Sony's Sountina rattles our bones... sort of

If there's anywhere exactly wrong for displaying a speaker's prowess, it's in the middle of a tradeshow booth. The subtle musical stylings of Sony's ultra-high-concept Sountina speaker were a bit lost to us as our ears warred against the IFA drone, but what we could hear sounded just fine to us -- and there's no arguing with the looks. We kept expecting Tesla to jump out from behind a curtain and start spouting off about some free energy properties of the organic glass tweeter, but sadly walked away Tesla-free. If we were to make a value call about the sound, we'd say the mids were a bit of a no-show, while the smooth variances of the high-end were alright, but not life changing. But we won't.

Gallery: Sony's Sountina rattles our bones... sort of

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[zomg0t @ Aug 30th 2008 6:58AM]

But you did.

[gad get @ Aug 30th 2008 7:04AM]

Last time I believe Paul Miller.

[OneLove @ Aug 30th 2008 4:27PM]

I like picture 5 of 7 the best, 3 people are puzzled, 1 is bored and doesn't care.

[sam @ Jun 13th 2009 6:11PM]

wow Sony Sountina is very awesome , its revolutionary.........

great job sony... JAPAN>>>>>rest of the world..

.............

[zomg0t @ Aug 30th 2008 7:31AM]

A Sony fanboy, eh? Pretty rare on Engadget unless the article is about a console... I wouldn't exactly call Japan the greatest country in the world just because of some speaker...

[Jay @ Aug 30th 2008 7:58AM]

Yah, but I'd call Japan better than the rest of the world because of their game shows. Ninja Warrior!

[Azayzel @ Aug 30th 2008 9:33AM]

While the speaker may be "revolutionary," it's not really practical for a home theater... unless you like having your speaker in the middle of the room or next to your couch. While it does look nice and sounds pretty good too, I see it catching on about as much as the single-speaker sound bar that people have known about for a while now but no one actually owns... ok, maybe there are a few people with the sound bar but it's yet to replace a good 6.1 or 7.1 system like Bose or Sony's other micro-speaker setups.

BTW I've seen and listened to this thing a few times down in Ginza at the Sony Tower about two months ago.

[James Stubbs @ Aug 30th 2008 10:33AM]

I must admit these things are gawjus, is this going to be a consumer product? Can't imagine this in my front room.
@ Jay Takeshi's Castle!!

[Vince @ Aug 30th 2008 9:22AM]

What's funny is that when Engadget cuts Sony slack, no one peeps, but the second they say anything nice about Apple, everyone accuses them of being in His Steveness' pocket. How stupid is that?

Keep up the good work, guys. Oh, and if you ever need another staffer, I'm always available :D

[Mr. Ford @ Aug 30th 2008 6:29PM]

Don't be stupid. There is no way you can compare the 1 Sony post this decade to the 10,000 Apple posts daily. So you want the world to know you would die for Jobs, big deal. Get a fucking life. They accurately reported what they heard from the speaker. Based on the article, the speaker lacks in the mid range. How does this = cutting Sony some slack, unless saying the speaker doesn't sound so good is what you meant? By the way, I hate Sony products, so you can't chalk it up to fanboyism.

[Ryan Trevisol @ Aug 30th 2008 10:11AM]

For whatever reason, I read organic Grass tweeter. So you can hear all those rustling highs.

[Marty Winston @ Aug 30th 2008 10:38AM]

OK - so I'll run out and get a hot air corn popper, replace the heating element with a speaker and an amputated-handle sieve, nest a length of plexiglas sewer pipe, plop another speaker on top, run a wire down the middle and add a little SBL technology (Sexy Blue LEDs), then make sure nobody can hear it in a quiet room.

I know of only two other brands that use this level of trickery to let consumers think they're hearing something elegant that's just clowning at it: Bose and Bozo.

[Anthony @ Aug 30th 2008 11:32AM]

My fav's the guy on the left that don't give a f*.

[Rick @ Aug 30th 2008 11:36AM]

Sony (just like Honda) always comes out with these way out products that may work well but are rediculously over priced. They did this back in the early 80's with a line of high tech audiophile equipment Then Sony wondered why they didn't sell well.

[tai @ Aug 30th 2008 7:15PM]

Geez Paul, your 1st paragraph is so tech-hip-schizo-structured. Try editing?

[Russell @ Aug 31st 2008 3:08AM]

Sony is so far from high end audio it's not even funny... I guess you could compare it to Bose but that's crap too.


I'd take a Thiel or even Usher any day.

[Doug @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:55AM]

Yes, I agree, especially about Thiel, which I own....