powered speakers

People love sound bars for a lot of good reasons: they eliminate most of the wiring and setup hassles associated with traditional 5.1-channel home theaters, they don't take up a lot of space, they are less expensive than subwoofer/satellite packages, and since most sound bars are self-powered, you don't need to buy an AV receiver. A skinny sound bar positioned under a sleek display is certainly a more appealing solution than a 5.1 or even stereo pair of speakers. There's just one problem: sound bars can't fill a room with sound nearly as well as separate speakers can.… Read more

Judging by the number of e-mails I get on this subject, a lot of folks don't understand the difference between computer and hi-fi speakers. For example, how is an Audioengine A5+ ($399 a pair) functionally different from a PSB Alpha B1 speaker ($300 a pair)?… Read more

I've known about Adam Audio for a long time, but for one reason or another I never reviewed one of its speakers. Adam (Advanced Dynamic Audio Monitors) may have started as a pro sound company, but it now also makes audiophile speakers. To get a handle on their sound I started with Adam's least expensive model, the ARTist 3, a compact desktop monitor. The company was founded by physicist Klaus Heinz and electrical engineer Roland Stenz, in Berlin in 1999.

It was in the early 1980s when Heinz met Oskar Heil, a decade after the good doctor caused … Read more

I rarely get all that excited by the sound of iPod speakers, if only because you can so easily get better sound from a good set of desktop speakers. I've cited Audioengine's terrific little speakers many times in this blog, and I still love them, but there's a new speaker from Emotiva Pro, the airmotiv 4, and it's raised the sound quality benchmark for $399 per pair speakers.

Look at the pictures of the airmotiv 4 and you'll see it's missing something found on most speakers: a dome tweeter. In its place you'll … Read more

The Paradigm Shift A2 speaker can be used alone or in stereo pairs with iPods and other music players, desktop computers, home DJ decks, and game consoles.

The A2 is bi-amped, with one amp for the 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter, and another amp for the 5-inch, satin-anodized aluminum woofer. There are a total of 100 watts of power per speaker. Connectivity is a little unusual in that each speaker has stereo RCA and 3.5-mm minijack inputs and outputs. It is also compatible with AirPort Express. The speaker doesn't have a bass port; it's a sealed (acoustic suspension) … Read more

Atlantic Technology's WA-50 Wireless Audio System can transmit high-quality sound throughout your home, or out to your pool. The system accommodates up to three zones and eliminates the need to run long cables to subwoofers or amplified speaker systems.

I've heard these sorts of quality claims before, but this time it's for real. During my in-home trials, the WA-50 was noise-free and didn't suffer from any malfunctions. I first put the WA-50 into service transmitting sound from my Mac mini to my high-end stereo system. Setup took about two minutes, and the sound was really good, … Read more

I attended Meridian Audio's press event in its NYC office last Thursday, and came away impressed with the company's DSP3200 Digital Active Loudspeaker ($6,000 per pair).

The small, stand-mounted speaker was shown with a Sooloos Control 15 music server; the complete system was just a pair of speakers and the server. The elegant Control 15 touch-screen interface can access your collection of CDs and digital audio files, at full lossless quality.

High-end audio systems can be a little intimidating to use and can dominate a room, but the lifestyle-friendly Meridian-Sooloos combination is just the opposite. It's a music system, pure and simple. … Read more