. It combines a noble vintage look with modern features.

Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is a true statement from the US company Klipsch, which has been trying to expand its own product range in the field of personal audio solutions for years.

The Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is of course based on the Klipsch Groove Portable, which has been available for some time now, but as an offspring of the Klipsch Heritage Series, this is a solution that combines the vintage look with the features you would expect from a modern Bluetooth speaker.

Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable – The High-end Portable Bluetooth Speaker

It is interesting that the US specialist actually rates the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable very highly, they even speak of a high-end Portable Bluetooth Speaker. Its task is to provide excellent sound wherever the user wants it, and to do so in a particularly simple, yet stylish way.

The Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable cannot really be compared with the numerous solutions in the same product group on the market, if only because of its concept.

The fine vintage touch as a reminiscence of the good old days…

As a worthy representative of the Klipsch Heritage Series, the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable naturally presents itself in a corresponding design. This design borrows from the decades-long tradition of the US company Klipsch, especially from its loudspeaker systems of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, which have long been considered icons.

It has to be said that this vintage look is very much in vogue at the moment, especially as such solutions fit in perfectly with the industrial look, which is still extremely popular in the field of interior design and thus also in the field of furniture and accessories for the living room.

This can be seen particularly well at Klipsch, because in recent years the company has resurrected many a legendary loudspeaker system from the early years of Klipsch and, as with the entire Klipsch Heritage Series, is deliberately focusing on this style.

With the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable, the company speaks of mid-century modern design.

A Bluetooth Speaker carved out of a completely different wood

Bluetooth speakers are, with very, very few exceptions, all made of plastic, some in lesser, some in more upscale designs. The Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is such an exception, because it is actually made of wood, or more precisely MDF, the material that forms the basis of the housing of the majority of classic speaker systems.

The top of the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is also made of MDF and has been finished with a real wood veneer. The manufacturer offers two versions: black ebony and natural walnut.

Depending on the wood veneer, the textile covering also presents itself in a slightly different design, whereby it covers almost all four sides. Only the connection panel, if you want to put it that way, interrupts this textile covering at the back.

We don’t want to forget to mention that the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is only 152 mm wide, 127 mm high and 67 mm deep and thus weighs just under one kilogram, 990 g to be exact.

By the way, the connection panel is made of metal, as is the control panel on the top, although there are considerably more buttons on the control panel than on the connection panel, that’s for sure.

In fact, this is the power connection, which is in the form of a micro-USB interface and thus designed for 5 V 2A, as well as an AUX input, i.e. a connection designed as a 3.5 mm stereo mini-jack for analogue source devices.

Bluetooth as the primary source

Even though the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable has an analogue input, it is of course primarily designed as a Bluetooth speaker. In this context, it should be emphasised that it also has an integrated microphone, which means that it can also be used as a hands-free device for phone calls in conjunction with a paired smartphone.

Of course, not only your own content is available via smartphone or tablet, you can also access any streaming service, including internet radio and podcasts.

Playback is controlled directly via the connected mobile devices anyway, but as already mentioned, there are also numerous buttons directly on the top panel.

Class D amplifier

Of course, the developers used a particularly efficient, compact and yet comparatively powerful amplifier module in Class D. The Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable’s amplifier delivers 10 watts, but the manufacturer prefers to quote a peak power of 20 watts – it sounds better somehow.

The driver is a 3-inch full-range high excursion driver with an aluminium cone. This active driver is combined with two passive drivers on the side, which are supposed to provide a richer bass range.

The fact that the manufacturer specifies a frequency response of 65 Hz to 22 kHz for the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is rather theoretical in this class, but is mentioned here for the sake of completeness.

Long battery life

Much more important is the fact that the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable has a 7.4 V 2,200 mAh lithium-ion battery, which is said to provide up to eight hours of playing time.

Of course, this is only a guideline, as it depends primarily on how loud you play. In our test at moderate volume, however, the actually achievable playing time was well within the limits of what the manufacturer promises.

From the practice

It really does make a big difference whether you hold a Bluetooth speaker designed according to conventional concepts or the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable. Plastic is plastic, even if it is basically of high quality, and materials such as wood and metal in combination with an appealing textile fabric result in a completely different feel. And it looks extremely chic and valuable, which should also be explicitly emphasised.

However, it should also be noted that the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is by no means as robust as solutions made of corresponding plastics such as ABS.

Nevertheless, one should not think too much about using the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable outdoors and not alone indoors. You can also pack this solution for a leisurely outing, but a little care is then called for, because the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is not even remotely resistant to dust and water.

In view of the very appealing sound of the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable, it would be a real shame to do without it outdoors, whether on the terrace, in the garden or at a barbecue with friends. Indoors, the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is fun anyway, anywhere you want to enjoy music directly from your smartphone in the simplest way possible, without having to worry about a power socket in the immediate vicinity.

Getting to the point

Having the typical sound of Klipsch always and everywhere “at hand” is the task of this portable Bluetooth speaker of the Klipsch Heritage Series. The Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable is not only convincing due to its very fine sound quality compared to its compact dimensions, but also due to its design in vintage look and the high-quality workmanship, which is more like a classic speaker system than a conventional Bluetooth speaker.

Vintage look at its best, completely in the style of the legendary Klipsch speakers of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, this is how the Klipsch Heritage Groove Portable presents itself. Moreover, it is not made of plastic, but of wood with a noble veneer, metal and high-quality textile covering. Despite its compact dimensions, it sounds very fine indeed.

Test environment

• Apple iPhone 12
• TIDAL HiFi
• Spotifyawa