Orbitsound A70
this month, simon middleweek tests the audio-streaming capabilities of this flagship soundbar
Specifications
Afew years back, I was browsing my local electronics store when a young shop assistant stopped me and encouraged me to listen to a Bluetooth speaker. I forget the manufacturer, but to say the lad was enthusiastic would be an understatement. I tried to hide my disappointment as a rather muffled noise emanated from this little box. It left me with pangs of nostalgia for my old-fashioned record player with twin speakers, which offered a more organic, and more stereophonic, sound.
I never would’ve imagined back then that I’d be able to recreate those good old days of music listening with a soundbar of all things. I’d always thought soundbars were primarily for boosting the sound on the latest Hollywood blockbusters. But as I sat down to start streaming music through the Orbitsound A70, I soon realised that this sleek unit and it’s accompanying sub-woofer might just provide the answer to my modern audio frustrations.
Pairing the unit with my smartphone (the A70 supports aptX lossless Bluetooth), I started off with a dance track – certainly not my genre of choice, but I felt it would be the best way to test the bass. So on came LMFAO’s Sexy And I Know It. Cranking up the volume (and believe me, at a quoted 300W, this thing is bloody loud), the bass positively resonated around the room (and probably the whole street), and even an old punk rocker like me couldn’t resist gyrating my hips in time with the music. Even better, there didn’t seem to be any distortion of note.
So far, so impressive, then. But, of course, I wasn’t going to be spending my evenings listening to iffy dance music (which I’m sure my neighbours will be thankful for). So, using the Spotify app, I found a track from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ classic 1979 Damn The Torpedoes album. This was always a favourite listen of mine when I had my old turntable, so would enable me to make a straight comparison between my old and new systems. The results were fabulous, with the A70 somehow managing to reproduce that lovely organic sound I used to get in days gone by. This is thanks, in part, to Orbitsound’s patented airSOUND technology, which, as I explained last month, delivers spatial acoustics no matter where you are in the room.
There have been a couple of occasions when music has sounded a little too trebly – over-processed, even – but I put this down to the fact that they were streamed direct from YouTube, and as we all know, the quality of files on there varies massively. Besides, if the sound isn’t quite to your liking, you can adjust the bass and treble via the intuitive remote control.
I really am impressed with the A70 as a music player; it delivers powerful sound with a pleasing balance. But how will it cope with enhancing the latest movies and TV box sets? Join me in next month’s issue as I test that out…