Single user, low-powered, and low-fidelity are common among today’s portable speakers and even if they are not, they are likely to cost an arm or a leg, or maybe both. It seems like music lovers’ fate is pretty much sealed; it is either you pay big money for high-quality audio or relegated yourself to your home if you want to enjoy awesome sonic quality. However, (very) long-time audio products maker, Axiom Audio is not about to let this be-all and end-all and AxiomAir you see here is the product that will help the 35-year-old Canadian outfit achieve that. AxiomAir may sounds like just another wireless speaker, but the truth be told, this speaker settles for nothing less.
It starts by doing away with Bluetooth technology which has drawbacks like limited range and the different versions resulting in inconsistent audio quality across devices. It uses WiFi as the primary source of wireless audio streaming, connecting to your home wireless network or if the lack thereof, it can creates its own WiFi hotspot and the party goes on. Under the hood, a high-quality digital-to-analog converter (DAC) capable of playing back 24bit/192kHz audio resolution pushes out high-fidelity sonic through a pair of 1” titanium dome tweeters and two 6.5” aluminum woofers, providing an incredible 150 watts RMS. That, my friend, is possibly the most powerful audio you could get out of a portable in today’s market, without sacrificing an arm or a leg (ok, maybe we exaggerated), if we might add, but we will come to that later.
Being WiFi-enabled, it means multiple people can playback music on their respective smartphones or tablets directly on AxiomAir with no library to mess with. But of course, a nightclub mixing of multiple tracks is not going to happen; so your friends will still have to get inline to playback their music of choice. Furthermore, it is multi-room-friendly too, allowing several AxiomAir in different rooms to be controlled individually or as groups from any smartphone, tablet, or computer. And did we mention that it is crooner-friendly too? Yup. You can set it up for your next Karaoke party, or use it as your meeting room sound system too. AxiomAir is offered in a choice of 9 or 18-hour built-in battery, but seeing that it supports charging of your gadgets through the three USB ports, we’d say the bigger the battery, the better cos’ you definitely don’t want those gadgets to suck the fun out of your party at the beach, right?
There is also a USB input which you can load in your music on a USB flash drive. While it may seem like those are features are what you may get if you are wiling to pay top dollars for high-end portables, AxiomAir serves up two unique features to further set itself apart. First, is the ability to customize the wood grain top to your desire and second, it has a Raspberry Pi micro-computer as the brains. This means it is hackable, well, sort of, providing an avenue for developers to program the speaker to their needs and requirements, and also allows the onboard software to be updated at a touch of a button whenever it is available.
If the AxiomAir Wireless WiFi Speaker sounds like music to your ears, you may want to consider pre-ordering one off Kickstarter for just $475, or $497 if the first 200 units run out (eventual retail price is nearly a grand, btw). There’s no worrying about funding status, if that’s on your mind cos’ AxiomAir has since surpassed its set funding goal, which means you can expect this 16 lbs (7.3 kg) new-age boombox at your doorstep sometime in October 2015.
submitted via TIP US page.
