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Klipsch Revives Popular ProMedia 2.1 Speakers with a Wireless Twist

Paul Lilly — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:51:37 -0600

For the most part, Klipsch bowed out of the multimedia computer speaker market a long time ago, leaving behind a rabid fan base hoping it would one day return. That day has come, sort of. Klipsch is back and has brought with it a new 2.1 speaker-set, or more accurately, a new twist on an existing 2.1 setup.

It's hard to believe Klipsch's original ProMedia 2.1 speakers have been around for almost a decade. The new ProMedia 2.1 Wireless purports to look and sound like the THX-certified original, only this time without the wires. Replacing them is a USB wireless transmitter that plugs into your notebook's USB port.

"Only a few simple steps are required to get the ProMedia Wireless up and running. Just plug, play, and enjoy the full sonic impact of your music, movies, and games without being tied down, "said Don Inmon, Klipsch director of product development for personal audio. "No router or installation software is needed."

Klipsch says the wireless range extends about 30 feet in a single room, making it deal for dorm rooms, offices, living rooms, or anywhere else you might tote your notebook.

The new speakers are only available direct from Klipsch for $199.

Image Credit: Klipsch

Logitech Speaker System Z520

Michael Brown — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:30:39 -0600

Damn-good cheap speakers

We haven’t auditioned many cheap speaker systems lately. Why? Well, let’s just say we don’t enjoy subjecting our ears to the sonic equivalent of waterboarding. But Logitech has a knack for packing big sound into inexpensive boxes, so we agreed to review its new two-channel Z520 system.

You’ll have to decide for yourself if the Z520 system’s $130 price tag really puts it in the “cheap” category, and we imagine the folks at Logitech will cringe to hear us describe them as such; but you can cut only so many corners before we begin to ask, “Why bother?” Judging by these speakers’ performance, Logitech’s engineers know just how low they can go.

When we see small speakers, we usually pigeon-hole them as near-field monitors: short-throw speakers that produce a small stereo soundstage that collapses as soon as you move more than three feet away from the cabinets. There’s nothing inherently wrong with near-fields, especially in a PC environment, but they have their limitations. So we were surprised to hear Logitech boast that the Z520 could provide a “great listening experience throughout the room.” We decided to put that claim to the test as soon as we took the speakers out of the box.

An auxilary input on the side of the right cabinet can accommodate an MP3 player; there's a headphone output there, too.

We connected the set to Asus’s kick-ass two-channel soundcard, the Xonar Essence STX, which meant we had to find an adapter to convert the speakers’ six-foot hardwired cable. The cable ends in a 1/8-inch stereo plug, but the soundcard’s jacks are stereo RCA. The six-foot cable connecting the left speaker cabinet to the right, which houses the amp, is hardwired to the left cabinet. We realize that renders setup fairly idiot-proof, but it also limits where you can put the speakers.

We played a number of tracks that we’d ripped from CD and encoded in FLAC, starting with an old favorite: Joe Jackson’s “Rant and Rave” from his Blaze of Glory release. We expected the speakers to be bright, since there’s no subwoofer (and no way to add one), but we were pleasantly surprised with their range and definition. Listen to a song like this on most inexpensive speaker systems and the acoustic piano, horns, and vocals will peel your ear drums. The Z520 produced the congas, acoustic piano, trumpet, and vocal as thoroughly distinct elements. The system even delivered respectable bass response from its three-inch woofers, without having to resort to devices such as reflex ports and passive radiators. The cabinets are fabricated from thick plastic and flare out with a wide bottom that renders them very stable. There’s not enough bass here to satisfy hardcore gamers or movie buffs; but for the price, we think most music listeners will be satisfied.

The Z520’s integrated amp produces just 26 watts per channel, so don’t expect it to fill a large room with sound, especially if you’re throwing a party. With the volume control knob turned about three-quarters full, however, it did manage to fill our 14x8-foot home office. But the speaker’s ability to present a stereo image almost anywhere in the room is what really impressed us; in fact, the soundstage didn’t begin to decay until we were standing at a nearly 90-degree angle to the speakers. Remarkable.

New Logitech Speakers Spray Sound Pretty Much Everywhere

Paul Lilly — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:30:36 -0500

Logitech this week announced four new multimedia speaker sets, each one touting 360-Degree Sound, otherwise known as omnidirectional acoustics. These include the Logitech Z320, Z323, Z520, and Z523.

Unlike standard speakers with forward-firing drivers, all four sets boast both forward- and backward-firing drivers in each satellite. According to Logitech, this creates a substantially wider sweet spot and comes as a boon to anyone who struts around their office.

"Many PC speakers focus sound in one direction, which is fine if you're always sitting in the same spot," said Mark Schneider, vice president and general manager of Logitech's audio business unit. "But now with 360-Degree Sound, whether you're listening to your favorite song on iTunes, watching a video on YouTube, or playing your favorite game, you can enjoy rich sound and minimal distortion throughout your room."

The Z523 and Z323 are 2.1 speaker sets with a 6.5-inch down-firing subwoofer, with the former pushing 40W of power and the latter pushing 30W. The Z520 and Z320 take it down a notch by discarding the subwoofer and pushing 26W (Z520) and 10W (Z320).

Interestingly, Logitech has priced both the Z320 and Z323 at $70. These will be available starting in August (Z320) and September (Z323). Equally interesting, the Z532 is expected to be available this month for $100, while the sub-less Z520 will be available this month for $130.

Image Credit: Logitech

Researchers Design Paper Thin Speakers

Justin Kerr — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:07:17 -0500

A Taiwanese based research group has developed a speaker technology that can be worked into paper allowing for ultra thin devices, or even talking posters. "A lot of companies are interested in this product," said Chen Ming-daw, a research director at ITRI. "We don't have enough people to handle all the attention right now."

The new technology is being called Flexspeaker because in addition to being paper thin, it can also be rolled up or folded. Right now the goal for minimum sheet size is around 23.6” by 17.3”, and would cost roughly $20 USD each. Unfortunately this is too large to be used in our magazine, but that doesn't stop us from dreaming of the day when our pages can sing “Still Subscribe” to our beloved readers.

According to the researchers, the paper is made by sandwiching thin electrodes that receive audio signals and a pre-polarized diaphragm into the paper structure. Right now an adapter is required between the sound source and the paper, but plans are in the works to allow any stereo source to connect directly to the paper or even wirelessly over bluetooth. The primary limitation of the speakers at this point, is that they have problems with sounds below 500hz. This means that the heavenly baritones of our very own Nathan Edwards would need to be augmented by adding a subwoofer.

Where can you see this technology being used?

Focal-JMlab Focal XS Multimedia Sound System

Michael Brown — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:45:52 -0600

Never content to leave well enough alone, we’ve spent a lot of time looking for an audio system that could topple B&W’s mighty Zeppelin off its perch as our favorite iPod sound system. And now we've finally found it -- in Focal-JMlab’s Focal XS Multimedia Sound System.

The Focal XS is the logical follow-up to Focal’s awesome iCub powered subwoofer, which had a 2.1-channel amplifier but didn’t come with satellite speakers. The new system includes not only a pair of excellent near-field satellites, but also an integrated iPod dock and a USB interface so you can sync your iPod to iTunes, and convert digital audio from your PC’s USB port.

To be entirely fair to the Zeppelin, these two devices are really designed for different applications: Where the Zeppelin system is designed to fill a room with sound, the Focal XS is more of a near-field system that’s best enjoyed when you’re sitting in close proximity to it. And that probably explains why, unlike the Zeppelin, the Focal XS does not have an analog video output that would allow you to watch movies stored on your iPod on your big-screen TV.

An amp in the Focal XS’s subwoofer cabinet puts out 30 watts to each of the satellite speakers and 70 watts to the sub. The Focal iCub’s amp, by comparison, produces 75 and 150 watts, respectively. The Zeppelin’s amp, meanwhile, sends 25 watts to its full-range speakers and 50 watts to its sub.

The satellites in the Focal XS are two-way speakers with 3-inch mid-range paper cone drivers and 0.75-inch mylar dome tweeters; the sub features a 6.5-inch paper cone. The satellites are permanently mounted to anodized aluminum stands that put the drivers just about at ear level when placed on a desktop. Hard-wired cables, each about five feet long, connect the satellites to the subwoofer cabinet.

A dock in the base of the right satellite can host and recharge an iPod, or you can plug the analog output of any other audio device into the dock’s 1/8-inch aux input. You can also pipe digital audio from your PC to the speakers via a USB cable, using the Focal XS’s integrated Burr-Brown DAC. Connect the dock to your PC, push a button on the back of the base, and you can synch the iPod to your iTunes library.

When not in synch mode, you can use either the iPod’s control wheel or the wireless remote control to play your tunes. The remote has buttons for power, volume, play/pause, and skip forward/back, as well as a magnetic back that can “stick” to the speaker stand. An on/off switch and a set of volume control buttons are also located in the right-hand channel’s base.

The subwoofer is a down-firing design with a large vent in front and an independent volume control. It doesn’t put out the gut-punching bass of the iCub, but it’s easily the Zeppelin’s equal. The Focal XS’s $600 price tag matches the Zeppelin’s sticker, but is $150 lower than the iCub’s.

Listening to good self-powered speakers isn’t about loudness, it’s about definition. The Focal XS system proved to be adept at sussing out all the complex layers of acoustic and electronic instrumentation present in the tracks that make up the spectacular 2001 recording "Global A Go-Go," from Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros (we ripped the CD and encoded to Apple Lossless for the iPod and FLAC for the PC).

We were particularly impressed with the system’s performance with “Bhindee Bhagee.” This high-energy track has so much going on (vocals, flute, violin, guitars, Wurlizter, and numerous effects processors) that it can devolve into a distorted mish-mash on lesser systems. It sounded positively glorious on the Focal XS.

G2 Microsystems Showcases Intel My WiFi Personal Area Network

Pulkit Chandna — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 09:13:39 -0600

G2 Microsystems has pioneered a new technology that will allow devices like headphones, speakers and other WiFi devices to directly communicate with notebooks Intel Centrino 2 chips. The company’s WiFi networking module can be planted inside consumer devices to allow them to connect to Intel My WiFi-enabled computers without the use of access points.

The technology promises to make tasks “such as wireless printing and synchronization between a digital photo frame and your photo archives” less onerous, according to the company’s founder and CEO Geoff Smith.

With the advent of Intel My WiFi Personal Area Networks, made possible by G2 Microsystems, WiFi has sneaked into Bluetooth’s territory.

Carbon Nanotubes may be the Secret to New Generation of Flat Speakers

Andy Salisbury — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:01:43 -0600

According to Chinese researchers, sheets made of carbon nanotubes will act like a loudspeaker when charged with a varying electric current. This discovery could lead to a new era of cheap, flat speakers.

Shoushan Fan of the Tsinghua University in Beijing and his team have been working alongside a team of researchers at Beijing Normal University (a name that truly inspires confidence), to create the first speaker sheet by aligning numerous 10-nanometer-diameter carbon nanotubes. When an audio frequency current was sent through the sheet they found that it acted as a loudspeaker. While the reaction causes the sheet to heat up to temperatures of 80°C, it’s expected that consumer use will only cause the sheet to rise slightly above room temperature.

According to Kaili Jiang, a member of Fan’s team, the speakers have a great deal of potential in them for uses that you wouldn’t see from a conventional speaker. The team has found that the flexible sheets can be stretched until they become transparent. They could then be attached to the front of an LCD screen to replace standard speakers. They even mentioned the possibility of singing and speaking jackets.

Image Credit: New Scientist

EOS Wireless Multi-Room Audio System

Michael Brown — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:38:03 -0500

It’s usually a bad sign when the first feature a manufacturer mentions about their new product is its low price tag. The EOS Wireless Multi-Room Audio System starter system includes the base unit with an iPod dock and speakers, a remote control, and one satellite speaker. The price? Just $250, and you can add up to three more satellites for $130 each. It must sound like crap, right? Well, it’s definitely not high fidelity, but neither is it rubbish.

Plug your iPod into the base station’s dock (or plug any other stereo source into its auxiliary input) and you can listen to your music on the built-in speakers and stream it to any other room in your house. The manufacturer claims the device has a range of 150 feet, and they sent us four additional satellite speakers so we could set up a full system. The fact that you can buy a whole-house audio system—including speakers—for just $770 and set it up in less than 20 minutes is nothing short of remarkable.

We had no problems reaching any room inside the house and on a screened patio but experienced occasional dropouts when we moved one satellite into the garage, which was about 85 feet from the base station (with the signal passing through four insulated walls (the first of which is partially covered with masonry and the last of which is a double-thick firewall). Flipping the range extender switch on the base station solved the problem with the garage, but this increases the delay from 20 milliseconds to 64ms and causes an echo effect with speakers closer to the base station (an effect you won’t notice unless the satellites are within ear shot of the base).

The system operates on the 2.4GHz frequency band using digital spread-spectrum technology, but its automatic frequency-hopping capability didn’t render it immune to the perils of a microwave oven. When powered on, the oven disrupted the signal to any satellite speaker operating in the same room; it also caused the speaker in the garage to drop out.

The system comes with a limited-function, credit-card-sized remote that will control the base-station’s amplifier volume (including mute) and the iPod’s play/pause and track-forward/track-back buttons. The remote doesn’t control the volume of the amps in the satellite speakers, and unlike Soundcast’s superior-sounding (albeit much pricier) SpeakerCast and OutCast products, there’s no way to control a docked iPod from the satellite speakers, either. In fact, the combo volume-control/power switch is the only control mechanism to be found on the satellites.

The satellite speakers are ingeniously designed so that you can hang them on the wall by simply plugging them into an electrical outlet. This obviously doesn’t put the speakers in an optimal position for critical listening, but the sound quality is such that you won’t be doing much of that anyway. You can also detach the power supply if you’d rather place the speaker on a bookshelf or table top, but be aware that the electrical cord is a scant three feet long.

We’ve obviously taken a long time to get around to talking about the EOS system’s audio quality, but we’ve laid enough hints that anyone unwilling to sacrifice audio quality for price or convenience has most likely made up their mind about the product: This is not an audiophile system.

The base station and each of the satellites has two one-inch neodymium tweeters and a three-inch paper-cone woofer. The amp is small (delivering just five watts RMS to each channel), but it’s relatively efficient and puts out enough volume to fill a small room (pushing it hard results in clipping and unpleasant distortion). It’s also somewhat noisy, producing detectable hiss at higher levels. Our biggest disappointment, however, is the fact that the included SRS Wow signal processing can’t be defeated. That won’t be a problem if you like the wider soundstage and other “enhanced” effects that Wow promises to deliver, but we generally don’t appreciate such sonic manipulation.

If you want a high-quality multiroom audio system, pair a Sonos or a Squeezebox with some great bookshelf speakers. But be aware that doing that for two rooms will cost as much or more than a five-room EOS configuration. If all you’re looking for is background music in up to five rooms, give the EOS shot: It’s a better product than it’s low price tag might lead you to believe.