About this replacement
Cleer Stage — 7.4V Li-ion Replacement Battery (ICR18650)
This is a 7.4V, 2600mAh Li-ion replacement battery for the Cleer Stage portable Bluetooth speaker. It uses ICR18650 cells wired in a 2S configuration to match the Stage's internal power rail. Swap it in when the original pack no longer holds a usable charge or fails to power the speaker at all.
- Cleer Stage fit: The Stage runs its amplifier and Bluetooth radio off a shared 7.4V rail. This pack matches that voltage, the cell format, and the connector orientation the Stage's charging circuit expects — no BMS handshake mismatch on reconnect.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran the pack through charge and discharge cycles on a cell analyser. The BMS engaged low-voltage cutoff cleanly and the pack accepted a full charge cycle without thermal event or charge-refusal from the protection circuit.
- Monthly discharge cycle for the Stage: The Stage is frequently used as a desk speaker and topped off before dropping below 50%. Let the speaker drain below 20% at least once a month before recharging — this recalibrates the fuel gauge and slows capacity fade on the ICR18650 cells.
Why the Cleer Stage cuts audio and dims the LED at high volume
At high volume, the Stage's amplifier draws peak current that combines with the Bluetooth radio draw. An aged or low-capacity pack sags under that combined load, and the BMS reads the voltage dip as a near-empty cell. The speaker's firmware interprets this as a low-battery condition and throttles output to protect the pack. A fresh 2600mAh pack at full charge holds enough voltage headroom to sustain the combined draw without triggering that cutoff.
Stage won't wake up from USB-C even after plugging in overnight
If the Stage has sat discharged for weeks, the ICR18650 cells can drop below the minimum acceptance voltage for the USB-C PD handshake — typically below 2.5V per cell. At that point the charger sees no valid negotiation and delivers no current, so the speaker appears completely dead even after a full night on charge. The fix is to use a basic 5V USB-A cable bypassing PD negotiation, or replace the pack entirely if the cells won't recover above 2.8V per cell after a recovery charge attempt.