Cavalier Maverick Smart Speaker Review
Long-Term Test
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Cavalier, a new premium audio brand, recently sent us their new Maverick smart speaker for review and we found it to be an elegant desktop solution. So much so, that we included it in last month’s 2018 Holiday Gift Guide. However, we wanted to provide a more thorough breakdown of the Maverick after five of our evaluators were able to spend some quality time with the unit. Their impressions are in quotes below.
The Maverick is targeting a more sophisticated consumer who is looking not only to have the versatility of a portable Bluetooth unit, but also something that they can showcase in their living room or work desk. Cavalier uses premium materials to give the Maverick a refined aesthetic without the over-baked bling of other manufacturers who are targeting the same audience. Our review unit came with a rich denim blue fabric accented with light brown leather. It’s one of the most handsome units we’ve found at this price point and all of our reviewers found the design quite attractive. A Black On Black model is also available.
Hello Beautiful…
While many other Bluetooth speakers can be positioned vertically or horizontally, the Maverick is designed to sit upright in its leather-bound charging dock. The dock connects via a fancy USB-C cord to the included universal 100 – 240 AC wall adapter. The adapter brick is a little big, but considering that very few manufacturers provide a power connector these days, it is something you can easily overlook. You can tell that a lot of thought went into the development of the Maverick beyond the materials by discovering small design choices that contribute to its luxurious demeanor. For example, the connection between the Maverick itself and the charging dock could have easily been just a simple metal to metal affair, but Cavalier shaped the connection to look just like it’s logo. It’s something you could easily miss since it’s on the bottom of the unit, but it showcases the care that went into every single component.
Another aspect that our evaluators found refreshing was how simple the Maverick was to setup and use. Download their app (iOS or Android), make the Bluetooth or WiFi connection, and within seconds you’re ready to rock. And rock is the right word, since the audio connection chimes are guitar riffs, not your typical “bloops and bleeps” – a stylish choice that “will make you smile every time.”
With a 802.11b/g 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connection, the Maverick supports Amazon’s Alexa assistant for voice control and can stream tracks from Spotify, Pandora, Prime Music and others just by speaking. Again, setup was a breeze and we were rocking out to Billie Eilish in no time. But the Maverick still has more to offer. When connected to your mobile, Maverick has a quality speakerphone with built-in with noise cancellation specifically tailored to address the annoying echo that is the achilles heel of the technology. One of our reviewers tested this feature in his shower and reported that the feature worked “surprisingly well” and the audio quality was “crisp and clean” to the person on the other end of the line.
Cavalier reportedly supports multi-room audio with the Maverick, but we couldn’t test this since we only had one unit at our disposable. However, Cavalier states you can use two Mavericks as a stereo pair or multiple units for streaming audio to several rooms simultaneously. So how does it sound?
The Maverick has a sound signature tuned more for contemporary, radio-friendly tunes, as opposed to underground or big bass tracks. It’s got a pronounced upper-midrange bump that brings vocals out of the mix and the upper highs are detailed, but the 20W, dual-driver system can easily distort this frequency spectrum if pushed. The low-end has texture and feel for rock-oriented tracks, but hip-hop fiends who are looking for Headphones by Beats megabass will struggle. One of our evaluators, who recently interviewed Marconi Union, thought the Maverick was also “very well-suited for ambient or meditative music,” which puts another check in the win column for a work desk speaker. The takeaway is that the Cavalier Maverick can handle most genres, as long is the volume is set to a moderate level to avoid “making the speaker angry.”
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Although the Cavalier Maverick is quite portable, we believe the best application for this speaker is indoors, specifically in small to medium-sized rooms where the unit will not have to compete with environmental noise and the refined fabric and leather will not be exposed to the elements. The specialized noise/echo-cancellation speakerphone features also makes sense in this type of space.
Conclusion
Cavalier packs a ton of valuable and rewarding features into this incredibly-attractive, stereo Bluetooth/Wi-Fi portable speaker. Highly Recommended.
Rating: 90%
Cheers:
+ Gorgeous
+ Build Quality
+ Feature Rich
+ Battery Life
+ Dock
+ Solid App
+ Alexa Integration
Jeers:
– Can easily distort if pushed too hard
– Bass could be better
Cavalier’s Maverick costs $249.99 and is available now in either all black or blue denim.
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The Future:
Cavalier’s Maverick has a lot going for it and fires on all cylinders feature-wise. Aside from supporting 5G Wi-Fi connectivity, we’d love to see Cavalier add DSP to the Maverick to allow users to tune the unit according to personalized equalization settings in the app. If users don’t want to get their hands too dirty, a few choice presets for particular genres would be a nice addition. Finally, we believe Cavalier can focus a little more on the low-end to enhance the bass beyond the passive resonators.
