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Get a wireless floor-standing speaker lamp for $129.99

This nifty home-audio accessory normally sells for three times the price. And it's new, not refurbished.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
3 min read
It's a lamp that doubles as a speaker. No, it's a speaker that doubles as a lamp! Call it what you want; it's cool!
It's a lamp that doubles as a speaker. No, it's a speaker that doubles as a lamp! Call it what you want; it's cool! 1SaleADay

And now for something completely different.

Need a wireless speaker to complete your home-theater surround system? How about a Pandora-friendly speaker for the living room? Maybe you're just tired of sitting in the dark.

Whatever the case, here's a product I didn't even know existed until this morning, but now feel I must have: today only, 1SaleADay has the Soundolier DUO-CP lamp with wireless speaker for $129.99, plus $4.99 for shipping.

The Soundolier has a list price of $379.99, and that's exactly what you'd pay for one at Amazon. Elsewhere I've seen it as low as $210 -- but nowhere near this price.

As you can see, it's one of those torchiere-style floor lamps, but with a built-in speaker that just happens to be wireless. Paired with the included Maestro wireless transmitter, you can beam audio to it from your stereo, MP3 player, smartphone, or whatever. Decor: saved!

Just to clarify, there will still be wires involved. The Maestro has both a 3.5mm stereo audio input, which you'd use to plug in, say, your smartphone, and actual speaker-wire inputs for use with a stereo receiver. But the lamp/speaker itself also has a 3.5mm line-in jack for direct connections.

The Soundolier employs a 5.25-inch speaker that's designed to deliver 360-degree sound, so in theory you can enjoy room-filling audio with just one of them. However, you can deploy two for true stereo sound, as each speaker can optionally be set to "left" or "right" channel.

The lamp features a black satin finish and foot-controlled power and dimmer switch. It runs on 100-watt incandescent bulbs.

Couple things. First, remember that this is a smallish speaker atop a metal pole, so it probably won't sound as good as a dedicated bookshelf or floor-standing speaker. It's probably fine for the rear position in a surround setup, but maybe insufficient for house-party duty.

Second, and more importantly, the Maestro is a 2.4GHz transmitter, meaning it may interfere with your home Wi-Fi network. Thankfully, there are four channels to choose from, but there's still the potential for trouble.

At $379.99 (plus another $80 for the transmitter, which is normally sold separately!), I wouldn't even consider buying this. At $129.99, Maestro included, I'm seriously tempted to try one out. Your thoughts?

Bonus deal: Need to re-up your security software subscription? Do it on the cheap: Newegg has Norton Internet Security 2013 2012 (three-user) for free after you redeem a $50 mail-in rebate (which comes in the form of a prepaid Visa card, so it's as good as cash). Norton may have sucked in the past, but now it's widely regarded as one of the best in its class -- even notoriously picky Newegg customers rated it four stars out of five.

Bonus deal No. 2: Today only, TigerDirect has the HannsG HK241DPB 24-inch LCD monitor for $129.99 shipped. That's a crazy-good price on a monitor with a 1080p native resolution, a 5ms response time, built-in speakers, and an average user rating of 4.5 stars.

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