Marsden Global

We saw WiFi speakers dominating the news at CES this year, and the trend shows no sights of abating. Not only are many of the big tech brands getting in on the action, but recently smaller startups have been leveraging crowdfunding to try out their own innovations in that product niche.



One of the newest contenders is Sugr Cube, which has already met its funding goal on Kickstarter. This WiFi speaker streams online music, but uses touch and motion controls rather than buttons. The product design is quite lovely, with a clean wood finish unmarked by buttons or cables. Listeners can control the speaker with their smartphones or with physical interactions with the device, such as tapping or tilting.

That is what I would like to have attached wirelessly to our TV. It is amazing what great sound we get now from little speakers.

Cheers

John

MoodyBlue wrote:It is amazing what great sound we get now from little speakers.

Agreed! Astounding. Especially considering the mechanics of a speaker hasn’t changed at all since it was first manufactured in 1861. It’s still a magnet moving an electrically charged coil.

Just a thought - when you're listening to NYTheSpirit we hope you're putting it through a great set of speakers/monitors (which is a studio word for speakers). We often say our fidelity is amazing. Because it is.

And if you have one of those cars with a dozen speakers - well you already know.

One.

Two.

Three.

True, there are many small speakers these days which can offer a satisfying experience in some environments. Domestic acceptability usually trumps sound quality.

The laws of physics have not changed, however. From 3 characteristics:
1- Real low bass performance
2- Small physical size
3- Good Efficiency (decent sound output without a huge amplifier)
... Choose any two. The third is mutually exclusive.

The attraction of these is an unobtrusive package, wireless connectivity, and a convenient user interface, it certainly isn't high fidelity. Unless you believe Bose-style marketing

I just had to add a quote from member Zvu, on the diyaudio board:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/258487-why-crossover-1-4khz-range-26.html

Message #255 excerpt:

"The degradation of sound that happened in last 30 years was followed by promoting the loudspeakers that were chosen by interior designers - not taking into consideration the sound itself but looks only. Some of the manufacturers managed to survive by making their design everything but ordinary (Bang&Olufsen) but many of them didn't. That is why we have once a great company in HiFi like JBL that survives today mostly on car audio. The things are looking better for HiFi in last couple of years i think but i'm affraid that we wont be seeing some small loudspeakers that plays as nice and with such authority like large ones. At the moment profit is everything and very little money is invested for researching the area of acoustics that is interesting to 20 or 30 thousand enthusiasts. Others are ready to take the looks before sound and as long the speakers as we know them are selling - things will stay the same."

I couldn't have said it better. And unlike Zvu, my first language is English.