News
AQ Audio debuts AirPlay-capable AQ SmartSpeaker
By Phil Dzikiy
News Editor, iLoungeGoogle+
Published: Tuesday, October 16, 2012
News Categories: iPod Accessories, iPad Accessories, iPhone Accessories
UK speaker company AQ Audio is making its US debut with the AQ SmartSpeaker ($179), a portable, wireless, AirPlay-compatible speaker. The AQ SmartSpeaker features one-touch AirPlay setup and—like other recent “PlayDirect” speakers—can also stream directly from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod by creating its own Wi-Fi network. As a standalone speaker, the AQ SmartSpeaker offers stereo sound from its two drivers. Additionally, two SmartSpeakers can be paired for left and right channel separation, and speakers can be placed around the house for multi-room audio.
More than 10 hours of AirPlay playback are possible with the integrated rechargeable battery. AQ SmartSpeaker is available now.
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1
i just don’t understand the hype about portable airplay-speakers. for home use, yes ok. but for portable use Wifi connection drains just too much battery.
I tested a bluetooth speaker and compared it to an airplay speaker. I let both play the same playlist for 5 hours. With the bluetooth speaker i still had 86% battery left on my iphone4, while with the airplay-speaker i only had 62%, thus airplay draining more than twice as much battery compared to bluetooth.
With bluetooth 4.0 and “low energy” profile this difference would be even bigger!
Posted by oluv on October 17, 2012 at 3:01 AM (PST)
2
What I don’t understand . . . Clean, cool design factor, but seldom is the charging paraphernalia illustrated by the manufacturer and especially and a negligently by the review publisher. I chatted online with AQ Audio yesterday after reading this PR blurb and never got a straight answer regarding the charging of a 4-pack of their speakers. Oh well.
Posted by Gregory J Thomas on October 19, 2012 at 5:43 AM (PST)
3
I can explain the “hype” quite easily: I listen to music from different PCs on my home network, and so bluetooth speakers are worthless to me. Furthermore, I have a big, old house, and so I either need to invest in a half dozen or more speakers (and the accompanying management), or I can just carry the speakers with me. This sort of speaker suits my needs very well (we can argue about audio quality and price separately, but as a concept, they’re great). And I hardly think I’m alone.
To be honest, Griffin’s Evolve speakers were/are the ideal solution (the charging base hooked directly to the output of one PC, which then became the music command center, plus it had a dock for iPod/iPhone playback; instead of Airplay, it broadcast its own radio signal - 900 MHz iirc), but they appear to have been a technological dead end (no updates or competitors 5+ years later), and the batteries in mine are dying, so Airplay it is. I might add that guests have always been impressed by the Evolves - not nec. the fidelity, but the tech and execution. Oh well.
Posted by JRoth on October 23, 2012 at 12:20 PM (PST)