Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross review

If looks could kill, the Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross would be facing life without parole, with a psychoanalytic Netflix documentary well underway. This mid-sized Bluetooth speaker is the bigger brother of the equally charming Fender x Teufel Rockster Go 2, but with even more of a rockstar edge. The Go 2 is doubtless a looker, but its circular speaker intake results in a more cutesy soft-rock style. The Rockster Cross meanwhile, designed to look like the top of an amp stack, is a tad more metal — less Buddy, more Ozzy.

But does the Rockster Cross’ performance match its persona, or is its face just begging for a bottle of urine? Well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. With decent bass, room-filling sound, premium build quality and, of course, ravishing good looks, the Rockster Cross does a lot to justify its mid-range price tag.

Like any rockstar though, this speaker is a flawed beast. It isn’t exactly cheap, yet offers no EQ or companion app, and while loud and fairly bassy, its sound isn’t all that refined. Does it do enough to mix it with the best Bluetooth speakers around? Find out in my Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross review.

Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross review: Specs

Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross review: Price & availability

• Mid-range price
• Not available in U.K.

The Rockster Cross costs $249 at Amazon U.S. or the Teufel website. Teufel is a German brand, so the speaker is also available in the E.U., where it costs €349 and lacks the Fender branding.

Apparently, “unclear trade conditions” mean the speaker isn’t available in the U.K., which I find a little odd given it’s now, oh, 2025, and virtually every other worldwide brand and courier has figured out post-Brexit customs and shipping. Smells to me like laziness on Teufel’s part, but whatever — if Teufel doesn’t want to sell to us flighty Brits, that’s its prerogative.

$249 makes the Cross significantly cheaper than premium speakers like the Sonos Move 2 ($449), our favorite Bluetooth speaker. It’s priced not too far from the JBL Xtreme 4 ($329), which packs better waterproofing, longer battery life, and is half the weight — although doesn’t look anywhere near as cool. And on that note…

Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross review: Design & controls

• Rockstar looks
• Premium rugged build
• IPX5 rated

Perhaps the Rockster Cross’ biggest draw is its aesthetic. It’s the Black-Label-swigging, Marlboro-Red-smoking bad boy of the Bluetooth speaker market. From its amp-like steel grille to the classic Fender branding, the Rockster Cross is as effortlessly cool as they come. While its little brother the Rockster Go 2 looks good, the grown-up Cross is the complete package.

Similarly alternative vibes can be found with the beautiful Marshall Emberton III ($149) — some friends of mine actually own the Emberton, and I’d been eyeing it up with more than a little envy for some time before getting the Rockster. It’s safe to say though, I now coveteth my neighbour’s Bluetooth speaker no more.

The Rockster Cross is constructed from premium materials, too. With its tough, grippy rubber exterior and chunky buttons, plus some serious heft, this thing is built to last. I even dropped the speaker from waist height onto concrete, leaving a small battle scar but inflicting no serious damage. It comes with a guitar-style, Fender-branded shoulder strap, which you’ll definitely need if lugging the speaker around for a day, given it tips the scale at over 9lbs and measures 15 x 6 x 5 inches. There are deep recessed grab handles for better grip, too, and yet Oafy McGee here still managed to drop the thing.

The speaker is IPX5 rated, so you can take it out in the rain, but don’t go too rockstar and try submerging it Rolls-Royce-stylee in any swimming pools.

The back edge of the speaker base is beveled, with rear feet that angle correspondingly upwards at the back. This allows the unit to be rocked backward (i.e. pointed diagonally upwards) to emphasize mids and treble, according to Teufel.

The Cross’ controls are simple, with power, connectivity and playback buttons on the rear of the speaker, as well as a handy set of lights to display charge status. Below those are ports for external device charging (USB-A) and DC power, plus a 3.5mm jack, all under weather-sealed flaps — these prove rather tricky to un-flap with short nails, although this is a relatively minor issue. There’s no app for remote controls however, which is a much less minor complaint, especially given this also means no EQ (but more on that later).

Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross review: Connectivity

• Bluetooth 5.0
• Stereo mode
• No smartphone app

The Rockster Cross features Bluetooth 5.0, rather than Bluetooth 5.3 as you’ll find in the JBL Xtreme 4 and even the little Rockster Go 2. Bluetooth’s later 5.X iterations provide better stability, lower latency and optimizations for lower energy consumption audio codecs, so they’re objectively better. However, data transfer rates are the same, so you won’t be missing out sound-quality-wise with 5.0.

Teufel doesn’t specify a connectivity range, but in testing, it held a connection for around 85 feet as the crow flies, albeit with walls and interruptions between the speaker and my phone. You should be able to hold a connection from the other side of your home or garden.

The Rockster Cross features a Stereo mode for hookup with another Cross for a wider sound, although Teufel didn’t send us a second unit to test this.

There is also no app for smartphone control and tweaking settings, which is a major disappointment, and something you should expect from speakers at this price point. The JBL Xtreme 4 ($329), Ultimate Ears Everboom ($229) and Sonos Roam 2 ($179) all have apps. Hell, even the budget Tribit XSound Plus 2 ($69) comes with an app and custom EQ.

Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross review: Audio performance

• Big sound
• Strong bass
• Muddy mids and treble
• No EQ

The Rockster Cross features a 5-inch subwoofer and two ¾-inch tweeters. It puts out plenty of sound: enough to fill a large room or outdoor space and soundtrack a medium-sized gathering. I took the speaker with me to visit some friends, and the Cross relayed the music all evening above the din of our merrymaking.

In terms of sound-quality, well, it sounds like a mid-range speaker. It isn’t terrible, nor will it blow you away with fidelity. I tested the speaker with a variety of songs from our Tom’s Guide testing playlist on Spotify.

Bass performance is very respectable. The pounding bassline of Jay-Z’s Can’t Knock The Hustle was warm and generally clean, with a little distortion audible in the opening heartbeat sequence but nowhere else. I then played some drum and bass, where Breaking Again by Foreign Concept sounded pretty good, with the Rockster Cross hammering out the mids of the kick drum in polished fashion. Again, the bassline was rich and warm, although higher frequencies weren’t particularly sharp, so I rocked the speaker backwards as Teufel recommends, which helped a little but washed out the lower frequencies in return.

To properly test out the 5-inch subwoofer, I played a couple of sub-bass-heavy tracks: the moderately sub-bassy Ikigai by Burn Water and the almost entirely sub-bass Sub Island by Skream. The Rockster Go put in a very impressive performance, shaking things around on the tabletop during Sub Island. There wasn’t the thick, all-encompassing bass sound as you’ll hear from the foundation-rattling Brane X ($499), but hell, anything that’ll play Sub Island properly is good with me.

Given the Rockster is a bit of a rockstar, I then pivoted to some alternative tracks. Truth Hits Everybody by The Police sounded pretty good: Stewart Copeland’s high hats weren’t overly piercing, and were discernible above Sting’s banshee wails and Andy Summers’ scratchy Strat’ riff. Highs didn’t feel especially crisp, though, and everything but bass felt a little muted.

In busier songs, everything gets rather muddled again. The distortion-heavy, sludgy riffs of Honey Bucket by Melvins and The Four Horsemen by Metallica felt lost among basslines, and weren’t particularly pleasant to listen to.

Essentially, the Rockster Cross puts out some big sound, with strong bass, but gets pretty scrambled elsewhere and is just crying out for a companion app and EQ to help clear up those mids and trebles. My money would go on the JBL Xtreme 4 thanks to its strong bass performance and custom EQ. If you’re able to though, I’d advise stretching to the Sonos Move 2 ($449) or Bose Soundlink Max ($399) — both of which produce a much more refined sound out of the box.

Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross review: Battery life

• 16 hour battery life
• Power bank function

The Rockster Cross will net you 16 hours of playback from a single charge, according to Teufel, which bore out in testing. On the visit to my friends mentioned above, the speaker was going for a good 6-8 hours, and came away with around half its charge remaining.

Not that 16 hours is particularly impressive for the money, though. While more than enough for my uses, it’s 8 hours short of the smaller and similarly-priced JBL Xtreme 4, and 12 hours short of its little brother, the Rockster Go 2. If you can splash out another $150-$200, the Sonos Move 2 will play for 24 hours; the Bose Soundlink Max for 20.

The Rockster Cross 2 also doubles up as a powerbank, like the JBL Xtreme 4, and features a USB-A port on its backside for charging up phones and other devices.

Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross review: Verdict

The Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross is a decent speaker. I mean, if you simply want something to draw all the attention at parties and fill the room with sound while doing so, it’s perfect. It’s also well crafted, bass performance is excellent, and it offers a stereo mode for widening the sound even further.

For the money, though, it’s difficult to recommend the Cross over our favorite mid-range speakers. It doesn’t come with a companion app or EQ, which is something you can find even on budget alternatives. For just a little more cash, the JBL Xtreme 4 packs longer battery life, better waterproofing, similarly respectable bass and an equally large sound, making it a much easier recommendation. At the end of the day, the Rockster Cross is a typical bad boy: easy to fall for, but trickier to live with.