What Does An Underwater Speaker Sounds Like – Universal Orlando Surfside Inn – iPhone 11

How good does an Underwater Speaker sound? We created a video so you can hear what the Clark Synthesis AQ339 sounds like. Now you can judge for yourself. 

Most people expect underwater audio to sound awful, and most underwater sounds just don’t make it very clearly to human ears. Clark Synthesis is different, and I want to show you how the music sounds when played with a Clark Synthesis underwater speaker. I went to Universal Studio’s Surfside Inn & Suites and shot some video of the AQ339 Diluvio™ Underwater Loudspeaker.   

It should be simple the shoot the video. Put a camera in the water and start filming. Wow, was I mistaken. It wasn’t easy at all, inside and outside the water. The first obstacle I encountered was outside the water.  

I planned on shooting underwater first thing in the morning when the pool opened. I got out of bed, put on my swim trunks, and went down to the pool.  When I arrived, the music was off. I asked one of the workers when the music would start. He said that the person who turned on the music wouldn’t arrive for a couple of hours. I asked if someone else could turn it on, and I was very politely informed that the resort does not turn the music on until later for the benefit of guests. I presume it is to not disturb the sleeping guests whose rooms are next to the pool. 

When my day’s activities were completed, I returned to the resort. This time the music was playing and lots of people were in the pool. Now was my chance to shoot some underwater video. I took out my iPhone, went in the water, and started shooting. Here I ran into more problems. There was a strong current under the water. I admit that I was doing something very unusual in a swimming pool. I was attempting to hold an iPhone steady so I could keep the speaker in the center of the frame. Pool designers certainly didn’t take that into consideration. The moving water kept pushing and pulling against the phone’s body messing up the shot. I’m sure the current is from the big pumps in the filtration system. It took quite a few tries, but I finally was able to get some usable video.   

How good is the iPhone 11 for recording underwater audio? It’s does a good job. The quality of the audio approaches the quality of the actual audio, though there is some room for improvement. Hopefully, Apple will continue to improve the experience. Perhaps they could measure the underwater frequency response accuracy and add compensation for audio that is recorded underwater.