A bit conflicted but…
This is a long review, apologies, but I’ve gone through a bit of an ordeal to ultimately get to a fairly positive experience, that I hope holds up over time. Sharing my experience so you can make an informed decision…
Within one year of owning this unit the remote totally stopped working for me. My experience was not going very well. I’ve never had a remote stop working for any product I’ve ever owned and Manta doesn’t offer a replacement for the remote. Bear in mind, I believe I ordered a very early unit, like right when it was first released. Felt it worth mentioning, because it seems as though they’ve made changes to the product from the unit I had, so hopefully you have a better experience than I. Even with a new battery the remote didn’t work. To remove the battery was fairly cumbersome. The steps were in the manual but it was not simple nor apparent how to do it. The unit itself performed fairly well overall when the remote was working. However, on like 3-5 occasions a voice that was unprompted would come out of the speaker. I forget what it said now. Maybe “connected” or “sleep timer off” but it woke me up a few times in the middle of the night. This is with having the dual speaker connected. The speakers were close to each other and within the recommended distance apart. I think the unprompted voice said something in relation to the sleep timer going off, when I never set it. So I don’t know why it happened. I reset it, but I’d guess the remote acting funny perhaps was the cause of this. I haven’t had the new system long enough to see if it’ll happen again. So far a few weeks in, thankfully it hasn’t happened, but I have not set-up / plugged the dual speaker in.
In terms of the remote, please note, my comments above might be a moot point now as it’s different from the initial unit I received. I contacted support and felt as though I had to push a bit for them to make the situation right, but they were kind enough to send me a new unit to replace my full order. They of course didn’t have to do that. I wish I could’ve just gotten a new remote, as everything else I believe was working fine, but that wasn’t possible.
As of writing this, I have not set up the dual speaker since I didn’t have a great experience with it initially in waking me up a few times. I don’t have faith that it won’t talk again, get disconnected or whatever prompted the speakers going off on their own. I imagine my review sounds quite negative, but wanted to paint a full picture and just share my honest experience. Overall I am happy with the support I received and grateful.
I have some of Manta’s other products and I am happy with how they work and have held up. For now, I am happy with the revamped controller that no longer needs a CR2450 battery and is usb-c powered. I hope it holds up much better. I am happy with the sounds, sound quality, volume and features it offers.
I give this 5 stars with some hesitancy, as I can’t say I have as much faith as I’d like that the unit will hold up over time and work properly, but I am encouraged by the changes with the remote and most notably that Manta’s support made the situation right. That’s really all one can ask for to be shown respect and treated as such. I’m not sure if I would recommend this unit. I need more time with it and hopefully without having any problems. I would still recommend Manta as a brand overall and they did restore my faith in their support. If you’re still reading, good luck and hope you can rest well.
