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Urbanears made a smaller, $199 version of its connected speaker
Urbanears' first batch of Connected Speakers were clever, packing AirPlay, Chromecast and Spotify Connect into colorful boxes you wouldn't mind putting on display. There was one main problem, though: at a minimum of $350, you were paying a lot for the privilege. Enter the company's just-unveiled Lotsen: the new speaker is considerably smaller and drops the price to $199, all the while offering the same multi-room audio (and Bluetooth) as the larger Baggen and Stammen. It promises "well-balanced" sound for small- to mid-sized rooms and is meant to sit on corner tables and other areas where its bigger siblings might be intrusive.
Urbanears built AirPlay and Chromecast into its WiFi speakers
The last time we covered Urbanears, the company was hawking headphones with quilted padding. Now, some six years later it's getting into the crowded wireless speaker game. Long story short, the Connected Speakers are colorful noise boxes that you can network together for multi-room sound; you can set them to play the same track in sync, or separate ones. Each unit has Airplay, Chromecast and Spotify Connect capabilities built in too, so blasting Papa Roach's "Last Resort" from every room while you're trying to argue for an unpopular rule-change at your house should be pretty easy. If you want to kick it old-school beyond your song selection, there's Bluetooth connectivity and an aux port too.
How Sonos made the new Playbase sound a lot better than it should
Amazon upended the home speaker space with the Echo, causing other companies to start figuring out voice control systems of their own. Sonos, which has made WiFi-enabled speakers for years, has repeatedly reassured customers that it, too, would eventually offer voice connectivity. And yet, somewhat surprisingly, Sonos' newest product has nothing to do with voice control. Instead, the company's first device since 2015's Play:5 speaker is its second attempt at simple, excellent home theater audio. Sonos already sells the Playbar, a wireless three-channel speaker meant to be mounted to the wall below your HDTV, but today it launched another product that does the same job in a completely different form factor. The $699 Playbase is a massive wide and narrow speaker that looks like a Play:5 after it's been run over by a steamroller.
Parrot's Zikmu Solo speaker goes Duo, two make a pair over WiFi
It was only last October when we took a close look at Parrot's new Zikmu Solo (as well as chatting up CEO Henri Seydoux, pictured above), so we were a bit surprised when the company made an announcement for the same Bluetooth speaker at CES. You see, while the original Starck-designed Zikmu was sold in a pair, the slightly smaller Zikmu Solo -- powered by a 1GHz Cortex-A8 processor no less -- was designed with small rooms in mind and is therefore sold singly. However, at some point this year, Parrot will offer a "Duo" option that lets you hook up two Zikmu Solos over WiFi to form a 2 x 100W RMS stereo system, which is conveniently twice as powerful as the Zikmu. Obviously nothing has changed in terms of audio input methods and sources for the high-end Zikmu Solo: iPhone, iPod, PC, Mac, WiFi, Bluetooth mobile phone, Ethernet and more. So, how about a discount when we buy two then, Parrot? $999 times two is quite a lot (insert wink here). Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Altec Lansing Live 5000 WiFi music system makes its debut, plays nice with Android and iOS (ears-on)
During CES, Altec Lansing showed us its latest premium wireless speaker system, the $500 WiFi-equipped Live 5000. If you're thinking "wait, isn't that attractive-looking, teardrop-shaped gizmo just its inAir 500 AirPlay speaker?" you'd be sort-of correct. While the system is nearly identical to the inAir, the unit itself isn't tied to iThings for wireless audio streaming -- instead, Altec's created its own "ecosystem" that'll support a variety of devices. After hooking the speaker up to your network, you can use any Android, iOS device or computer running the company's Live controller app to setup up a central playlist of your tunes. The music isn't sent to the cloud, but rather, streamed directly from each device's local catalog of music -- salvation from the pains of aggregating your files to one central storage hub. Best of all, there's also support for services like Rhapsody, ensuring you'll be able to load up your music from wherever you normally would. We checked out an early build of the iPhone app (on an iPad), and the interface was simple and intuitive, but we're told to expect more polish in the final edition -- along with that missing tablet-sized version. Notably, the app allows playback to multiple speakers, giving you the option to set up various linkable "stages" to stream independent playlists to. We gave the unit a quick listen on the noisy show floor, and while it got plenty loud, the bass was on the anemic side, despite its 4-inch woofer. Highs and mids were alright, although, at times things felt a bit tinny to our ears. Of course, the hustle and bustle of CES isn't exactly the best spot for hearing how speakers like this sound, so we'll have to reserve final judgement until the unit ships this summer (not to mention that the testing material was streaming from Rhapsody). For now, hit up the gallery below for a closer look, and you'll find a press release past the break with more details.
CES Zune speaker / dock roundup
While the Zune didn't make a huge presence at CES, DAP accessory makers were out in full force nonetheless, and ClicZune did a commendable job in scouring the floors for Zune-capable speakers and docking stations. Although Apple's gem definitely has a commanding lead in the iPod speaker system market, devices designed for the Zune are slowly catching up, and CES unveiled a trio of speaker apparatuses for those who prefer Microsoft's PMP. Hitting the low-end is eForCity's INSTEN, which rocks a black or white color scheme (sorry, brown fans), dual two-watt drivers, USB connectivity, and can be powered via four AA cells. Although MSRP on this little guy is closer to $40, smart shoppers can snag it for around $10, so don't expect any audiophile-approved tones to be emitted from this. Next up is the Memorex MzW101, which is a wireless docking base station that beams out the Zune's audio to a variety of WiFi-enabled speakers, including the waterproof MzW210 speaker as well as the forthcoming MzW220 indoor and MzW240 outdoor wireless satellites. Closing it out is JBL's dome-shaped system (pictured after the break), which features a slide-out Zune dock, video out port, USB connectivity, and the ability to get juiced by four AA batteries. Unfortunately, details are scant when it comes to pricing and future release dates, but fret not, as this is likely just the beginning of the onslaught to come.[Thanks, Mike]Read - eForCity's INSTENRead - Memorex lineupRead - JBL's dome-shaped system
