Libratone Loop
A versatile AirPlay speaker that can sit on a shelf or go up on your wall
Libratone’s Loop turned a few heads when it appeared about a year ago. Along with its attractive design and sound quality, support for AirPlay made the Loop a good choice for owners of Macs and iOS devices. However, its £400 price tag was pretty steep, and the lack of Bluetooth limited its use with other devices. This new version is still quite expensive, but Bluetooth has been added, along with support for the high-quality aptX codec.
The design of the Loop remains the same, with a distinctive saucer shape that looks like a small satellite dish. There’s a conventional stand that lets you prop the speaker up on a shelf or table, but Libratone also includes a wall mount unit so that you can hang it up on the wall of your trendy studio apartment.
The speaker measures just 33cm in diameter, but it produces a surprisingly strong sound for a relatively compact speaker. Higher frequencies have a nice zing to them, and the bass is firm enough to handle some dance tunes as well. The treble gets a bit harsh as you push the Loop towards maximum volume, but we found that 60% of maximum was still loud enough to fill the room with music, so you’ll rarely need to go much above that.
The Loop is still fairly expensive, even at its new price of £349, but that’s not bad compared to other AirPlay speakers, and the wall mount option will appeal to people who want a music system that can blend in as part of their decor. Cliff Joseph
It’s expensive, but the strong sound, AirPlay, and wall mount option make a versatile music system.