Ryobi Verse Cordless Clamp Speaker Review

Ryobi has been on a tear with a series of clamp products that attach to a variety of objects. The most entertaining is the Ryobi Verse cordless clamp speaker. It has a cool design, but is it worth buying a couple (or more)?

Something that caught our attention right away is that you can pair 100 or more of these speakers together! We were tempted to ask Ryobi to send that many just to prove the point but decided against it. Whether you have 1, 2, 10, or 100 Verse speakers, the set isn't hard, but you need to know the process.

First of all, it uses a Bluetooth connection with up to a 250-foot range to your phone. That's in ideal circumstances with a straight line of sight.

The initial connection is simple—pop any Ryobi 18V One+ battery on the speaker and turn it on. It automatically goes into pairing mode, so just find it in your Bluetooth connections list on your phone and connect it.

If you have more than one speaker, the first one you set up is called the parent speaker and it feeds to all the children speakers. Here's a quick rundown of how it works:

Pro Tip

If you don't memorize the instructions, don't worry. There's a QR code on the back of each speaker that takes you to a quick start guide.

The speaker will audibly let you know if it's a parent or child speaker during setup. Once you turn them on, it's easy to tell. The parent has a red light and each child has a green light.

It's important to know which is which—your phone has to stay in range of the parent. The children don't pick up a signal from it, they only pick up the parent's signal.

Once your speakers are set up, each child can be up to 150 feet away from the parent.

We ran through our usual range of rock, classical, orchestra, and a cappella music to get an idea of the sound quality. For such small speakers, it's impressive. There's a clear differentiation in the range from low to high and the vocals come through very well.

However, keep in mind that it's just a 2-inch speaker. There's no subwoofer to support it and there's only so much you can get out of it while keeping the price in check. It's not as crisp as premium speakers and it gets a bit muddy at the very top of its volume range. That said, it's a big step up from the quality Ryobi had in some of its previous radios and speakers.

There are two ways to adjust the volume. If you want speakers at different volume levels, you can adjust them independently on each speaker. If you want them at the same volume, simply adjust the level on your phone and they’ll raise or lower together.

As far as runtime goes, Ryobi claims up to 32 hours on a 4.0Ah battery.

As a clamp speaker, you get 1 3/4 inches of capacity to work with. Those of you in construction may already realize that's enough to fit over the side of 2x material since its nominal width is 1 1/2 inches.

There's a rubberized pad underneath the jaws, helping keep the clamp in place on metal and otherwise slick materials.

No matter which way you need to clamp the speaker down (or set it on the batter base), you can direct the sound where you want it. The head spins and tilts about 300° for both movements, and the combination can point it just about anywhere you might need it.

There are three ways to get your hands on these speakers. A single speaker (Ryobi PCL615B) is $59.97. A two-pack (Ryobi PCL6152P) is $99.97. There's also a kit that comes with one speaker, a 1.5Ah battery, and a charger for $99.97. Whichever way you go, there's a 3-year warranty to back it up.

There was some internal struggle in our office to see who would get to have our set of Ryobi Verse cordless clamp speakers if that tells you anything (Austin is the winner in case you’re wondering). There are so many great ways to use these speakers that it's impossible to list them all and the sound quality is enjoyable. The only twinge of regret I have is that they’re not waterproof, so they’re a no-go on my flats boat.

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