Camp Speaker Love-Hate Relationship

[dp351]

I’m not sure I’d call the Camp Speaker a useless gimmick that they should get rid of. I love it when it works, but….

If they want to save money, which they certainly will on the R2’s & 3’s, this will likely not be included, along with several other things. Collectively, these items will set the R1’s apart as a premium product, despite the fact that some of us know that the Camp Speaker is finicky.

I suspect that Rivian is unable to update the Camp Speaker’s firmware OTA, so it’s not worth the effort for them to fix mine. One thing they might be able to fix OTA, if they’re listening, would be to allow the Camp Speaker to recharge in its drawer while in Camp mode, without driving.

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[cevans]

I’m not sure I’d call the Camp Speaker a useless gimmick that they should get rid of. I love it when it works, but….

It falls into the gimmick category because of a few things:
1) no one would choose a Rivian over a Silverado EV or lightning because of the camp speaker. It isn’t a distinguishing feature.
2) if you don’t buy a Rivian it’s not like you can’t have a portable Bluetooth speaker in your truck. In fact you could buy better versions for less money.
3) I use my truck every day. I use the gear tunnel every day. I use the frunk every day. I use driver assistance every day. I’ve never used the speaker other than times that I forced myself to use it “just because”
4) if this was a storage drawer I WOULD use it all the time…

 

[md2023]

Agree with much of the above. I love almost everything about the truck except the camp speaker. I use it very infrequently but even less than I would because it is always a pain to connect (and sometimes it won't). So it's just not worth it to me (even though I'd like to use it more). It may very well be me, but I don't have any difficulty connecting to various other Bluetooth speakers. Given all the amazing tech/software in the vehicle, I just find it odd that a Bluetooth speaker doesn't work well. Not a big deal but just not worth it.

 

[R1DEW/ME]

My experience is that it doesn’t ever power “off” to conserve battery. I can fully charge it, then the following day it will be dead. Makes me wonder if this is part of the phantom drain when car is sitting if speaker is docked.

I don’t know why this is, if it is off it shouldn’t lose its entire battery life overnight.

Once you understand the controls it isn’t too difficult to connect and figure out, sounds good for what it is, wish it would get louder based off how much it cost and its size compared to competitions. There are better options with longer life, louder, more features etc. for that 450 price tag.

If they can allow us to mute or turn off that loud ass boot up jingle, fix the phantom drain, and software wise increase max volume at least a couple db would be great. I haven’t noticed any clipping when it’s maxed currently.

I guess time will tell otherwise it’s a semi-practical souvenir

 

[flybone89]

Well I didn’t get to try my speaker right after delivery as it had an issue where it would not unlock and it could not be removed. So had to have that serviced first, but this weekend I used it for the first time while working on a yard project and it worked great! Nice full sound and when I left to run an errand, the phone reconnected when I returned and played fine. My only complaint is the volume is not very loud but my wife suspects that is by design - Rivian didn’t want to enable those less than courteous campers .

Fingers crossed it is not because it is new, but so far I like it and I’m glad I have it as we will use it a lot when we camp with our trailer.

 

[Groovian]

Rivian owners have no clue for sound. This speaker is a POS. You can get 100 percent better sound with a 200 dollar amazon speaker and get equal sound with a 30 dollar amazon speaker. The bass is crap, the loudness is mediocre. I'll sell mine. Send me a message.

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