Aero
AirPlay and Bluetooth audio in one great speaker – Mission’s back
Remember AirPlay? It’s all gone a bit quiet on that front, but Mission is back with this highend AirPlay speaker, which also packs in Bluetooth connectivity.
The Aero is a wide, stark speaker, all black and silver, sitting on a little round foot. We like its design, though we appreciate it might not be to everyone’s taste.
It’s easy to get set up on your network – simply plug your iPhone into its USB port to share your Wi-Fi networks with it, and then you’re ready to play your tunes. We had no problem finding it as an AirPlay target on Macs or iOS devices, and were quickly blasting out our test room’s windows – the Aero can go pretty damn loud. It’s got a really wide, open sound, thanks to its 3D sound engine; place it next to a wall and the room will fill with music impressively. (You can turn the 3D system off, but… well, let’s just say: don’t turn it off.)
The sound quality is great too, as you’d expect for the price. The bass is strong and clear, and the whole soundstage is rich and warm. There’s quite a bit of kick right at the high end, which isn’t a bad thing, but took some getting used to for us. Some sound in the lower end of the treble can get a bit lost in the mix, but it’s a minor niggle rather than a big issue.
Other minor issues we had were that volume jumps tend to be a bit big if you’re using buttons rather than a slider, and some stutters when we first started to stream on our network, but they don’t mar things overall – this is a lovely AirPlay speaker, if expensive. Matt Bolton
A big speaker with great, rich, broad sound and a good range of connections. Not cheap, mind.