The powered speakers club

[byakuya83]

Similar to the active thread; news, reviews etc.

Ruark Audio MR1 (5/5)

http://www.whathifi.com/review/mr1

Epoz Aktimate Micro (5/5)

http://www.whathifi.com/review/epoz-aktimate-micro

Audioengine A5 (4/5)

http://www.whathifi.com/review/audioengine-a5

Roth OLi POWA-5 (4/5)

http://www.whathifi.com/review/roth-oli-powa-5

Nocs NS2 Air Monitors

http://www.nocs.se/collections/all/products/ns2-air-monitors

Vanatoo Transparent One

http://www.vanatoo.com/

The integrated 60W per channel high efficiency amplifier and digital signal processor (DSP) are precisely “matched” with the speaker’s patented 5 ¼” woofers and 1″ silk dome tweeters to provide flat frequency response from 49Hz to 20KHz . People hearing our speakers for the first time often ask “Where is the subwoofer?”

 

[byakuya83]

Thought I would get the ball rolling :cheer:

 

[Deliriumbassist]

Those new Ruarks are surprisingly good. I got to listen to a pair when the rep was taking a set around to the dealers. Took a little bit of finding on the bluetooth side of things, but once they got playing, very impressed. Far better than the Monitor Audio WS1000, in my opinion.

 

[byakuya83]

They look fantastic in the picture. Glad to know they sound good too.

The WS100 appear to be active so I won't link them here.

 

[richardw42]

The optional battery pack, is a heck of a USP.

 

[AlmaataKZ]

Very good to have and maintain this kind of reference threads.

 

[altruistic.lemon]

Shouldn't we also have a passive speakers club too?

 

[bigboss]

I've got the Audioengine A2 which is brilliant for the money:

http://www.whathifi.com/review/a2

 

[byakuya83]

AL, who are you asking? Nobody is stopping you.

Powered speakers are scattered amongst various review categories so I thought this would be useful.

Focal XS Book (5/5)

http://www.whathifi.com/review/focal-xs-book

 

[davedotco]

Powered speakers come in all shapes and sizes.

Something very cheap that blows away any of the usual 'computer speakers' anywhere close to its price of just £79 pair, just plug and play.

http://www.studiospares.com/studio-monitors/alesis-m1-active-320-usb-pair/invt/385400?source=215_74&gclid=CI3tne-G8LgCFQ_LtAodaAUAlA

 

[byakuya83]

davedotco, thank you - very interesting speakers at a highly attractive price!

Paradigm Shift A2

http://www.paradigmshift.co.uk/powered-speakers/13-a2-power-speaker.html

http://hometheaterreview.com/paradigm-shift-series-a2-powered-loudspeaker-reviewed/

Slightly unsure if they're active or powered from the links.

 

[byakuya83]

Focal Easya - wireless, due October:

http://www.whathifi.com/news/focal-easya-wireless-speaker-system-due-in-october

Transmission from the hub to the speakers, which each have 85W of amplification onboard to drive two 13cm Polyglass mid/bass drivers and the company's new TNV2 inverted dome tweeter, uses the Kleer system to send separate signals to each channel.

Focal explains that an important part of the design was to have just one cable – for mains power – going to each speaker.

Kleer was the best way of attaining CD-standard 16-bit 44.1kHz sound quality without having to resort to a more conventional 'master and slave' speaker set-up, in which one speaker contains all the active electronics, and feeds the other enclosure via conventional speaker cable.

 

[byakuya83]

The Focal Easya received 4/5 in this month's magazine. From reading the review I got the impression they were a bit under-powered, lacking detail and punch.

 

[byakuya83]

http://www.kantoliving.com/product/audio/yumi

Similar in appearance and features to the Roth speakers above - slightly less power at 30 watts per channel.

 

[byakuya83]

Q Acoustic BT3

http://www.qacoustics.co.uk/q-acoustics-bt3-bluetooth-speakers.htm

These look very interesting although I could not find the technical specification. Various wired inputs in addition to Aptx Bluetooth.

 

[davedotco]

I find it interesting that both units should choose to go with Bluetooth rather than Airplay.

Price seems fairly competitive for a complete 'plug and play' solution though I do not see it appealing to the enthusiast market, but then that is probably not their aim.

 

[byakuya83]

I think at this price range the difference in lossy and non-lossy files isn't going to be that noticeable - the systems probably aren't revealing enough.

Bluetooth is available on Android and iOS whereas Airplay is not - I think there are now more Android devices in circulation than iOS.

 

[davedotco]

I think at this price range the difference in lossy and non-lossy files isn't going to be that noticeable - the systems probably aren't revealing enough. Bluetooth is available on Android and iOS whereas Airplay is not - I think there are now more Android devices in circulation than iOS.

You are probably quite right, though as an average punter in computing matters I always thought of Airplay as the 'quality' option...... :?

For smart, lifestyle systems I'm sure that Aptx is fine.

 

[clv101]

I'm interested in buying some of these powered speakers. I think I have my shortlist down to the Ruark Audio MR1 and Roth OLi POWA-5. I would go for the MR1 as they are a bit smaller, lighter, have than wonderful battery option and maybe sound better (anyone have an opinion on that?) but the fantastic connectivity options of the POWA-5 is likely to swing it that way. If only the MR1 had an optical in!

One thing I don't hear much about is the quality of the D to A converter in these powered speakers? Are they all generally good enough not to worry about?

 

[byakuya83]

http://eu.nocs.se/collections/all/products/ns2-air-monitors-v2

Updated NS2 by Nocs. Now with AirPlay, Bluetooth, and Spotify Connect.

In terms of D to A conversion, I think general consensus is that this has been mastered and can be carried out effectively with very cheap electronics. I don't think it's anything to be concerned about. Although there is a market for expensive DACs many aren't convinced they make a measurable difference.

 

[davedotco]

For a number of reasons the master/slave configuration has become the norm for powered speaker systems.

It is very straightforward to include all of the wireless, conventional connections, remote control, dac and amplifiers in one speaker with a simple passive slave for the other channel. Done well, by the likes of Nocs, Audio Engine, Q Acoustics and others this can give an extremely functional, easy to operate system that is as easy to use as an all in one, yet has the benefits of proper two speaker stereo.

The master slave configuration is almost always a powered rather than an active setup (AVI and Dali Kubik aside) and is a rather neat solution for a simple lifestyle/computer type system.

The only downside is that the products themselves are a bit over priced for the level of performance they achieve, they are not going to convince the enthusiast on SQ grounds and their pricing does not really make them a cheap option, but for a complete 'solution' they will appeal to a lot of people.

 

[byakuya83]

Agreed, like all-in-one systems, they are a good compromise and a neat solution. But perhaps not the best bang for buck when it comes to sound quality.

The Dali Ikon is different as I believe it only has one wall plug. Power is passed from one speaker to the other through the connection, I think.

What surprises me is that more of these products don't use software updates to later introduce new features. Especially all-in-one systems.

 

[davedotco]

Agreed, like all-in-one systems, they are a good compromise and a neat solution. But perhaps not the best bang for buck when it comes to sound quality.

The Dali Ikon is different as I believe it only has one wall plug. Power is passed from one speaker to the other through the connection, I think.

What surprises me is that more of these products don't use software updates to later introduce new features. Especially all-in-one systems.

The master/slave solutions I outlined above have all the electronics in one box, the second speaker is purely passive and connects to the amplifier in the master, often by standard speaker cable.

Like this...

The Dali Kubik ( I assume you mean that) is similar but unusual in that it is fully active, the Dali Free (the master) contains 4 x 25 watt amplifiers and connects to the Dali Extra (the slave) using a propriatory multi-way cable.

Fully active monitors with digital inputs are much rarer, they are normally individual self contained speakers with their own amplifiers and power cables, digital inputs are rare due to the 'latency' issue, the time taken for the digital converters to process the signal. A few models at affordable prices use a wired cable to link the speakers to gether and keep the dacs in sync, others just use the dac in one speaker and link to the secomd with an analog cable.

The only affordable digital active system I know of that uses low latency, high speed dacs are the range by Monkey Banana.