The Fender Elie 12 is part boombox, part amp. At $399, it's priced to compete against powerful outdoor-friendly speakers like the Sony ULT Field 7. Surprisingly, given its smaller size and weight, the Elie 12 rivals Sony’s speaker on bass depth, proving it’s a respectable way to get your party started—especially considering its ability to double as an amplifier for a guitar or microphone. The ULT Field 7 remains our Editors' Choice for its longer battery life, fun lighting, and more weatherproof build, but the Elie 12 is a compelling buy if its design and features speak to you.

Design: A Clean-Looking Box

The Elie 12 is almost elegant in its simplicity. It’s a 7-by-11-by-6-inch (HWD), 8.8-pound box with little design flair, save the leatherette-wrapped bar handle and woodgrain panel on top. The boxy design makes the uneven seams between panels stand out a bit, but they’re not overly distracting and don't appear to compromise the speaker's IP54-rated water and dust resistance.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

The speaker has a built-in swiveling handle that’s comfortable to hold, though Fender missed an opportunity to give it extra utility by adding a way to prop the speaker up at an angle. Technically speaking, it will prop it up and angle it, but it’s far too leaned back to be useful in most situations and would rest one hard edge at its base. Otherwise, the speaker sits upright on four small rubber feet at the base.

On top, the speaker includes a hardware volume dial that also serves as its power switch. As nice as it is to see a volume dial with actual limits at each end, this one is a little pesky. Adjusting the volume on a connected phone changes the volume coming out of the speaker, but you can’t increase it beyond the level set by the dial. Despite being a physical knob, this volume dial doesn’t appear to be a direct analog control either. After making a quick adjustment on the volume dial, there is a noticeable delay before the sound level actually changes, so making quick adjustments is more time-consuming than necessary. Finally, the dial really ramps up in the last third of its range. I found myself dialing the speaker up to almost 70% just to comfortably hear podcasts while working out. Meanwhile, at 100%, I could quickly get a headache from how loud it is.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

This main volume dial is set next to a play/pause button and Bluetooth pairing button, above which is a helpful, four-bar battery indicator. There are no other playback controls, and the play/pause button only handles those functions. Further to the right is an additional cluster of controls. These include a mode switch for single-speaker use, a dual-speaker stereo mode, a multi-speaker mode, and bass and treble adjustment dials. There’s also a dedicated volume dial and input switch for the XLR/quarter-inch combo jack on the back of the speaker. That second dial serves as a sort of gain knob while the switch lets you select the appropriate input type: microphone, instrument, or line level. Sound from this wired source isn’t affected by the treble and bass dials.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

The rear of the speaker has a few more ports and controls. For the wired input, you'll find a 48V phantom-power trigger and a Pad button to reduce the input signal by 14dB. The rear also includes two buttons for setting up special low-latency wireless connections to microphone accessories that Fender plans to launch in the future. There’s also a 3.5mm line-out.

The speaker features USB-C charging for its 37.72Wh battery, which is rated to run for up to 15 hours, and it performed on track for that target in testing. From empty, the speaker can quick-charge in 15 minutes to provide two hours of playback using a 20V/1.5A charger and can fully recharge in just under two hours. The battery can also power external devices via reverse charging.

Internally, the Elie 12 combines six drivers to deliver a maximum output of 120W. It has two tweeters, two full-range drivers, and two subwoofers. Fender splits these into separate chambers; the tweeters and full-range drivers appear to sit behind the simple dot-grid grille, while the subwoofers fire out of the bottom of the speaker.

It connects over Bluetooth 5.3 and supports multipoint. Supported codecs include SBC, AAC, LC3, and—though not mentioned in its specifications—LHDC. 

Sound Quality: Beefy Bass, With Treble That’s a Little Too Crisp

The Elie 12 definitely has enough might to get the party started. On The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the Elie 12 kicks off the track well with punchy bass triplets, and it happily hits the sub-bass quarter notes that underline the tune. When the synth melody comes in, it has enough upper-mids to give them the bite they call for. The tweeters' brilliance helps liven up the cymbals. The speakers don’t do the vocal harmonies justice. Neither harmony stands out well, and the stereo phasing effect isn’t effectively rendered. This stems from limited separation. The speaker just doesn’t make it easy to pick out different parts. Subtle flavor elements of the track are lost in the background behind louder notes.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

When it comes to depth, the Elie 12 goes beyond expectations. A lot of speakers struggle to deliver the deep sub-bass of Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty,” but the Elie 12 digs deep. It still only hits about half of the notes, but even that’s impressive, and it does it with an energy that’ll have you feeling the tremors. “Loyalty” does highlight the harsher quality of the speaker. The vocals and Bruno Mars samples are a little too bright. Rolling off the treble knob helps a little, but even dialed back all the way, that upper-mids/low-treble range remains troublesome.

Bill Callahan’s “Drover” further highlights this quality. While Callahan’s baritone vocals are good and hefty, there’s a bit of undue sibilance in his voice. The recording's static background is also too clear, and the cymbal hits are a bit too harsh. This adds a little extra twang to the acoustic and electric guitars. Conversely, the electric guitar is held back by the lack of stereo separation, as is the fiddle in turn. Even with the hefty bass, the speaker avoids getting overly thunderous during the climax of the tune, though.

The Elie 12’s lack of nuance makes it a poor match for orchestral music like John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary. The presentation is muddied a bit by the strong bass and lack of stereo separation, which crowds the lower registers (something that’s not helped by the recording's acoustics). The strings and brass enjoy a bright presentation, though they can still get a little too much emphasis.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

While the Elie 12 does a good job of staying in line, even at full volume, the speaker is a little too happy to overdo its low end. It doesn’t quite distort, so digital signal processing appears to be keeping the levels in check at least that much, but the sub-bass quarter notes in “Silent Shout” can go from tight and controlled to muddy and overly sustained.

XLR Input: Plug It in and Turn It Up

Since the Elie 12 also works as an amp of sorts, I tested it by plugging in a couple of guitars to jam alongside music over Bluetooth. It certainly works for the task, but it’s not going to replace a dedicated amp. There’s no flavoring your instrument outside of its own knobs or pre-amp, nor is there any gain to get overdrive. So you’ll be looking at a very clean, vanilla tone unless you plug in a pedal. It’s not bad for acoustic guitar, though I found that even with the presence dialed all the way down on my acoustic, the speaker was still playing a lot of string dynamics, which really accentuated any sloppy playing (a fair bit in my case). The speaker did a good job avoiding feedback, even with the guitar just a couple of feet away.